Manual System G
1. Introduction
Paintless dent removal is a craft, which only can be learned by following this instructional manual closely along with lots of training. Successful repairing of dents without repainting depends strongly on coordinating eye and hand. To develop this coordinating skill so that you quick and safe can remove dents, the manual must be followed and the training be done until you can carry this out correctly every time.
This manual contains eight sections:
1. Introduction
2. Tools
3. Hand tools
4. Dent terminology
5. Basic training
6. Basic dent beating out
7. Working with cars
8. Conclusion
The manual is carefully elaborated to guide you – step by step – through the procedure of beating out dents without after painting.
Some learn faster than others, so do not get impatient. Nobody has ever learned this working method overnight so be fair to your self and take the time you need.
2. Dent Removal Tools
The tools are the longer, heavier equipment in the kit. They are used for dents, which are located so that you have no access to them from the downside.
The tools are divided according to types and shapes of the working ends.
The tools are manufactured from polished or 4140 steel instead of stainless steel. Stainless steel is too soft, which makes it difficult to control the pressure during repairing of dents.
The points on the tools are developed and specified according to different properties in sheet metal. This development has taken place over a range of years to meet the need at people with great practical working experience within repairing. But people work in different ways and develop their own method of repairing; therefore we do not recommend specific which point to use at a given job.
As earlier said paintless dent removal is a craft, which relies on estimate and experience of the person doing the job. Some do almost all repair work with one type of point. Others may use two or three different points for one dent. Going through the training programme you will get the chance to try out different points and hereby gain the experience necessary in order to know every point. If you work better with one type for a certain dent, you can go ahead and use that one.
The five types of points are as follows:
Knife tool
Cutter tool
Ball tool
Blade tool
Tri-point tool
Knife tool
The bars on the knife tools bend and are shaped as a long wedge at the end. They have a sharp edge.
The knife tools are mostly used for repairing small dents – so called micro grooves – because of the dot on the end of the point. They are also useable for a certain kind of dents called ponds.
One of the best qualities of the knife tool is the way in which, it “catches” the metal. When it reaches the right spot it stays there.
Please notice that the greatest danger in using the knifepoint is, that it may scratch the metal if pushed to hard. Because scratches are the worst that can occur in repairing dents without after painting, you should be very careful in using the knife tool.
Cutter tool
The ends have two flat edges and one round top.
Billede
Cutter tools are good at finishing dents. They are very good in beating out doors and other vertical bodywork parts as they are very sharp and because they grab a hold of the metal surface.
Like the knife tool the cutter tools can also scratch the metal when pushed to hard, so please take care in using them
Ball tools
The ends are rounded in ball shape. The ball tool is a really good all-round tool.
Billede
As the ends are rounded, the ball tool behaves “softer” than the other ends. It is therefore possible to put more strength into the work. Many people think, that the ball tool is the easiest to control. It is good at removing lighter damages and small dents.
The potential danger in the ball tool lies in making an elevation – a reversed dent – and that it slips. The ball tool does not catch on to the metal so well as a knife or carving point, so you should be careful to hold the tool where you want it.
Blade tools
They have flat ends and a rounded top.
Billede
Blade tools are fine tools for all purposes, even though they are not as “soft” as ball tools.
Blade tools catches the metal pretty well from side to side, yet they have a tendency to slide back and forth; so please be careful keeping them under control.
The potential danger in the blade tool is the same as for the ball tool – to make an elevation.
Tri-point tool
The ends have 2 bendings; the point is tri-pointed with a rounded spot.
Billede
The tri-point tool is used for the work with the heavy, thick metal, which can be found on cars like Mercedes-Benz and BMW.
The tri-point tool is usually too heavy a tool for lightweight compact and semi-compact cars.
Because the tri-point tool is so stiff, it is easier to make an elevation with this tool than with the other tools, so move forward slowly, until you get in touch with the tool.
3. Hand tools
Hand tools are a shorter, thinner form of the tools, but do not underestimate them. Compared to the length, the hand tool is stronger than the other tools, so it is still relative easy to use a considerable amount of force on the dent.
The hand tool can be used either like the tools – as arms, using the side of the hole or another admission point as support – or with the point directly placed on the dent. Hand tools can first and foremost be used when working with dents close to the support of the roof, trucks and bonnet; they can, though, also sometimes be useful for doors, wings and rear skirting boards.
Even though the difference between many tools with the same type of point is the length, the tools are in some cases bended in different angles. The most usable bendings have been decided – after a long period of experience - in order to be able to reach the hardly accessible places. If it is impossible to reach a dent with the used tool, please try one of the hand tools with a different bending. You will be surprised, how easy it is to reach the dent. It may be so, that you have to try different tools before finding the right one, but eventually you will automatically find the right one immediately.
