body work question rear valence, can I fix this? Progress with boring pics Options

[theleschyouknow]

I've had my car for about two years first year -what I call the year of living dangerously
I drove it whenever the weather allowed including a 914 weekend in the talimena hills
after a brokenclutch cable clevis it's been wheels in the air for close to a year I've been cleaning the engine and trans and suspension arms and cv's/axles and shocks & springs and engine tin I can reach of 40+ years of grease and dirt -a bunch of it likely from the leaking cv's which I'm sure I'll ask about soon in another thread
so here's my question for this thread:
my rear valence has one 'big' dent in it and couple small wrinkles in the bottom 1/4" or so 'return' flange that defines the bottom edge
pics following

having never done any kind of body work before this seems fairly straight forward to repair
what are the minimal tools required?
what kind of results could reasonably be expected?
could I (easily)screw it up beyond repair?

thanks for any comments or suggestions





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cjl

[Darren C]

Your doing real well cjl,

Very good work!

To answer your question, you need to work the metal from both sides with a good planishing hammer (not a lump or ball peen) and dolly. As said before, forget the sandbag.

It looks a simple damage repair and I'd guess you'll not need a shrinking hammer, just the basic tools.

The trick is to do it nice and slow and progressively. Better to hit numerous times with a light blow than a few with a heavy blow.

Knock and work a dent from the convex side, then flip to the other side only to finely adjust.

A good beginners trick is to use a large woodworkers G clamp with some small wood blocks to ease out dents before the hammer, or with metal blocks to flatten creases on edge returns or flanges. Be careful with any corners on wooden and metal blocks, as well as your dolly as you can hammer in a new crease easily if you catch the sides.
Also it's a skill to hold the hammer face flat to the panel as you can create "half crowns" (When I was a very young lad learning coppersmithing and panel beating my teacher used to beat us for every half crown we put in a job) A half crown was an old UK coin just about the size of a quarter, and it was the nick-name for the imprint of the hammer head in the material if we'd not hit the job squarely.

Once you get it back to shape you can move to a nylon mallet and light multiple hits with the dolly to finish smooth.

Check out day 93 here on my build for inspiration from my valance dent removal.

http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?sho...47250&st=40

Good luck, you're doing great so far!