my 1960 was rubbed by another car's bumper at some time in
ancient history. There is a gouge/dent that goes across
the DS rear door and continues into the rear quarter panel
above the R wheel. I am stripping the car and will repaint
it, so this is a full-on paint project, not a local area
repair.
I can fill in the gouge, but an area the size of a manila
mailing envelope is pushed in perhaps an inch in a very
mild depression. The entire panel with the enveolpe sized
depression is gigantic and is under the fin on the side of
the car.
When I grab the panel with a slide hammer or a hook through
the trim mount hole and pull on it, trying to bow it back
out, it "biongs" out into the correct shape but then
springs back to its bent form. I tried to pull really hard
on it, but it is not taking to manual or slide-hammer pulls
because it is not a small crease, but a large curved
depression.
I figure that I can either:
drill a hole through the body and the interior wheelwell
sheetmetal (there's a 1/4" gap between them). I can then
use a bolt with a really large washer or even a piece of
wood to distribute the pressure, and then connect a
come-along to it and pull/bend the panel out to the shape
that I want, reversing the pressure of impact.
OR
remove the rear wheel and use a scissors jack inside the
weel well to push/bend the panel outwards from the inside,
deforming the wheel well metal in the process, which is
just fine as long as it looks OK on the outside, which I
think that it will.
Any other suggestions before I start using force on this
large-surface area panel?
Do you know the address for the body work Email club that
has been mentioned?
=====
Kenyon Wills
6o LeBaron - America's Most Carefully Built Car
73 LeBaron - Long Low & Luxurious
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