40 Owners: How did you remove the dents in your hood?

[spdwaver]

How common could this possibly be!?!? This would be a somewhat greater sort of screw up than, say, forgetting it was in gear when starting or something...

I am not sure: I have always checked my hood latches before every drive, but all it takes is one time, and you would get the same results.

 

[spdwaver]

I know this wont be completely practical without experience but
If you dont like bondo it is possible to make things better with some hammer work even as a novice.

Google hammer off dolly method and shrinking hammer. Also read up on heating and quenching to shrink stretched metal.


A shrinking hammer looks kinda like a meat tenderizer hammer and puts little dings in but it pulls metal back into the stretched area

with the hammer you work the excess metal from the crease into the low spot, the dent will never go away unless you work the crease and "push" the metal back where it came from

I am not experienced but I know the techniques and was able to do a passable job without resorting to Bondo

My personal preference is that I'd rather see some slight imperfections than the Bondo---especially if the BONDO is done badly

A cheap hammer and dolly set is not much and handy to have anyway

good luck with it

Thank you for the advice. I will look up what I can using those keywords.


I would prefer not to bondo anything: in fact, I would rather keep the dents - but if I can fix it, I will, but without bondo.

 

[Weedhopper]

Depending on how much $$$ you want to spend and how perfect you want it Dent Magician, Wizard, etc can take it out. The toughest part of that process is getting to the backside of the dent. With a hood that is no problem.

 

[ocdbeetle]

Use some dry ice, an air duster, or a cigarette lighter...ok, maybe not the lighter....or the air duster...

Remove car dents quickly and cheaply. | Wise Bread

 

[spdwaver]

I will be tackling this project within the next few days.


If anything good comes of it, I will post it up.

 

[Romanski]

you can flip a can of air cleaner upside down and spray. It will cause the metal to shrink and it may pop back out.

 

[spdwaver]

you can flip a can of air cleaner upside down and spray. It will cause the metal to shrink and it may pop back out.

Yeah, I will be trying many of the methods I have found, since I have quite a few dents to work with.

BTW, nice paint job and nice cruiser!

 

[Romanski]

thanks spdwaver1 - BTW if you have a picture of the damage I may be able to better help out. I did a LOT of body work on my cruiser.

 

[spdwaver]

thanks spdwaver1 - BTW if you have a picture of the damage I may be able to better help out. I did a LOT of body work on my cruiser.

Thanks, I can get a shot of it later and post it up (this way everyone can see what I am talking about).

 

[Pin_Head]

Learn how to shrink sheet metal.

YouTube - Shrinking sheet metal / steel with torch

For the little ripple that is left over, that is what God made Bondo for. Think of it as thick paint.

 

[camcruiser13]

never had mine fly open before, and i think its only a select few that make this mistake, half is pushing it.

 

[cruiserloser]

Mine have been damaged from rollovers, not from failure to secure with the latches.....[/QUOTE]

I have never rolled my truck......but this one time I had two buddies up front driving and navigating, I was in the penalty box of my 40 (put there for bad behavior in the saloon) and tunes were cranking. Here is where it gets really stupid. At 25 MPH I decided to open the ambie door and get to the roof via the tire carrier. Tunes still cranking....I slid forward and popped my head over the rain gutter and greeted my two amigos.

Of course the first thing you do when startled at the wheel is hit the brakes. I slid clear off the roof, bounced nicely on the hood and ended up in the ditch a 10 feet in front of the bumper. Dented the hood and snapped my watch off (never found). No worse for the wear (but a lot younger too)

This truck will someday get the full pretty, but I will never, ever take out that dent.

 

[spdwaver]

Learn how to shrink sheet metal.

YouTube - Shrinking sheet metal / steel with torch

For the little ripple that is left over, that is what God made Bondo for. Think of it as thick paint.

Yeah, I watched that from an earlier thread. I will be trying this method in addition to many others.

Off the subject, here is a nice picture of thick paint:

 

[Texx]

I am almost certain that at least half of all the 40 series owners out there have a hood that had been damaged when it met the windshield for the first time at a high rate of speed.

