Pulling dent in rocker

[Jsedacca]

Working on my 64 gto and have come across a dent on the outer rocker panel. My stud gun and slide hammer don’t have enough power for the thick rocker. What is everyone’s opinion to fix this? You can see the dent on the right side of the picture where the paint is ground away. Thanks!

Jared

 

[RenewAP]

If you can't pull it... Push it. Drill a hole in the inner rocker at that location, and with an old screw driver (or similar item) that has the end cut off and rounded, you should be able to place many hammer bumps on it to push it back out.

 

[Chris_Hamilton]

You can see the dent on the right side of the picture where the paint is ground away

I can't see anything in that pic. Maybe circle the dent, take a better pic? Renew's suggestion is good, provided you don't have to butcher the inner rocker to get to it. I'm surprised that even an el cheapo stud gun won't weld a stud to that. It's no more than 18 gauge. Are you using a long small wired extension? If so that could drop the voltage enough that you wouldn't have enough power. If so, use a bigger extension cord, as short as possible. 12 gauge wire, 25 foot would work.

 

[Jsedacca]

I can't see anything in that pic. Maybe circle the dent, take a better pic? Renew's suggestion is good, provided you don't have to butcher the inner rocker to get to it. I'm surprised that even an el cheapo stud gun won't weld a stud to that. It's no more than 18 gauge. Are you using a long small wired extension? If so that could drop the voltage enough that you wouldn't have enough power. If so, use a bigger extension cord, as short as possible. 12 gauge wire, 25 foot would work.

Hope this helps with the dent circled. And to clarify, I can get the studs to weld onto the dent, but it’s a deep enough dent/crease that the slide hammer doesn’t have enough pulling force. I’ll take a peak and see how the access is underneath and thru the inner rocker.

 

[Chris_Hamilton]

it’s a deep enough dent/crease that the slide hammer doesn’t have enough pulling force.

What is it doing. Pulling off of the stud? Or just nothing happening when whacking with the slide hammer? That is not a deep dent, should not be hard to pull out even with the HF type stud guns. Is the car jacked up enough that you can attach a pin and pull with the slide hammer at the natural angle it needs? Or are you trying to do it with the car at ride height. If the latter, get the car up in the air some and then try pulling it. If the slide hammer is pulling/slipping off the stud get a pair of vise grips. attach to the stud and if you have a Morgan Knocker type slide hammer as well pulling on the vise grips. Or try pulling it with just the vise grips attached to the stud. Should not be locked down so hard that it won't move. I would try everything before I cut a hole trying to access it from the backside.

 

[Chris_Hamilton]

Get that slide hammer tight on the stud if it's slipping. May need to use a big adjustable wrench to tighten the grip and then whack it hard. It should have enough weight to pull that out.

 

[Chris_Hamilton]

Other option is to tack weld a piece of sheet metal in the deepest part of the dent as wide as possible. You may have to shape the sheet metal piece to fit the dent. Tack in multiple places. Then use a pair of vise grips attached to the sheet metal and a morgan knocker type slide hammer with the appropriate attachment to hook on the screw end of the vise grips and pull it out that way.

Be careful of doing a lot of cutting to get to it from the backside. Would be very easy to butcher your car up doing so. Heck I would drill holes and use the old style slide hammer that screws into the holes, pull it out and weld up the holes, before I cut the backside.

 

[Jsedacca]

What is it doing. Pulling off of the stud? Or just nothing happening when whacking with the slide hammer? That is not a deep dent, should not be hard to pull out even with the HF type stud guns. Is the car jacked up enough that you can attach a pin and pull with the slide hammer at the natural angle it needs? Or are you trying to do it with the car at ride height. If the latter, get the car up in the air some and then try pulling it. If the slide hammer is pulling/slipping off the stud get a pair of vise grips. attach to the stud and if you have a Morgan Knocker type slide hammer as well pulling on the vise grips. Or try pulling it with just the vise grips attached to the stud. Should not be locked down so hard that it won't move. I would try everything before I cut a hole trying to access it from the backside.

A little combo of both. If I can get a good whack without the stud pulling off, the dent won’t budge. I’ll make a vice grip slide hammer and try that with the stud before tacking on a piece of metal and going that route. I’ll also get the car jacked up so I’m pulling on the same angle as the dent. Appreciate all the tips/suggestions to tackle this.

 

[Chris_Hamilton]

If you have other heat sources such as an oxy/acetylene torch try warming the area. You don't want to get it any shade of cherry (glowing) you just want to get it "hot". Then quickly try pulling it. The heat should help it move. A propane torch would help as well. Just wont get it as hot with a propane torch. Old body guys many years ago used to use the torch on hail dents. Some of the really talented ones could make a small (and relatively large) hail dent pop back out using heat. And never damage the paint. It was a black art.

 

[El Toro]

Us older body guys have made pull plates over the years and like Chris said tack a plat in place then we use a puller ( come-along ) or with me on one of my frame machine and do a slow steary pull whilet tapping the high spots down. And of course a little heat helps.

 

[MJM]

 

[MJM]

This guy is a hack but I like his " if there is a will, there is a way" attitude. He thinks outside of the box like many of us need to do when not having the expensive body shop tools and machines needed for an easier repair.

 

[Lizer]

What stud welder are you using? The HF welder is truly useless but the Motorguard entry level is only twice the cost, American made and works a hundred times better.

The metal on rockers like that is often galvanized so you are probably not getting a good weld to start with.

If it’s not galvanized then you could be using too small of a stud. A stud welder should absolutely be able to pull that out. I’ve pulled dents out of 18g metal with a stud welder. Sometimes it just takes a lot of hard smacks on the slide hammer.

 

[MJM]

If you have a welder, a handy tool addition for your slide hammer is an adapter welded on visegrips. Then you can tack weld a bolt to the repair area. Using the visegrips, clamp onto the bolt, and with a few whacks of the slide hammer, dent pulled.

I'll post some pictures of the visegrip adapter I made for my slide hammer, tonight. Don't have those pics on this phone.

 

[MJM]

Here's the visegrip attachment I made for my HarborFreight slide hammer,

 

[Jsedacca]

What stud welder are you using? The HF welder is truly useless but the Motorguard entry level is only twice the cost, American made and works a hundred times better.

The metal on rockers like that is often galvanized so you are probably not getting a good weld to start with.

If it’s not galvanized then you could be using too small of a stud. A stud welder should absolutely be able to pull that out. I’ve pulled dents out of 18g metal with a stud welder. Sometimes it just takes a lot of hard smacks on the slide hammer.

I have the HF stud welder and while it has worked on other areas, is probably inadequate for this task. I checked the access from the backside and it’s nonexistent as the frame in right up against the inner rocker. Like Chris mentioned, I’d like to avoid cutting openings to fix a dent that can be resolved from the outside. I’ll make myself a vice grip slide hammer and proceed either with a tacked on bolt or piece of metal in the crease to pull.

 

[Whitesnake]

On harder to pull dents I’ve welded plates and pulled on them. I have a machine to pull with but you can also use a slide hammer, come a long, pull ram, hustler stick, etc. Also something I’ve done before is put multiple studs as close together as possible in a line and clamped on to them. I use a wide pulling clamp but wide vice grips could also be used.