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Old 09-10-2017, 01:41 AM
crystallographic crystallographic is offline
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Default 356 Speedster getting some dents out

Got a call from a reputable body shop in Northern CA, asking for help on an old steel car. This shop owner was asked to bring an old Speedster up to metal-finished condition and then paint it.

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This is the RF fender, but the LF was just as bad and I wondered how this happened so equally to both front fenders, but never got an answer because the car was purchased like this from storage, with 60,000 miles on it. Oh well ...

He called me to come over to his shop and give him guidance on how to planish and metal finish without using any miracle mud.
I told him he had to pull out the damage very carefully, with neither adding more damage or leaving more pulling to do. Since he has a lot of years doing this work and he is a very good craftsman, I did not say any more, but agreed to meet him when the pulls were complete and the car was off the rack.

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The pulls were made really well. Gold Star level, so I asked how?

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He showed me this heavy steel office chair back and said this was customized a bit to make all the pulls with.
Fine, let's get going and sand back the paint along the tops.

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Under the paint some old filler was showing.
Starting from the lamp buckets I marked off a straight line rearward, with 6inch increments marked off.

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At each marked increment we took a reading of the good contour with a blue gauge and compared it to the bad side.
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Then we bumped up the lows and slapped down the highs.
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Which got things better at each station along the line.
Then we blended the areas between the stations with hammers and slappers and dollies.
Then I went over the high spots making hot shrinks with the torch and body hammer and backed up the metal with the air dolly. I kept at it until there were no more high spots left - only lows.

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Since he wanted some experience with a handheld body and fender planisher, I set up my old Ram's Head Machine for him and showed him how to hold it for this fender and how to work the machine.
Now he wants one.

He went on from there after I showed him some filing with the curved tooth Vixen 12t fine file.

After some days he said he really got onto the slappers, dollies and filing and got the fenders looking very nice.
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The left front fender needed the bucket cut out of it so it could be worked all the way. Then the bucket was cut apart and half of it was welded back in - like the factory did them - and then the other half of the bucket was welded in.
I gave him top honors for his first metal-finished job.

(Somehow the insurance company got "some numbers" for this kind of work and he is now negotiating with them to get paid appropriately - normally the case for this "old school metal work." I know of a few shops around the country that do the "real stuff" like this, and they know how to get paid, but I leave that for them to work out - not my bailiwick.)

Anyway, that is a little bit of dent work on an old car. Hope it helps some.
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Last edited by crystallographic; 09-10-2017 at 01:54 AM.
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Old 09-10-2017, 02:57 AM
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neilb neilb is offline
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love anything 356 related

would like to know the hours he's getting paid for but not the rate!

thanks kent
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Old 09-10-2017, 03:57 AM
steve.murphy steve.murphy is offline
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Thanks for posting that Kent, really interesting and nice to see it turned out so well.
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Old 09-10-2017, 04:28 AM
Chris_Hamilton Chris_Hamilton is offline
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Thanks Kent for posting this. Really interesting. Curious what kind of hours did he have in the repair?
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Last edited by Chris_Hamilton; 09-10-2017 at 04:37 AM.
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Old 09-10-2017, 05:13 AM
Dave K. Dave K. is offline
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Kent, thanks for teaching that process!
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Old 09-10-2017, 07:37 AM
RockHillWill RockHillWill is offline
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Way cool stuff. I have not seen either of those tools before. As always, excellent work, and I appreciate your taking the time to share. Sorry for short response, but getting ready for the hurricane her.
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Old 09-10-2017, 08:39 AM
blue62 blue62 is offline
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Kent
always like your posts. Always something interesting and educational.
The use of the office chair back was to me the most interesting part of the repair.
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Old 09-10-2017, 09:35 AM
gashammer gashammer is offline
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Nice work, as always!

Do you have any detailed shots of the two piece headlight buckets? I can't say that I've ever noticed that.

Thanks!
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Old 09-10-2017, 04:43 PM
tom walker tom walker is online now
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I'll bet the customer is going to be very happy with the quality of the work. Thanx for taking the time to document and post.
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Old 09-10-2017, 05:49 PM
cliffrod cliffrod is offline
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Great post- thanks for sharing, Kent.
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