TR2/3/3A Magnet

[Vargus]

Some of you may have seen my 101 dents on my front wing turn into 1001 smaller dents.
This newbie was quite chuffed he got there.
Now the problem is placing the dolly in the right place behind the indentation while hammering off dolly. So now I’m just chasing dents around .
My hand eye coordination must be shot. There must be an easier way to find the right spot with the dolly, i then had an idea.
I have a powerful magnet placed over the independent and my dolly just sticks to the other side.
I found my towing ball just right for the job, it works a treat.
This newbie is chuffed again.

 

[Frank Canale]

no way to tell without seeing and feeling the panel but my guess is if you are chasing dents around, the metal is stretched and has nowhere to go so it just moves around. If you shrink the metal then you can work the dents out. To put it another way the oil can is moving around instead of removing it. Another tool that might help you is a bulls eye pick. It is a big circular piece of tubing that is spring loaded with a u shape or a big washer that acts like the dolly and a blunt pick that taps the back side of the panel to work dents. They are not that hard to make. Frank

 

[Vargus]

no way to tell without seeing and feeling the panel but my guess is if you are chasing dents around, the metal is stretched and has nowhere to go so it just moves around. If you shrink the metal then you can work the dents out. To put it another way the oil can is moving around instead of removing it. Another tool that might help you is a bulls eye pick. It is a big circular piece of tubing that is spring loaded with a u shape or a big washer that acts like the dolly and a blunt pick that taps the back side of the panel to work dents. They are not that hard to make. Frank

Sorry should’ve said chasing that wasn’t the right word
I found the panel is stretched in more than one place, i have used a shrinking disc a few times with success.

 

[Frank Canale]

You will find that body work and working dents is not easy or fast to get it right. Speed will only come with practice. There is an art to body work and I have a lot to learn. Some people are born with body work talent and others have to learn it the hard way. Looks like you are on the right track, keep at it and good luck. Keep us posted on how it is going. Frank

 

[CJD]

Using a hammer and dolly envolves a rhythm. Choose a dolly as close to the shape you want to achieve. As you hit with the dolly in the right spot, the dolly will bounce off the metal and then "clink" back into place. With practice you learn exactly how the "clink" sounds and feels, so placing the dolly becomes second nature. When you miss your dolly, you just get a "thunk" instead of a "clink" sound. There are other times you actually want the dolly slightly off from where you hammer. Rapid lighter hits are far better than slower, hard hits. If the hammer side has a high spot, and the low spot on the dolly side is not at the same spot, then place the dolly on its "high" spot on the back side, and use more than normal pressure holding it. ( Normally you need little or no pressure, as the mass of the dolly does the work). Then hit the hammer in the front side high spot. This will tend to move both the low and high spots into proper position.

This is a very long, thread, but you will find virtually everything you need to know about bodywork in it:

TR2/3/3A - Beginning the TR2 Bodywork

It is now 2 years and nine months since I low balled the PO and got my TR2 project. For this entire time I have been dreading the bodywork, since I knew the body was abysmal. Well, yesterday it began. I figured Pigot says the restoration begins at the doors, so that is where I started. Yep...

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