Dent and crease removal with MAPP gas?

[newshirt]

Can you use MAPP gas to remove a nasty crease in a fender? See attachments.

My fender was bent backwards, which left a deep crease. I wondered if I could use a Berzomatic MAPP gas torch to heat it up and bang it back into shape.

I do not have oxy acetylene, or a dolly, or any professional tools.

The fender is a Frankenstein already. It is welded and built up with inches of body filler. A real mess. But so is the rest of the truck. Patch panels, ugly welds, wrong parts, farmer fixes all throughout. It will not win any judging awards. So I'm not worried about ruining it. But do want to try my best, and do a good job.

Can you suggest any techniques except throw it over a cliff and get another?

.

[40 Deluxe]

5 gallon bucket of Bondo. Lyin' Lou's Lemon Lot will show you how to apply!

[Kevin in NJ]

No, but you can make it much worse.

The crease is a shrink area and the heat will only shrink it more. It will take a lot of time with careful hammer and dolly work on attached to a body or board.
You may also want to look into a shrinking disk.

Heat should only be used when you know what you are doing and fully understand the consequences.

[Don S.]

Have to agree with Kevin in NJ here. As a kid growing up I spent lots of time with an old time body repair man. This guy really made it look easy. I remember him telling me to work out dents like this slowly. Time spent carefully with a hammer and dolly could nearly clean that up. Just take your time with it.

[mike657894]

do you have a half football dolly? I looked around the web and they are pricey I got off cheap and harbour freight had it for 5$ ten years ago. Just a round piece of iron. But put something soft like a leather bag full of beans or I used the soft dirt outside the shop and took out dents with the fenders attached. with luck you can get out some dents perfectly. some will require filler. But less.

[captndan]

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Better off to buy a used fender. Lots of them around. Besides you can't buy MAPP gas anymore. Just Pro so you might as well use propane.

[Kevin in NJ]

I will add I consider that fender to be a decent candidate that can be worked out. It does have some pretty thick bondo on it. You will need to get it off. I used a propane torch and heated the backside. Then used a putty knife to scrape it off. It lets out some nasty gasses do it outside and wear a carbon filter mask.

It will not have the correct shape and it is highly advisable to work it on the body on the frame with a running board. You can work it off the body, but it might never actually fit if it was not worked to actually fit.

[Mike V. Florida]

When using MAPP gas or propane, or even straight acetylene, the flame is too big and it heats too slowly negating it's purpose.

[txkhog]

I am not an expert. But I would get the filler off, lay the outside of the fender on the driveway and pound the dent out, and see what is left. Not elegant but with practice you can get it pretty good looking. A second hammer on the inside or outside makes a pretty good dolly.

You have nothing to loose, and you will get some bodywork practice.

[Kevin in NJ]

Originally Posted by txkhog

I am not an expert. But I would get the filler off, lay the outside of the fender on the driveway and pound the dent out, and see what is left. Not elegant but with practice you can get it pretty good looking. A second hammer on the inside or outside makes a pretty good dolly.

You have nothing to loose, and you will get some bodywork practice.

It is a fine thought, but experience dictates a poor choice. You should not just lay it out and pound on it.

When you work on these high crowned items the shape will change significantly and in ways that might be hard to imagine until you get experience. It needs to be held in place against a stiff board. This way you can see how everything moves as you bring it back to shape.

What you have is a significant change in arc from inside to outside as the crease (especially on into the bead) will change the shape. If you do not do the corrections to make it fit the car (that is the relationship between the running board and mounting brackets) you will end up locking in distortions. So the back edge may angle really wrong or it is a nightmare to get to the back edge of the running board. Well actually you will see both problems.

You need to restore shape pretty close. The bead must be the correct distance from the inside and the outside arc of metal must be back to the correct shape to not pull fender on one side.

Yes, I have done fenders off the car and I have learned the hard way never to do that again.

My front fenders are great exercise in fixing off the frame. They looked great. You would have paid a premium for them at a flea market. When I got them on the frame the rear edge was no wheres close to the front of the running board. The front drooped horribly. I striped them and found some bondo covering some very good crease repairs which dramatically changed the shape of the fenders. It only took me a month and advice from much more experienced guys here to get the fenders presentable. My right fenders forever has the wrong crown towards the top outside, but I was able to fudge it to look good.

My recommendations are to mount the fender to a stiff board and get a hammer dolly set. Take some time to read about moving metal, how to work out creases. Then try to fix it. You do not even need a good set of hammer and dollies. Harbor Freight stuff will work, just you get spoiled when you find some vintage name brand tools. My $.25 garage sale Snap On hammer with the original handle is such a dream to use. Basic round head/ pick and I can precisely place it blind and it just feels so good. The cheapo stuff deforms after a while and the handles do not feel right.

Just remember. As bad as it is any you think you need a different fender, all the more reason to try and learn how to fix it.

[V4F]

yep go for it !

[Barber31]

Here is motivation for you that you can tackle this job on your own. These are literally my 1st and 2nd time ever trying to straighten metal with a hammer and dolley. And I used no heat, just tapping away. When I was asked to do the tailgate I told him if he buys me all the tools I need to do the job I'd do it for free. And that's how I got the harbor freight hammer dolley and slide hammer I used for straightening my wheels. After a little filler they both turned out pretty good in my opinion.

[Tinbasher]

This is repairable. Strip all of the old filler and paint off of it first and then use a little heat on the crease. This is a good project to use a sand bag to hammer on. Or something similar. Work from the least amount of damage into the greater amount of damage. You'll be surprised how it will come back into shape. Just watch that you don't roll the crease over on itself. I'd start at the edge by the bead and then work up into the center of the fender. Good luck and keep us posted. The Old Tinbasher John Poole

[H. L. Chauvin]

Hi Ray,

Many reasons for differences of opinions.

Body work is definitely art work where after some time, working as artist, the artists can be graded, for example, from 1 to 10. Sometimes the artist in the 9-10 range can be illiterate or even addicted to alcohol or other things.

Try grabbing 100 young people and after a short course, a few will be natural artists and immediately "start" with body work and be graded as a 9 or 10; some, after a long time, will start as a 1, give up, and might reach a point to be graded as a 2.

Your ability to concentrate, have patience, actually "see" what you are doing, will only be found after you slowly begin with a hammer & dolly ...... getting started on something never done before is always questionable.

In your original statement:

"But do want to try my best, and do a good job." , and with above advice to take your time, something tells me you will succeed.

Can't wait to see the "after" photos.