Back in the day dent repair often involved drilling a bunch of holes in
an area to pull with a slide hammer or such then bondo'ing over to finish
If you are refinishing these areas now, either blasting or DA'ing that area clean
...do you bother to weld up all those holes?

I do. And the hole drilling is so passé. B) Try a stud welder.

we never ever drill holes in the panels. We use a puller that welds small "nails" onto the damaged area to which we attach our puller and then ease the dent out. This keeps the metal intact and also keeps it from distorting during the repair process.

When I find these old repairs I always either weld the holes or replace the metal in that area.

Jerry

The only place in the country that is dry enough to squeege body filler through open holes is in the western states. I bought a few Cali cars that have had this method of repair done. If we even thought about drilling holes in panels and leaving them open with a body filler "wick" hangin out the back side we would be setting ourselves up for failure. moisture would soak the filler in no time.

I never drill a hole in a panel. I will go to great lengths to work the damage without drilling and causing heat damage to a panel. If not done with the utmost care, welding can warp a panel and or harden the panel making the fine work diffecult to complete.

I've spent an hour or more making a special tool to avoid this on many occasions. I have special shortened body hammers and very short homemade bullseye hammers for bumping out hard to reach damage. I have a stud gun but very seldom do I use it. Infact I think my son borrowed it out to a friend. I'm sure I will never see it again.

Drilling holes is not the worse thing. Sometimes you have no choice. The most important part of the end result of the repair is to clean burnt paint off the back side of the welded hole, prep the metal and prime and seal it for rust prevention. Even if it's bomb can enamel where it's hard to reach or see. Your repair will last as long as the rest of the car if you take a few extra minutes to get it right.

BTW: Marks photo of the 365 is a classic example of the correct use for a stud welder. There is no way to get behind the nose panel to finesse out a dent.

If the dent is large enough you would cut the nose off, hammer out the panel, weld it back in and blast the welds clean to finish. There are many methods. No one is more right than another. Just think about the work long term and you will be fine.

that's very cool

My 75 had a long scrape/dent like from a rubber strip from a bumper in the door. It was inline with the beam inside the door. I actually bought another door from a member here to use but I pulled it out with the stud gun and I think I will keep the original door because it doesn have any rust in the bottom. I would rather have a skim coat of filler than a welded up door I think. The good thing about the stud gun is you can use it on gas tanks or whatever without drilling holes or welding. Sometimes though I have torn the metal from working one stud too much.

I have a 62 4wd chev truck that belongs to a friend that the bodyman he used punched holes in the dents in the cab to hold the filler, it's got plastic worms sticking through into the interior rear corners he didn't even take the original paint of, he just put the filler over the paint.

Both of my late doors have been repaired years ago with the hole and slide hammer method. Filler worms can be seen on the inside, but there's sure to be more behind the door brace. My thought is to strip the filler, weld the holes, and stud gun the panel as best as possible (can't get behind the panel due to the brace). That previous repair was actually done quite well.

Got a question regarding the stud gun: I've always relyed on guessing how long to depress the button to weld the stud in place. Too long and the stud must be ground off. Just right, and a slight twist will break it loose without creating a hole. Is there a better method to gauge the time to depress the button?

Andys

Andys