4. dent terminology
Billede fordybninger
Grooves are the most common dent and the one you most often work with. Car doors, shopping trolley, children and hail, cause the grooves.
Micro grooves are tiny. Sometimes they are a result from the dent beating out process.
Billede forhøjninger
Elevations are the opposite of grooves – they go outwards instead of inwards. Most elevations occur
when you remove a groove.
Micro elevations are tiny and occur in the dent beating out process.
Billede spidsforhøjning
A pointed elevation is nearly the worst that can happen to the bodywork. They are almost impossible to repair without repainting, even though they can be reduced.
The following dents have all occurred during beating out. Micro elevations and grooves are only a part of the work. The following dents have occurred as a result of mistakes.
Billede dam
A pond may occur when removing micro elevations. A pond is a low, flat spot that is wider than a micro groove.
billede Flade
A flat is an even, flat area on the bottom of a groove. If it were levelled with the rest of sheet metal, it would be okay but it is not. Flats occur usually when you start to work on a dent from the middle instead of from the edges.
Billede flimmer
Shimmer occurs when you have worked too much on a dent. The metal looses its flexibility and becomes stiff. This usually happens, when you have mended too many micro grooves and micro elevations, which lead to the metal crystallizing.
Most of these problem dents can be avoided by learning exactly where the tool point is, and use precisely the pressure necessary to mend the metal and remove the dent.
Therefore patience and training are so important in beating out dents without repainting.
Shimmer can also lie in clear paint, but can in many cases be helped by polishing with a grindstone grain 1500 – 2000 – 3000, along with after polishing.
5. Basic training
Before starting work on the customer’s cars you need a lot of practise. For that use you need a training bonnet.
The best place to find a bonnet is in a bodywork garage or at a car breaker. Bonnets need not have neither dents nor be in perfect condition.
It is important though, that the paint on the bonnet is in good condition. You should be able to polish the bonnet so the lamp gives good reflections. These light reflections must lead the work.
It is much easier to learn on the dark paint colours, as the dark colours show the defects better than light ones. Red, dark blue and black are all good choices.
Also in training a bonnet of light metal is easier to use than one of stronger metal. Try and find bonnets with the most possible space between the side members, as you will need the space for training.
Most likely, you need more than one bonnet before you are through. It takes a lot of practise to learn beating out of dents without repainting and most people need at least 2 bonnets, before they are ready for the customer’s car.
The only way you ever learn beating out dents without after painting, is by performing the training, which is a part of the training programme, and by keeping on training until you have learned.
FIRST TRAINING PART: Adjusting the light
This training part shows how the reflection from the lamp should look like. You must learn to adjust the light easy and quick in the right position, so that it reflects in the dent that is to be repaired. Draw a circle around the dent and adjust the light so that the reflections are within the circle before starting the work.
SECOND TRAINING PART: Reflections from the dent
In this training part you shall make some dents and then learn to find them by means of the light reflections. The different dents reflect the light in their own way. Until you automatically recognize the different ways in which, the light is reflected, you are not able to repair dents on the customers’ cars.
This is a diagram on a typical reflection of a groove:
Billede
The metal reflects the light from the pipes in a way that they look like curving around the dent.
This is a diagram on a typical reflection of an elevation:
Billede
The metal reflects the light from the pipes in a way that they look like being drawn against the dent. But these diagrams only give an assumption on the real picture.
THIRD TRAINING PART: Placing the tool point
The light shows the exact placement of tool or hand tool, and you must know this before pressing on the metal to bend it. Until you have learned this and learned it correctly, you cannot begin to repair dents.
FOURTH TRAINING PART: Circles
This training part is to develop accuracy in placing the tool point and press just so hard, that the metal moves. It is the first of three training parts, which gradually gets harder.
In this training you must make elevations in the middle of circles, which you draw on the bonnet.
FIFTH TRAINING PART: X’s
When you have gained a little accuracy in placing the tool point within a circle, you must continue with X’s. Try and place an elevation in the middle of each X.
SIXTH TRAINING PART: Points
When you can hit the middle of an X each time, you proceed to making elevations in the middle of a number of points. This is very difficult, so please do not get impatient and continue, until it can be done every time.
Most likely this will take a few days, maybe a week or more, before you have worked your way through all the training and can hit the middle of a number of points time after time. While you learn to place the tool point, you also develop the eye/hand coordination and you learn, how the tool should be handled with different strength, all at one time.
