Pinto Car Club of America

Anyone good at it? Other than minor rust in the typical places, I've got plenty of little dings to get rid of. How does one pound dents out?

Pound dents out with a hammer and dolly  if you can get to them  from the front and back side if you cant i usually just skim coat um with bondo if i have too.

Pretty much what he said, try and get to the dent from the other side and pound them out. Then with bondo and body filler, make sure your appliing it to fresh metal(grind the paint off to the bare metal and make sure all the rust is gone for about an inch to two inches around the spot where the rust is. Then its just sand and primer and repeat if needed. I recommend that if your not gonna paint it right away find a good epoxy primer(its yellow in color) to keep any moisture out.

Actually you can get epoxy primer in several colors including red, gray, yellow & black under the DP line by Ditzler.

Ok here is how its done

say we have a ding that is basically round and the size of a dime. you want a dolly that has a slightly rounded crown to it.   clean both sides of the panel and hold the dolly on the back side of the metal with the crown on the center of the depression.  using a smooth and flat body hammer begin to tap your way around the edge of the dent so that the edge of the hammer closest to the dent center is just beginning to overlap the outside of the indentation. work your way around the dent just letting the hammer lightly bounce on the surface with almost just its own weight  from a few inches high. move the hammer a couple mm at a time, after your complete the revolution move the hammer a bit closer to the center and repeat  continue till the dent is gone.

the common mistake is to start at the deepest part of the dent and / or go at it from the wrong side.   this just makes waves, causes grief and increases bondo content. 

Last in first out when deciding how to tackle a dent. by that logic the actual impact point is always the final part to get dealt with.   consider how the dent got there and then reverse the process. this is especially helpful when you have longer scrapes or crown dings. you almost move the metal with the dolly and use the hammer to activate it

Happy hammering.

OhSix'