Having searched through paint and body, tech links and FAQ, I did find some helpful tips in general body repair, but I was surprised that I did not find anything having to do with this particular type of damage, which is a fairly common custom mod. I say "particular" because the dent is almost always in the same place with the same end result - a crease where it hit and stretched metal in the surrounding area of impact.

So, what did you do to repair yours?

Buy a 79 or newer FJ40. They have safety latches. And, I could tell you how I got the dents out of my hood, but you wouldn't believe me, and I'd have to send in the black helicopters. Start with a 350 dollar Hutchins sander....

 

[cruiserloser]

73 or so and up will get you a latch, but of course this is mounted to the bib......

 

[spdwaver]

Buy a 79 or newer FJ40. They have safety latches. And, I could tell you how I got the dents out of my hood, but you wouldn't believe me, and I'd have to send in the black helicopters. Start with a 350 dollar Hutchins sander....

I receive full support from my black helicopters; mine might shoot yours down.



Which sander?




(ok, maybe I am a little afraid to ask...)

 

[spdwaver]

I have a hood latch - or at least a place where I can put a lock on. But as I already said, I was not the one who did the damage: both on my current hood and on the 'new' one.

 

[Texx]

I receive full support from my black helicopters; mine might shoot yours down.



Which sander?




(ok, maybe I am a little afraid to ask...)

Hutchins Hustler. I've had mine since around 1986. It literally has probably been around the world a time or two. You can buy a pneumatic longboard sander anywhere like sears or Harbor Freight, Home Depot, etc, but they won't last a month or so. Not worth it for one hood, but if you're gonna do dozens of land cruisers, or other serious body work, worth every penny. Large, mostly flat panels are some of the hardest body work there is. Get it as straight as you can with a hammer and dolly (set available from Horrible Freight is perfectly acceptable, three hammers, three dollys in a plastic case for about 25 bucks) Then start with a quality plastic body filler from your local auto body paint store, the bondo product sold at WalMart is basically the bottom of the quality grades. Long, thin strokes with the bondo, followed by sanding with the longboard facing from the hinge to the latch. Do not use it in the other direction. Continue until it's feathered to perfection. Mine took about 9 part time days. Really. Any other alternative is probably better.

 

[spdwaver]

Hutchins Hustler. I've had mine since around 1986. It literally has probably been around the world a time or two. You can buy a pneumatic longboard sander anywhere like sears or Harbor Freight, Home Depot, etc, but they won't last a month or so. Not worth it for one hood, but if you're gonna do dozens of land cruisers, or other serious body work, worth every penny. Large, mostly flat panels are some of the hardest body work there is. Get it as straight as you can with a hammer and dolly (set available from Horrible Freight is perfectly acceptable, three hammers, three dollys in a plastic case for about 25 bucks) Then start with a quality plastic body filler from your local auto body paint store, the bondo product sold at WalMart is basically the bottom of the quality grades. Long, thin strokes with the bondo, followed by sanding with the longboard facing from the hinge to the latch. Do not use it in the other direction. Continue until it's feathered to perfection. Mine took about 9 part time days. Really. Any other alternative is probably better.

Thanks for all of the information!

I will have plenty of time to shape this one the way I like it: no rush on this project, but I do want to get started. It will be a fun project.

 

[Sputnik40]

I hate bondo, but almost everything needs a skim coat of finish filler (less than 1/32") here or there to get it perfect.

My previous hood didn't have that dent in question, but I had it sandblasted (the ex-wife dropped off the stuff as I had the flu at the time) and they didn't get the directions about how to do it and ended up with some slight heat warpage - not overly noticeable but it always bothered me. That hood got wrecked several times in rollovers or tight obstacles and I finally gave it away to Velveetawag (Al). Heck - trailered it home from NC several times with at least one of the hold downs ripped off and it never blew open - flapped up and down a little, but one hook, the latch and a zip tie held it down.

Bought my current hood from someone here on MUD - was advertised as premo but it has a thick coat of finish filler and primer on it - am hoping it sands down to reveal a perfect hood - even on a trail rig - seeing it all the time I want it perfect and shiny.