American Motors Rambler Fender And Dent Repair - Learn How To Fix A Dent

There was no getting around the huge flakes of paint sloughing off the car and the fact that the filler was gluing the damage together, so we had to grind. Forget chemical strippers and sandpaper, a 24-grit grinding disc on a DA with the wheel locked out will blast through paint, filler, and even metal if you are not careful. It won't get clogged either.

Under the filler, we found a little pool of waves caused by a previous repair that had been simply paved over. Ancient bodymen stretched the ripples into the oil-can consistency we were trying to avoid. So out came the torch!

Using flame to straighten waves is called heat-shrinking. The idea is simple: Heat the metal without cutting a hole in it and spread the molecules as far apart as possible. Then beat the molecules back into their original shape and slap some cold water on it. Simple!

Move the torch fast and in a circular motion around the waves in the metal then use the pick hammer and dolly-on to pound the metal flat while it still glows. Then cool it off with cold water. Repeat until the area is marble flat.

With the dents relieved and the stretched metal heat-shrunk back to normal, we skim-coated some Evercoat Rage filler along the entire panel. It seems like a lot of filler, but it really isn't. One coat ensured an evenness we couldn't get by spot-filling each area. The tape is there because filler doesn't really stick to anything but bare metal. If it dries on paint, you won't know it until if falls off.

After the filler kicked off, we cut it with a small DA and a 40-grit disc to get it 90 percent there.

For large areas, we used a DA air file with 40-grit paper. The combination of the long board, DA action, and the 40 gets you right to the point of the detail work.

For a clean body line, we used a sanding block to sand up and down toward the tape without actually touching it. When block-sanding, always use a crosshatch or figure-eight pattern so you do not create lines from the front edge of the sanding block. Low spots will be dark and high spots will thin to metal. Always use long strokes; they create a straighter panel.

Since we are going to do bodywork between dragstrip flogs (while parts are broken), we fogged the bare metal with SEM etching primer to keep it from rusting. Coming next, more drag racing.