6. Basic dent beating out
Dent beating out without repainting is ways of getting the metal back in the shape it had, before the dent occurred. Sheet metal has a kind of “memory”, so what you should do is to push the metal carefully back to its original shape. As long as the metal has not been dented too long or too many times, the dent will react to your efforts.
Face of a clock method
The first impulse will probably be to take a tool with ballpoint and start to press at the middle. That is a bad idea and will probably result in a flat or division of the dent.
Instead it is advisable to use the so-called face of a clock method. Visualize the outline of a clock around the dent. The twelve o’clock is the point farthest away from you, when you shall work on the dent. When looking at the dent from above, it will resemble the drawing underneath. You are placed in the bottom of the drawing.
Billede urskive
You start by pressing at twelve o’clock, then 11, 1, 2, 10, 9, and 3. This makes the dent a little smaller. Start again at twelve o’clock, this time closer to the centre, as the dent is smaller now.
Remember to work from the outer edge of the damaged area. Do not get too fast to the centre. Stay in the upper half of the clock. It is not necessary to work on the dent’s lower half, as it automatically will follow the upper half.
Removal of grooves
First you polish the damaged baseboard. This makes it easier to se the damage. Training grooves can be made with a round hammer or the bar of a large screwdriver, protected by a couple of layers of fabric. Avoid damages over the side members. Form a circle around the damage. Start with a small dent, as you will experience, that a dent sized 10 mm will cause damage to an area sized 25 mm. Choose a tool long enough to reach the dent, without it reaching to far out of the baseboard. Let the tool slide through the “S”-hook and make sure, that you have a good working position, when the dent has been located.
REMOVE ELEVATIONS
Most elevations will be micro elevations, which have occurred by removal of grooves. It is therefore necessary also to be able to handle these. Elevations can be removed by knocking lightly on the surface. You should be very careful, so that the paint is not damaged. Protect the hammer or the mandrel with tape.
In beating out elevations, you are advised to use the same “face of a clock” method, but you need to work slowly and with careful knocks. Make sure, that the beating out is levelled with the metal and not under it. Use the light and look from all sides. Check often how the work progresses. Be careful that the angles do not get too sharp.
When you have practised on both grooves and elevations, and you feel confident in removing them, the time has come to start on cars. Only you can decide, when you are ready to begin.
7. Working with cars
It would be nice, if all dents were located on the bonnet from the training bench. But since they aren’t the time has come to move forward into the real world.
First and foremost you must know, that some dents can be taken care of immediately. Others require more experience, and then there are some dents, which probably never can be repaired perfectly.
It is important to know the characteristics of the different dents before deciding, how to handle these.
The depth and angle of the dent affects the firmness of the metal and also how difficult it will be to repair. The deeper the hole the sharper the angles, the more difficult the beating out will be.
Sharp elevations are the most difficult dents to work with, as the metal has been pushed to a peak. The sides are very steep and the metal is very stiff.
When you have gained a certain amount of experience, you will be able to diminish the sharp elevations, but that is probably not something you want to try, once you have just started.
In the beginning you will rather not take on beating out of dents on the outlines of the bodywork, as these have been punched or rolled on the factory. The process of making outlines hardens the metal and makes it very difficult to work with.
In spite of this, most dents can be fixed and you will probably find it no more difficult – but a lot more interesting- than working with training bonnets.
ACCESS
Dent located in different places on the car cause different problems and we will therefore go through these one by one. We will start with the easiest places: the bonnet, tail gate and the roof.
BONNETS
Even on the bonnet, you should not start beating out before you are absolutely sure, that you can reach the dent. The first you should do is of cause to open up the bonnet and see, what can be seen. On many cars it will be necessary to remove the insulation.
Look for dents close to the profiles on the hood. Often this area is reinforced double, and you cannot reach the bottom of the dent to do beating out with out after painting.
If the dent is above or close to a shore, you must be sure that the shore can be disengaged.
What you actually must do to disengage the shore, is to loosen the glue, which holds the shore to the metal. You need not glue again, when you have finished the work, because on the next coming hot day or the next time that the engine room is warmed up, the glue will stick the shore back on again.
If the dent is sited directly over a side member, it may be necessary to drill a hole in the side member, in order to get access to the dent. Remember to use a drill stop, and to tighten it so that it does not slide.
Exceptional, under the assumption that the dent is in the right place, the disengagement of the shore may cause the dent to pop out. As already mentioned, this happens very rarely, and you must never disengage the shore hoping that the dent pops into place.
The only exception is on the big flat dents, which some times occur, when leaning on the bonnet, the tail gate or the roof; or if you place something heavy on the car. In that case is the first thing you should do, is to try and disengage the shore.
