Dent Repair Techniques: Tools, Methods, and Steel Properties
Types of Dents
According to visibility: visible and invisible
According to the damage: light, medium, and high damage
According to access: accessible and inaccessible.
Dent Repair Tools
Active and passive tools
Dent Repair Methods
Cold, hot with access, and hot without access.
Active Tools
Panel beater hammers and rubber mallets, nail files to smooth the beaten area, inertia hammers.
Passive Tools
Tack nails, commas, pumped striatum, rails, axes, backgrounds, tranches, levers.
Drive Tools
Hydraulic jacks with accessories and chain stretchers.
Using Dent Repair Tools
Applying a direct hit when the surface is lower than that of the hammer head. Hit the hammer out of the tack and on the periphery of the defect. Using levers to get to a place of difficult access.
Inaccessible Areas
These are body parts that are closed, making them unreachable.
Dent Repair Process for Inaccessible Areas
Gather all the necessary equipment: mini-grinders, drills, hammers, file extensions, electrical dent pullers, etc.
Drive-By Dent Repair
Equipment to retrieve lines in front and side panels of large dimensions.
Examples:
- Welding electrode: By touching the plate, it is welded automatically.
- Dent pulling: Pull the lever back to the rod and drag the pole to regain the plate’s form.
- Unwelding: By turning the handle, the welding breaks, and the sheet is revealed.
Pneumatic Drive-By Dent Repair
It is used for small dents caused by hail, in enclosed areas, and in small to medium dents.
Operation:
Paint is removed, place the electrode in the deepest part of the dent, turn on the switch, and start pulling to remove the dent. Rotate the device and separate it from the sheet.
Adhesive Dent Repair
Used for minor damage.
Advantages: No need to take apart, no need to repaint, the damaged area is not damaged, and it saves time on primers.
Equipment: Suction cups, glue, fusing gun, air pistol, special spatula.
Rod Dent Repair
It is used in small damage with difficult access.
Advantage: No need for repainting.
Heat Treatment
It is the application of heat to specific areas of the panel that have been subjected to stretching, using three procedures: oxyacetylene equipment, copper electrode, and carbon.
Unstable Area Recovery
Those areas that have undergone lime hammering to beat and have not become so tense that they soften.
Steps:
The heat-treated area is volatile and rapidly cooled with water.
Recovery of Rana (Frog-Like Dent)
Heat the unstable area cherry red, beat the depression, cool quickly with water, and repeat the process until the zone is stable.
Recovery of Excess Material
Remove material in the direction of deformation, heat the horn excessively cherry red, and smooth from the inside out.
Characteristics of Steel
Alloy of iron and carbon.
Conventional steel: Good machining capacity, easy to solder, used in aesthetic and structural parts.
Properties of Steel and Aluminum
Elastic Limit: Steel > Aluminum
Modulus of Elasticity: Steel > Aluminum
Elongation: Steel > Aluminum
Hardness: Steel > Aluminum
Specific Resistance: Steel > Aluminum
Thermal Conductivity: Aluminum > Steel
Linear Expansion Coefficient: Aluminum > Steel
Characteristics of Aluminum
Lower strength than steel, softer hardness than steel, greater thermal conductivity than steel, and less electrical resistance than steel.