BODY WORKING

Aluminium hardens with age and this makes it more difficult to reshape. When a dent to crate   the material is also further work hardened and liable to crack if you start trying to put it back into shape. To soften aluminium enough to make it workable, the material need to be annealed. Start by removing the paint from the damaged area, draw a few lines over it with a black marker pen and then heat the area with the butane torch. When the black marker lines start to go grey its sign the aluminium is nearing the annealing temperature to check, draw a pies wood over the surface. if it leaves a thin black line like this, the metal has been annealed. If you’re working in steel section, the annealing process will soften it a little, but it doesn’t improve the workability of the steel much and really isn’t worth doing.

A bossing mallet can be used to knock large dents out and bring the panel back to roughly the right shape. if the panel is off the vehicle, beat down in to solid surface, as here. For penal still on the vehicle, and where access is limited, simply hitting the back of the appropriate curvature for the panel is great for getting the panel back into shape. Now inspect the shape of the panel, using the template you made earlier. Where the metal is still low, slide a suitably shaped dolly underneath and beat down on top. This will make the dolly bounce upward and bring up low spots. Remove high spots by beating down on the metal without a dolly on the other side of the panel. After planishing the repair is ready for skim of filler and some fresh paint. Further improvements can be made to the bare metal using a flipper.