My 39 Panel

Gary in Mozarks

Senior Member
I had a visit from a good friend and he brought me a stud gun dent puller and slide hammer. to borrow. Its just the thing to pull the dents out of the rear corners of my 39 panel truck where the door braces block the rear access. I am tickled.
 
Ok The first picture is of the stud gun. You insert a stud in the nose and push it up to the cleaned off dent and pull the trigger. The copper ring around the nose is the ground.
It spot welds the stud to the dent. Then, Depending on the size of the dent, you grip the stud with the slide hammer shown and pull the dent out. In this case the dent was quite large and horizontal so I spot welded three studs to it and pulled each one a little bit at a time to remove the dent.

Once the dent is pretty much out, you grind or cut off the studs and finish as normal.

Pretty slick for those areas where it is impossible to reach the backside, such as the rear corners of the panel as the door braces on the back totally block that area.

Gary
 

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Thanks Gary:
I had seen those around but never talked to any one
that had used one.:cool::cool:
I guess that will be one more thing on the Christmas List.;););)

BILL W
 
yep, a much better idea and way to remove some dents....compared to drilling holes, then using the slide hammer....Mike
 
How would the slide hammer have to grab on to those tangs there? You can make the slide hammer, easy. Take a piece of 3/8 or 1/2 all thread rod about 18 ", get some industrial, fat bodied nuts and heavy washers. Take a nice dry sturdy tin can, pour in some lead, drill a hole down through the lead same size as a piece of 1/2 electrical conduit, place the conduit down the center, tap pack the conduit into the lead weight by seal caulking or packing the lead around it, affix it to the all thread and make it slide, want a handle? take an old drawer pull and screw some wood screws through the can and into the lead. I had one like this that I made a cats paw type of set up at the end and would sink fat head sheet metal screws into the steel and work out the dents, I would have holes but braze them up. I'm not sure how to grab those tack tangs. On the red truck I took the section off, metal worked it and tig ed it back on.
 
There is also a rounded tip that works swell for shrinking metal.

The tool with attachments is worth around $400.

It can be a little tricky on newer cars as the metal is so thin.
 
How would the slide hammer have to grab on to those tangs there? You can make the slide hammer, easy. Take a piece of 3/8 or 1/2 all thread rod about 18 ", get some industrial, fat bodied nuts and heavy washers. Take a nice dry sturdy tin can, pour in some lead, drill a hole down through the lead same size as a piece of 1/2 electrical conduit, place the conduit down the center, tap pack the conduit into the lead weight by seal caulking or packing the lead around it, affix it to the all thread and make it slide, want a handle? take an old drawer pull and screw some wood screws through the can and into the lead. I had one like this that I made a cats paw type of set up at the end and would sink fat head sheet metal screws into the steel and work out the dents, I would have holes but braze them up. I'm not sure how to grab those tack tangs. On the red truck I took the section off, metal worked it and tig ed it back on.
The slide hammer has a sort of keyless chuck that you twist and it grabs the tang tight. The other corner is so banged up I am going to do the same thing, i.e. cut it off and work it back off the car then mig it back on the body. I posted pictures in another old thread of it. really messed up.
Gary
 
The gun and puller generally come as a kit. I use the shrinking tip as much or more than the stud tip. You can also pull gently on the slide hammer and work the edges of the dent with a hammer and you won't get the raised area you do when using the slide part and banging the dent out.
 
I bought mine from Eastwood eleven years ago for Christmas - was less than $200. then. Bought the shrinking tip later and have used it extensively. My '49 was a farmer's car and had plenty of dents, dings and gouges - I got lots of practice in metalwork on it......Bob L
 
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