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Using a Stud Welder and Slide Hammer for Body Repair
With body repair on the door complete except for priming and painting, the project continues with repair to the damaged areas on the body of the vehicle.
Note :
Always wear eye protection - goggles or safety glasses - when using any power tools.
Procedure :
- To prepare for the body repair, the areas of the vehicle near the damaged areas are taped and masked off to protect them from debris, paint, rust, etc.
- The areas to be repaired are small dents and gashes on the quarter-panels adjacent to the driver door.
- The areas are prepared using a disc-grinder to remove rust and paint from the surfaces.
- Once the damaged areas have been ground and sanded down to bare metal, the next step is to repair the dents as well as possible. There are several techniques that professionals use for removing dents. One is to drill holes in the metal, insert a hook or screw in the holes and pull the dent out using a slide-hammer. Because these dents are in a tight area, this technique is not practical. Work to remove the dents must therefore be done from the outside of the metal surface. The tool used most often for this type of repair is a stud welder.
- The stud welder uses a trigger device to instantly weld a stud onto the outside of the sheet metal. The studs can then be used to grasp onto for pulling out the dent.
- A slide hammer is attached to the stud, and the slide is operated to pull the dent out.
- Weld the studs a few inches apart over the damaged areas of the metal.
- With the slide hammer attached to a stud, operate the slide to pull the dent out. You don't need to use a lot of force with the slide hammer. Use light strokes and let the action of the tool do most of the work. Striking too hard could cause more damage.
- Repeat the process until you've pulled the dent out as best you can.
- Once the dent has been pulled out, cut off the studs using wire cutters.
- Grind away the remnants of the stud from the metal surface using a disc grinder. Grind away the tabs down below the level of the dents so that the body filler will cover them.
- If you pull a dented surface out too far, tap it back in using a body hammer.
- Once the metal surface has been reasonably returned to its original shape, finish the repair with fiberglass body filler, followed by sanding and plastic body filler as outlined in the previous section.
Note :
- For a clean repair, "feather" the edges of the filler out beyond the area of repair. The smoother you apply the filler, the less sanding will be required later.
- If your repair is close to any trim area, mask off the trim with tape.
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