as the title says, there's a dent in the rear panel on the passenger side of the car. this is obviously part of the unibody, and i'm not exactly sure if the basic dent repair techniques would work in this section of the car. any ideas would be great help.

 

i have a dent in that same location on my Camaro and i would love to here from you guys also on your approach on how to get it out.

 

I don't think you can behind that area from the interior, someone please correct me if I am wrong. So you could drill a small hole and use a slide hammer. In most cases it requires multiple holes. There are tools avialable that weld little rods on that you can use the slide hammer on instead of a hole.

 

A stud welder is what u r thinking of. You can pick them up at harbor freight

 

alright so using a slide hammer would work? i'm fine with doin a bit of bondo patching if need be. not a welder yet. and this wont affect the structure or handling of the car adversely?

 

U would need to use the stub welder if u want to use the slide hammer. Google it and you will see how it works. It is not welding like you are thinking.

 

May dad uses the stud welder quite a bit in his body shop to pull dents.they work well.

In a nutshell what happenes is that the studs are welded to the area to repair.You then pull the studs to remove the low areas on the panel.When your finished you take the studs off then grind down any remaining pieces so that the panel is flush.

The studs are nice,because it dosen't create a bunch of holes in the panel.

Hope this helps,

T

 

back in the day we used to use a slide hammer - like they use to pull out door locks to steal cars.
and if you take out the spare tire and the other interior parts you can see part of that area, not sure if all of it, but part. that might help. not sure how far you can see into the area though.
and one more thing, dump the flash. camaro's did not come with chrome for a reason.

 

Was the car hit in the panel there or is that dent from damage to the rear of the car. It looks almost like that is from a rear impact that bent the pannel down. If this is the case there could be numorous alignment issues with the unibody and panels. If the dent is from something directly hitting the panel the above methods will work. You can get to parts of the dent from the inside the inside, but the stud gun would be how a body shop would do it if they didn't cut out the damage and weld in new sheet metal.

If this is the only major dent in the car it may be cheaper to get a small body shop or something like Maaco to pull the dent rather than buying the tools needed. I would ask the body shop if they would pull the dent out and let you take it home do the mud work on it if you are planing on painting it yourself.

Don't use the drill hole slide hammer there. The metal is quite stuburn there and the screws will pull out. And to finish it up properlly you will need to weld up the holes anyways. A stud welder is a must for that repair job.

 

I spy a sub box!

I agree with Aviator, I have a fairly large dent in almost the same location and aviator's advice is spot on to what was suggested to me as well. (Not in the car in my sig)

 

The guy repaired mine once by removing the black louvered air vent on the door frame and put a small jack and piece of wood. Then he jacked most of it back into place. Small jack is needed. He had a hand held one for body working.

 

alright so it seems the majority says screw punchin holes, grab a stud welder and work from the outer edges of the dent in towards the center? and yeah, that's a baby sub box. only a couple of 10's. only amp pushin them is the stock one on the back of my kenwood stereo. anyways back to the stud welders. which brands have the most bang for their buck? mind you i'm a college student so funds are pretty tight. need something that'll do the job but isnt going to set me back an arm and a leg just for this one dent. thanks again!

 

The jack Yankeecarman is referring to is called a port o power ram. You shoud be able to push it out from the trunk area that way. I use a Lenco machine at work wich is a slide hammer with a weldable tip on the end. Simply hit the button slide and twisting it will remove the hammer. The stud guns are great, you will need a clamp to grab multiple studs and then hammer it not to hard or you risk stretching the sheet metal and then you got what they call "oil canning" after you slide it out hold pressurse on the sld hamr and tap your high spots out with a pick hammer. any questions let me know if you lived im michigan I'd say bring it over.

 

IMHO thats the best thing to do for something like this. Find a friend that has the tool and will either help you out or let you borrow it. $200-$500 for a tool that you will not use often beyond this point can be better spent elsewhere on the car. I may be wrong but I think a body shop would do the initial pull of the dent for less than the price of the tool and let you grind off the studs and finish the work.

Of course you loose the satisfaction of doing it yourself, which I have spent more money doing something like this than I could of paid someone to do it for me, so I completly understand the want to buy the tool and teach yourself how to do it. As I did most of my work on my car when I was in college, 4 years out I am starting to work on it again. It seems you either have time or money to work on your car and never both at the same time though.

 

i didn't even consider going to a body shop. i dont trust anyone touching my car. didn't think a body shop would be willing just to pull a dent and let me do the finish work. i'm definitely lookin for a friend who has the tools needed. if any of you lives in the albuquerque area and have the necessary equipment shoot me a pm please . this dent has bothered me since i got the car and beatin on it with a wooden block and hammer hasn't phased the dent one bit. so on to the next alternative. and it is the truth that either you've got the time OR money to work on the car, but never both.

i've been thinking for the fee of $155 dollars, i could have a starter stud gun and slide hammer and be able to *hopefully not* remove dents in the future as well. it seems thats one of those tools that you're so happy when you've got it but if you dont have it you really wish you did ya know? kinda like a brake spring tool. makes a lot of things easier. thanks for the help guys. really didnt expect so much feedback. these forums rock!

 

weld some studs on and use dent puller, it will work just don't be afraid of it.

 

Buy a stud welder from Harber Freight for $120, use it then return it.

 

The problem with most of the advice given so far is that it won't work ... yet. Like Aviator asked earlier, It really looks like your car was hit in the rear. It certainly looks like all the third gens I've fixed over the years that have been clobbered in the rear bumper and folded up the rear frame rail. This is where everyone says ... "our cars don't have frames". Yeah I know, but they do have frame rails that are part of the unibody... and yours is bent. The first step to repairing this type of damage is to stretch the car back out to the proper dimensions. When you pull the unibody back to spec some of that damage will straighten itself out, and the adjacent panels will line up a lot better, and then you can take the advice given above about stud welders, lenco dent pullers and porto powers and goto work. It's my opinion that with the good access you have with the spare tire out you may not need any of those tools. But If you don't have or know someone who has the tools to straighten a frame you really ought to reconsider your stance on taking your car to a bodyshop.

 

thanks for the advice 1piece@atime. I knew these cars were unibody and have been hoping that someone would clarify if this car was potentially "bent". i know this car's history pretty well, and we'll say it isn't pretty. i might not even pull this dent, but just paint it fix the rest of the drive train and interior flaws and find someone to hopefully save this one. i'm just a college kid with a passion and far too little resources to satisfy such a daunting task as straightening frames right now. once again, thanks for the advice everyone. really good info here.

 

I should of focused on the frame damage more. Most body shops will give you a quote for free, so it wouldn't hurt to take it by a shop a good one will look at it and probably put it on a lift to check out the unibody. Get the estimate and it will tell you more than we can from pictures.

If the frame is bent the book value on these cars are currently so low picking up a clean one is usually cheaper than fixing the frame. Jump on ebay and pick up a straight clean car for 1500, and use your existing car as a donor for parts. Unless you really want to learn body work.