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Hey guys recently I aquired a 90 firebird, v6, pretty decent shape, however with some body damage. Most of which I can handle however there is a huge creased dent in the rear pssenger quarter panel just behind the door.. I have removed the speaker and fabric and have done all I can by pushing and hammering but short of drilling and pulling the dent, which leads to holes and bondo, should I just throw in the towel and get a replacement panel and replace it ?
Thats a pretty serious dent for a novice to start on, I think you're going to have a heck of a time trying to straighten it. When welding the studs on, don't weld to long or you'll burn holes through the metal. You'll need a slide hammer to pull the dents out once the studs are welded on. Once you're done pulling on a stud you can clamp a vice grip on the head of the stud and twist slightly to take it off. If its welded on too tightly you'll be grinding off the heads, but try to avoid that. Remember, when pulling a dent that big start on the edges and move to the middle. First in, last out.
If you remove the speaker/spkr enclose, you can access that from behind & hammer the dent out, ive done it that way.Maybe save yourself buying the stud welder.
I did pull the speaker out and did some hammering.. It'sa pretty hard angle to get at..
Zstransam thank you for the beginners breakdown! I'll use your advice ! I was thinking about starting slow on some of the other smaller dents to work up my knowledge base ..
Stud welder should work fine to pull it out, but no matter which way you decide to fix the dent there will be some degree of body filler involved at the end to make the panel straight.
Got the stud welder in and had mixed first results.. I am new at this large of a dent so I know it's trial and error.. So first I ground the damage down to the metal... Wiped clean the area with alcohol prep pads and let it dry.. Started with the large studs first and they didn't seem to weld strong to the metal.. Just touching it moved them and caused them to fall off.. So I went to the second size and got a little better hold but the slide bar in this kit was problematic at best.. I guess like anything you do new it takes you finding your comfortable point and working..I will admit however this seems like a huge undertaking wth just the stud usage so I think I will use 841le's advice and gets 2x4 and go at it from both sides ...
Ok so after dinner I felt that i had given up first time to easy.. I went out and was struggling with positioning .. I'm 6'3 260lbs so not easy maneuvering in the back with a hammer.. So my wife suggested to take a long board and lay it through the drivers side door and try.. And low and behind I was able to bang out the dent drastically more than I had expected. I went back and forth with the board and stud gun and did pretty good reforming the metal. It looks like rain so I'm stopping here .. I cleaned the area and sprayed a clinker can primer to help short term with rust. Anyway here is some updated pics
I say replace it if you beat out all you can your metal is probley stretched and will be either high or low so you would have to shrink the metal to get it straight again
