New Hobby

[Uncle Stretch]

Well since the camper repair place has kept my trailer for a month now trying to do a warranty repair on my fridge...and I'm so full of bikes there is not another place to put one....I have decided to come up with a new hobby. Smashing ..well gently tapping the dents out of all the old fenders that I have aquired. As I was flipping old bikes it was alot easier to stick some new fenders on a build. the people didnt seem to care. Perfect black or chrome fenders made the builds look lots better than old original dented ones. So I have wound up with alot of sets of 40's and some earlier fenders that need to have the dents patiently massaged out. I am not a body man and so I'm going to have to hone my skills at dent removal. They say there is a roller (real expensive) that will roll them out....not an english wheel or a planishing hammer. Was wondering if anybody has found any techniques that work better than a body dolly and a hammer?

 

[Crassly]

Someone said that they had good luck by putting the fender top side down on a sand bag and then tapping the dents out from the inside with a wooden croquet ball.

 

[deorman]

A dead bag-I forget what it's called.A canvass bag full of heavy "sand" and a narrow headed rubber mallet for roughing larger dents. Additional types of hammers and dollys.

 

[Uncle Stretch]

Hummm It might be hard to find a croquet ball...Not just something you find laying around everywhere.....Golf ball probably wont be a good substitute huh? :roll:

 

[karfer67]

and i thought your new hobby was going to be collecting hot wheels or vintage insulators :mrgreen:

 

[Uncle Stretch]

Never got into hot wheels for some reason ...but I actually have probably 7 or 8 of those insulators :lol: Green ones and also some clear ones. Maybe I could use and insulator to rub the dents out. :shock:

 

[sensor]

door skin hammer and pick along with an anvil dolly work the best for me(if you want to try and keep the original paint intact tape the face of the hammer/dolly when working on the outside) sometimes you can iron them out with just the dolly by rubbing it along the inside if its fairly shallow

 

[Slick Rick]

The technique w/BALLS had to due with differently sized hardwood balls sold at a craft store. Take a fender or two w/you to size em up, make your purchase and off to the sandbag and deadblow hammer you go! :wink: Sounds viable to me.Later & PEACE!!!!! :mrgreen:

 

[Uncle Stretch]

Sounds like a plan. I have tried dent removal before and Im not much better at bondo either. Always wet sanded with fine grit and then shot primer and the wetsanded again with 1000 and sprayed it and you could always see the patch.

 

[sensor]

one thing about using body hammers that most dont get is that you dont want to swing it like youre driving nails......just with the wrist the dolly will do most of the work when it rebounds(and if youre using chinese hammers and dollys... dont! itll do more harm than good........martin makes cheap hammers and dollys that work quite well(i actually preffer them to my snap on/matco ones..except the door skin hammer)and theres only certain time when you want to hear them 'ring'...
another thing is that it takes time to get the right feel for where to hit and where to bump..........just practice,practice,practice....and then practice some more :wink:

 

[benz]

Sounds like a plan. I have tried dent removal before and Im not much better at bondo either. Always wet sanded with fine grit and then shot primer and the wetsanded again with 1000 and sprayed it and you could always see the patch.

Sounds like your filler wasn't feather edged out enough. After you paint does your repair look like a little island? If so allow for more dry time for the filler and primer and then wetsand. A lot of body men sand and feather the filler before it has really cured and then once they prime and paint the filler shrinks along with the primer and paint. If that doesn't help use some guide coat to see if your repair is truly flat, can't go wrong with that. Hope this helps.

 

[Riverbend Bicycles]

I found that the sand bags used for sighting in rifles works fairly well. I found them at a sporting goods store. The vee that the rifle sits in, cradles the fender and there's a lot of shapes on the sand bag for the different areas of the fender. I'm not sure if I was doing any of it correctly, but the fender looked a lot better when I was done.

 

[KZ1000]

I have a few handmade "dollies" of various sizes, I purchased 1/2"-3/4"-1" PVC rounded end caps and glued them onto 6" pieces of PVC with a square cap on opposite side, works great on Stainless fenders, Cheap too.

Where else can you purchase a good SandBag

 

[Uncle Stretch]

I knew I could count on good suggestions from all of yall....With almost 3000 members we should have this info thing covered pretty well. I'm thinking next I will need info on this thing that hurts in my foot :lol: got to be a couple podiatrists in the group :wink: :lol: Gonna try a few fenders today. I have always hit on something solid to get the dents out. Ill try to round up a sandbag somewhere.

 

[stretch]

i know metalworkers also use shot bags. a round canvas bag filled with shotgun shot(BBs).

 

[deorman]

Shot bag-that's what it's called! 8)

 

[JLarkin]

I have been using an inverted shovel handle c-clamped to my workbench for a dolly. The end is quite round almost like a golf ball, a nice profile. If the fender is not chrome, run a wet rag over the dent. Orient yourself so you have the fender between you and a light source. The shine on the fender will show you the dent. Then you basically lightly tap the dent out. Moving the fender slightly back and forth while tapping in a tight circular pattern helps keep you from overdoing it. You are basically removing the dent with something having the effective surface area of a period.

 

[Uncle Stretch]

Wonder what heating it with a heat gun and doing the dry ice trick like on cars. They say that pulls out small dents.

 

[stretch]

Shot bag-that's what it's called! 8)

:lol: glad i helped ya out.

 

[Rustinkerer]

I use a 2" trailer hitch ball as a dolly, and a plastic faced mallet. The mallet was my dad's, no idea where he got it. ~Adam