BOOT
Tail gates can be a bigger problem than bonnets, because the curbs in the metal usually are sharp and because the tail gates have more shores.
Spoilers can also be a big problem, if the dent is too close to the bars. The bars throw a shadow and obscure part of the reflections you need at the beating out.
If the spoiler is screwed on, it is not a problem, then they can just be removed. But many spoilers are riveted on, so therefore you have to shine the light and work on the dent from at least two angles, and this takes longer.
Roof installed rails give the same problem and therefore must be solved in the same way.
ROOF
Before doing anything with the roof, you must remove the ceiling lining. It may look as if every car producer has its own way of installing the ceiling lining in the different models.
There are though some common features for all ceiling lining. It is necessary to remove sunshades, trim and ceiling light. Some ceiling linings will then fall down. Others may be glued on. You have to take one car at a time.
When the ceiling lining has been removed, the work with the roof is similar to the work on the bonnet, though now you can stand upright instead of bending over.
Sunroofs are a problem of their own. It will probably be necessary to dismantle the sunroof. Usually it is only bolted or screwed on, so it is rather easy.
But NEVER CARRY OUT THE WORK ALONE. You need somebody to hold the sunroof, while dismantling it. If you loosen the one side and the sunroof falls out, a sharp elevation, which is impossible to remove, will occur.
It is also necessary to be two people to install the sunroof again.
In some ways, mudguards, doors and skirting boards are easier, because they have vertical surfaces. Therefore many people feel that these are easier to work with.
When you beat out dents on vertical surfaces, the light must be set in a vertical position. The lamp must of cause first be moved away from the car that you work on. Then the lamp shall be swung head up over the top and lowered down slowly, until it is resting on the buttress.
Usually it will be necessary to look closely to beat out dents on vertical surfaces, but usually there are many ways in which to get to the dent.
MUDGUARD
It will always be an advantage if you can get to the dent through the headlight or the flasher. Remove the container and use the opening sides as support.
It may be necessary to go through the door hinge panel, if you can find an opening to the mudguard, but use only the hinge panel if there is no other option.
There may be cases in which, it is best to drill through the engine room. In cases where the dent is on the top of a mudguard, or if you cannot get in the other way.
If it will be necessary to drill, there must be held a reasonable distance from point weldings or rivets. Some prefer to drill frontal, just behind the dent and mend the dent with hand tools. Others prefer to continue the hole and use the side of the hole to render support to the bar or one of the large hand tools.
Whether you drill in a door, a mudguard or a panel, you should always be careful to tighten the holes with rubber bodywork stoppers, when you have finished. Use for safety’s sake always a little tightening mass on the stopper.
Do also remember, that if a dent has damaged a designer line, it may not be possible to repair 100%.
REAR END PANEL
Panels look like mudguards, except that the best access possibility is through the taillight. Sometimes the best access is through the doorpost. Look after what is behind all stoppers, and do not hesitate to remove the ventilation grill, if there is one. This can be a good starting point.
Another fine access to some dents is through the fuel filling pipe stub. It will probably be necessary to drill, so do remember to close holes afterwards with a rubber stopper. It is especially important to use adhesive in this area, as the lid often is opened and the stopper can be worn.
When the dent is located on a quarter panel, the best working method is sometimes through the boot. You can often hang a S-hook on the edge of the boot to support the bar. Please take care, that the weather strip is not damaged.
DOORS
When you beat out dents with out after painting on a door, the first you should do is to close the window.
Check out the door edges for stoppers. Remove those that are there and examine what is behind them. Some car producers, for example Honda, have original holes in the doors, so that it will be easier to repair possible minor damages occurred during delivery. If it turns out that there only is the window adjustment or similar behind the stopper, then close again and keep looking. Look for a ventilation grill and get access through that.
Every time you must work on a door, it must be secured in the working position with the door lock, before even doing anything more than removing a stopper. And especially before starting to drill. Never trust that the door stop can hold the door tight, while you work.
8. Conclusion
No matter where the dent is placed, you are going to need all that you have learned, once you decide how to get to it:
· First polish the working surface, so that the best light reflection can be obtained.
· Use the light to “read” the dent and to tell exactly, where the tool point is located, before pressing on the tool to correct the metal.
· Use the “face of a clock” method on the dent, so that the sides of the dent are bend against the centre.
· Be patient. Take the time that is necessary. In the long run, slowly is quick.
· When you remove elevations, use 10-15 small knocks instead of one hard knock.
· Be extra careful with the knife tools and the cutter tool, as they can scratch the metal. Instead use for example a hammer handle.
