the magic of heat
 

has anyone ever used a torch to pull dents? or a shrinking disk? i thought id give it a try on my girls 66 stang..i thought o well its just a ford what better way to learn! my gosh i wished i tried it sooner. i would have saved many hours of hammering and dolly work.and i probly would have never bought a stud gun. it works very well on tight rounded areas im just having a difficult time on the hood. (large and flat area)

got pics?

no i dont but can. what pics do u want? of the abused hood.lol i should start doing before and after pics.. one of the dents was about the size of a pop/beer can is round and almost 1/4 at the center. i used just a run of the mill camp stove propane tank and after 2 heats it pulled it out there was highs on 1 side of the dent i had to hammer out, right now im working on the roof of the car. but when i do other dents ill show before and after photos. thanks will this site support video? or just still pics?

Heating and cooling has always been a good body mans tool, but it seems to be a lost -art with many of them. my friend swears by this old albanian guy that uses heat and ice cause back in the old country there were no replacement panels available, you just had to fix what you had!

yes, I have done this to remove some "oil canning".
body guys nowdays try to avoid this process but it does work in certain situations.

It works great. Whenever metal gets a dent which causes a crease, it will expand to the point that it won't pop back into place. Heating the dent (and the cooling process) shrinks the metal, and allows the dent to be fixed/filled more easily. The real restoration pros can repair sheet metal using a torch/hammer/dolly, and use no filler at all.

I have seen a Benz factory trained tech that went through the full 25 year program straighten an aluminum fender that looked like an accordian...in less than 4 hours start to finish when down to bare metal...

8K fender......off a lambo

metal finished it and primed.....

Thats no bodyman. Some of those guys are true artists. The only difference is the medium they work with.

Pics or no pics, can anyone give a quick overview of the process and what specific supplies they have used?

i just used a propane can, with a tip on the end, then a bucket of water to keep a rag in and after heating then put the wet rag on the hot spot,
some ppl say a acetylene torch works better, but ive had luck with a lil propane torch

Like Scotty said, torch and a block of ice..old school stuff, works great.
There's you tube vids on the subject. Some folks use dry ice as well.

I have heard about this. The only concern that I would have is from the physics side of this repair. You are heating metal and then putting some very cool on it. you are adding stress when adding heat and if not allowing it to cool down slow enough, you induse more stress and can cause worse damage down the road.

Maybe I'm just over thinking this and there is less heat being used than I would think is needed.

LOL, I have used poor mans heat tools to do body work. Years ago a buddy brought his camero over and had caved the pass, door in right on the feature line. After many beers and other party favors, i tried to take the dent out. the torch sets were both empty and no propane bottle so we blocked up the salamander to it and let it run for 5 min, from the inside of the door, i used a 2x4 block and a 2lbs,hand sledge, and gave her like 3 whaks. I got a very audible "pop" and it came right out, it still needed dollied out but just around the feature line, and it was in like 3 inches.