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Safest way to remove dents???


bigtruck94

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 23, 2013
Messages
346
City
Nebraska
Vehicle Year
1994, 2002
Transmission
Manual
I have a ton of dents on my old ranger and something I want to do for tomorrow. I looked it up and they said you could use dry ice and a hair dryer or compressed air with a hair dryer. Which one do you prefer?
 
Define safe.....

I like to use a rubber mallet if I can get to it. Or a crowbar with a tennis ball taped on the end.

I have drilled and popped dents out then fiberglassed and touch up painted.

Stripping to bare metal or epoxy coating then bondo is safe. Or fluxing it and lead filling is safe.

Shrinking the sheetmetal with a feather tip oxy acetylene torch is safe.
 
dry ice or dust off and a hair dryer only works on a dent or two... They cant be too big, and they generally need an area of good panel completely surrounding them. It all has to do with the expansion and compression of the molecules and shit.

Another option is a slide hammer.

http://www.harborfreight.com/15-piece-slide-hammer-and-puller-set-5469.html

Never used one myself, but they are supposed to do a good job.
 
Well you can try a suction cup, I used one on mine.
 
Roll that puppy a few times and you won't notice them silly dents:headbang:.
 
I have a ton of dents on my old ranger and something I want to do for tomorrow. I looked it up and they said you could use dry ice and a hair dryer or compressed air with a hair dryer. Which one do you prefer?

Safe?? lol. Good luck with a bunch of dents....they will still be there if you don't know what you are doing. You can make it worse. Just get another truck, Bro if it is that bad or don't worry about it since you seem to have been driving it around lke that.
We have a guy around here who has a business called Dent Houdini who comes to your house. He does dent and paint repair and has been around for a long time. Very god prices. He has some interesting tools to take care of dents.
 
Safe?? lol. Good luck with a bunch of dents....they will still be there if you don't know what you are doing. You can make it worse. Just get another truck, Bro if it is that bad or don't worry about it since you seem to have been driving it around lke that.
We have a guy around here who has a business called Dent Houdini who comes to your house. He does dent and paint repair and has been around for a long time. Very god prices. He has some interesting tools to take care of dents.

New truck would be nice. But I gotta stick with the old 94 until I get out of high school. I have nothing to do, so I figured I could find a way to pop out some dents in it for very cheap. I just wasn't sure which one I should do to not damage anything else on it.
 
I've seen a video.....
Why don't you try both and report back?

Richard
 
Since you are on a tight budget and repainting probably isn't an option

Google: paintless dent removal methods

lots of how-tos and videos of these PDR methods

The rapid cooling and rapid warming of the metal and the PDR methods all rely on "metal memory", the body panel wants to return to it's original stamped form, the heating and cooling and small taps and leverage help it to do that.

In some places you will need to drill a hole on the inside of the body panel to get to the dent location on the outside, don't be afraid to do that, but FIRST find a rubber plug the right size for the hole you need then find the drill bit for that size plug, lol, there are a limited amount of plug sizes, not so with drill bits.

Some dents simply have to be pulled or pounded out, or the body panel replaced, and repainted
 
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Since you are on a tight budget and repainting probably isn't an option

Google: paintless dent removal methods

lots of how-tos and videos of these PDR methods

The rapid cooling and rapid warming of the metal and the PDR methods all rely on "metal memory", the body panel wants to return to it's original stamped form, the heating and cooling and small taps and leverage help it to do that.

In some places you will need to drill a hole on the inside of the body panel to get to the dent location on the outside, don't be afraid to do that, but FIRST find a rubber plug the right size for the hole you need then find the drill bit for that size plug, lol, there are a limited amount of plug sizes, not so with drill bits.

Some dents simply have to be pulled or pounded out, or the body panel replaced, and repainted

I will have to try that. Eventually, I will get a new paint job on it so I am not too worried...
 
I will have to try that. Eventually, I will get a new paint job on it so I am not too worried...

Sand and prime any places where paint comes off, rust can set in fast
 
And don't forget to seal the primer, not all primers keep out the elements long term.

Richard
 
Tried the dry ice. No luck at all. sat there for 10 minutes and the small dent didn't move. Any other choices?
 

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