I am trying to get my quarter panel on my car. It had a little dent in it and I wanted to fix it before I put it on the car. So, I took my hammer and dolly and went to try and knock it out. A few whacks and dent was out. Now, my problem is this. The dent is kinda high now. I am trying to beat it back down. It keeps getting worse! The metal is getting higher and higher I can't get it to go down. How can I fix this problem? Use a shrinking hammer? I would have to buy one of those. Any help would be greatly apprieciated.

[This message has been edited by 66 L Kmno (edited 11-27-2001).]

The metal in your dent has been stretched by two things: the original dent and your work to smack it down. The next step is to shrink it down with a torch. Heat the middle of the dent red hot and let it relax the stresses; cool it with a wet rag and you should be OK.

To tell if you need to shrink the metal, push down on it with your finger. If it comes back up and acts like an oil can then it needs to be shrunk down.

The strenching is caused because the metal is thinned in that area and surrounding areas are now thicker(think on the atom level). There are basically two ways to fix that oil can you have, the torch and shrinking hammer.

Now you heat the metal cherry red only heat the highest spot on the metal try to keep it small as possible. Now as the metal gets hot it will bulge upward, personally I dont use a cold rag as sometimes it can shock the metal and work hardern it but other times it works really well. Instead of the wet rag use your shrinking hammer should have mutliple grooves in it. Place the dolly on the back side to brace the metal and hit the bulge in the center. This will compress the metal, now hit the bulge around the perimeter with the hammer, this compress the metal even more and controls the metal from just trying to move around the bulge instead of in it. This process must be done fairly quick to work. Once the reddness is gone from the metal then use that wet rag to farther contract the metal.

Just make sure you dont quench the metal to fast with the water or overshrinking can happen as will as work hardening the metal. The amount of shrinking is more dependent or more controlled with the hammer blows on the bulge then the wet rag. Good luck...Eric

One last thing use light hammer blows dont try to kill it in the first few blows, as that is what I believe caused your stretched metal problem.