So my friend was hit by a deer, the stupid animal ran right into the driver's side of his bonneville. He said it was dead when he checked it out, it must've broken its neck or something. Anyway, it dented in both doors, front and rear, got fur and blood all over the place, but luckily, didn't get the rear quarter. I told him I'd fix it for him (he has no collision on it, older car, and no $$ to bring it to a bodyshop). So at first I was thinking about just getting two junkyard doors and painting them, then, I wondered if I could just bang the metal out. Yeah it's more work but I don't mind, it's a good learning experience- especially since it's not my car!

So, how would you take out a big dent? Don't you use a hammer & dolly to work from the outside of the dent in? I don't want him to wind up with the oil can effect. I plan on using a thin layer of filler to finish the repair.

Should I use a slide hammer? Near the rear of each door, the deer dented those areas in, right against the verticle edge of each door. I don't see how a hammer/dolly could get in there, so I was thinking of a slide hammer. But, will I get the oilcan effect?

Also, should I be using a shrinking hammer? (Still not sure how those special heads actually shrink the metal...) Or should I use a shrinking dolly? Or should I use both? And the dolly goes in the area you "can't swing a hammer in", so the dolly would be in the door panel, right? What's the proper use for a heel dolley as opposed to the normal dolly? Or are they just used for "available space"... space is small, so use a heel dolly?

Thanks for the info... on my car, my dents were small enough so I could just use filler on 'em; they were mostly door dings. The few bigger dents I had, I used a rubber mallet, and finished it off with filler. There was no oilcan effect, but, the dents weren't on big door panels like my friend's.

Haha, one more thing- I see a ton of hammers out there. Some have a flat back and a pointy tip, some have a flat back and a shrinking back, some look like a double ended chipping hammer, what are these for? I figure I'd leave the double ended chipping hammer alone, and buy the other two, but I don't really know why you'd want a pointy tip on a body hammer- seems like it'd dent the metal!

And if there's any good links on the net, or books I could buy, let me know! Thanks!!