Dent Removal

[douglassmt]

So I'm done with the metal work and putzing along on fiberglass. I notice a few small dings and dents on the skins. I have a friend who makes a living removing dents from cars - after hailstorms and the like - all over the world. He's in town so I called him and asked him if he thought he could get rid of these. He's never done a plane but the hoods on some trucks are aluminum so he's familiar with how it works. Long story short, he comes by the shop, gets out a yellow light and goes to work. Voila, no more dents. I only had about 5-6 but he made most of them disappear. Not even a bump in most places. There are some things he can't fix, but in that case you can revert to the "push it in, putty over it and sand it level" method. But for those little "outies" where I dropped the bucking bar or who knows what - it worked great. Like watching an artist work. He can even work on dings after it's painted, but won't work on painted surfaces until it is a year old or so and cured well. I'll be calling him to give it a good looking over again before I go to paint.

[G34U]

Nice to hear you have friend like that. I wish I had one like him.
I always wanted to ask this question and this should be the right thread. What kind of putty you are using on the skin I have few of those myself.

[douglassmt]

My friend did it for free (well, there was a sightseeing flight just before) but he said there are lots more people doing dent removal these days, should be someone almost everywhere. He did say some of their work was not up to his standards, but my opinion is that any improvement is better than none if they don't make it worse. What was amazing was watching him. He tapped the high spots ever so lightly, just repeatedly. In some places, he got behind it with a long funny looking tool to push metal out and level it. He worked a couple dents on compound curves and now you can't even tell they were there.

In the couple of areas where the ding was too sharp for him to work out, he just pushed it in ever so slightly. He asked if I wanted it farther in, but I don't want it so deep that the sandpaper won't scuff the bottom to help the putty hold. I plan to use "icing" for these few dings - available at most auto body work stores, cures fast, sands easy, few pinholes. Since it's polyester resin, it's not recommended in anything but the thinnest layer or scratch fill over epoxy resin, but it's fine over aluminum.