Dent Help on My First Dart

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Cruzin

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Hi All, I just got my 72 dart today. I took alot of pics of the car before I start working on it. I am no body man and do not intend on doing the body work. I'll wrench, but no body for me. I wanted to ask the pro guys on the forum if this dent will require extensive work. Its not really all that bad to me other than an eye sore. Something was dragged against at some point in time. I have watched alot of the you tube vids where the guys can fix these type of dents by using plastic glued on plugs and work it into fairly nice shape. Should I just take this to a really good body man or call a dent doctor type of person? The car is super solid all over. This the only sore on the body besides a few door dings. I don't want someone to hose it up. Any and all help would be really appreciated. I am just not sure which way to go. I am not going to have the car re-painted until I have the money to get a nice job done. But I would like to see if this could be made somewhat presentable until then. This is the original paint. Thanks again for the help.
 

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A body shop will hammer it out as best as possible. The problem with that is access to the panel beside the wheel well. Once that is done, filler and paint will finish the job. Not too bad.
 
Best way to handle that is to weld a piece of flat bar along the crease and slide hammer it out. Takes some finesse but not that big of deal. That is if there is no access from the back of the fender.
 
I'd have to say it be very hard to get that long crease out with paint less dent removal. The metal is almost certainly stretched .
 
It can be done,won't be cheap! don't know why you wouldn't give it a shot, I have worked metal and putty .painted a few too since I was 14. you would be suprised what you could do and the cash you would save, by learning to do it yourself.
satisfaction and pride. just sayn.
 
Yeah, a dent is a dent, but the good thing is it's not on the crease on the quarter-panel. I'm no expert, but I will bet on that statement.
 
I had a long scar like that on mine before I took it apart to do the full resto thing, if I had to do it again, I would get a spot welder and weld every half inch or so and gently pull it out. Or fill it with mud and forget about it, doesn't look too deep.
 
A competent body man should have that gone and ready for primer in just a few hours.[/QUOTE]


where do you find one, most either replace panel or cake on the putty.
no real metal workers around anymore.lol
 
fishmens67 said:
A competent body man should have that gone and ready for primer in just a few hours.
Click to expand...


where do you find one, most either replace panel or cake on the putty.
no real metal workers around anymore.lol[/QUOTE]

Well, me.

Takes less work (and time) to metal finish and skim coat then it does to fill a big dent with plastic body filler, sand, refill, sand and more than likely, fill and sand again.

In the end, a dent like that should have very little body filler in it.
 
I do body work for a living and my opinion would be find a "talented" paintless dent repair shop/guy, (not your auto mechanic with a 2x4 and a hammer lol), and have him do as much as possible a good PDR guy should be to get alot to most of it out, it is in a fairly easy to get to area, then later on if you do paint the car it will be close for your bodyman.
 
68formulas340,
I know you take pride in your work and I thank you.
but, as we all know many don't.
that's why I have become a pretty good partime bodyman(hobby) over the years.
 
fishmens67 said:
68formulas340,
I know you take pride in your work and I thank you.
but, as we all know many don't.
that's why I have become a pretty good partime bodyman(hobby) over the years.
Click to expand...

Tell me about it. I see other peoples work all the time. It is shocking what people pay to have done to their car.
 
Hi Guys, its been awhile since I posted this and wanted to update everyone what I have found on repairing this dent. I did take the car to a PDR guy. He does outstanding work and said he could make it damn near perfect. However, he indicated that he would have to drill a hole in the door jam to get his tools in there to do properly. I have reached in from the trunk area and can feel and see most of the dent. I wad not to keen on the "Hole Drilling" thing. He was honest about things though. He said quote[ Man, I can get it right and it would cost around 800.00. Save your money and have the body shop pull it when its painted. You'll have the extra 800.00 towards your paint job. Its your call, but I am just trying to give you some good advise.] end quote. I am not for sure if 800.00 was a good price or not. He was really nice about it and I saw some of the work he had done on a 68 dart that was sitting to be picked up. It was a very nice job he did. I took his advise and will wait for the body shop to do it when the paint work is done. I am more into getting all the mechanical done at this time than enything else. I do thank everyone for the advise and opinions. If anyone feels that was an insane price,please let me know, as I an not familiar with PDR pricing at all.
 
PoisonDart74 said:
I would get a spot welder and weld every half inch or so and gently pull it out. Or fill it with mud and forget about it, doesn't look too deep.
Click to expand...

This is the correct answer. As the resident PDR expert, I will say that crease will not pull out using glue tabs. Those are used on new cars that have metal as thick as beer cans, not our old battle ships. A stud gun that weld pull tabs would be the route I would choose, and then a skim coat of filler.

It could be pushed out using regular PDR techniques, but would require a lot of work and no, a hole would not have to be drilled to get access to the area behind the dent. Remove the bottom of the rear seat and take off that side panel and it's wide open in there. $800 is a little steep. That dent probably would have taken him a couple of hours. You can do the math...
 
How would the PDR work with that factory sprayed on sound deadener on the inside of the quarters? That stuff is like 1/8" and thicker in spots!
 
Brian, thanks for the help. I was thinking the same thing when the guy said he had to drill a hole in the door jam. (i.e remove the seat and panel). Then when 800.00 came up, I thought I had better just let the body shop do it. My grandfather used to restore all sorts of cars when I was little and he said you should never put more than a 1/16th of filler anywhere on the body. Of course he was quite anal about things and his cars were show winner cars. He would spend hours on small areas to get them the way he wanted before primer and paint. I wish he was still around. Again, thanks for the help and advise. It is always appreciated. Patrick
 
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