Popping a dent withough breaking the clearcoat
 

Yesterday while up wheeling, I was saved from rolling by an Aspen tree. However, it put a nice sized dent in my fender just behind the corner light. How should I go about popping the dent without breaking the clearcoat or overstressing the metal. The paint is perfect, just moved the metal and I don't want to damage the paint unless I absolutly have to

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http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/DING-...QQcmdZViewItem

Worth a shot.

Better than the toilet plunger method.


EDIT
nvm just saw the pics.


I doubt the dent puller will do that job. I believe the fender will need to come off and hammered to pop it out. May need to be repainted after. Although im not a body guy.

if it turns out it needs to go to a body shop, i'll just wait and do a few things at once, such as the dent under my left tail light from where the previous owner got backed into

I used that Ding King a few days ago after a nice little hail storm here. Works ok but that is a pretty large dent. Not sure if it would work.

that dent is not going to just "pop out". You could take off the fender and try and get it back to shape but even that is going to be a lot of work. If you are not good with body work I wouldn't attempt that as my first job. That is a tough one. As time goes by the paint is going to crack and then chip off. get that to a body shop asap.

Thanks for the advice. I'm currently in the process of finding a good body shop here in Denver.

Ive seen fenders sell on ebay painted and shipped for around 200.

yeah, thats a tough one. Check out your local junk yards. You may be able to find one in the right color and then just r/r. Will be a lot cheaper than a body shop.

took the truck in for a quote at a body shop today, they quoted me at $1700 for that and the rear left corner of my bed. I'll be talking around, have some suggestions for other people to talk to, but hey it's a starting point.

dont u just love body shops. kinda makes you want to go to school and learn how to do all that ****.

My sisters boyfriend did just that took him 18months now he loves what he is doing.

is there anyway you can get behind the dent? if you can, try pushing it out by hand and then if you have to, use a rubber/plastic hammer to bang it out a little more. it wont look good as new, but it will look a lot better.

The way both the besdside and the front fender are built, there are sub panels in the way. I don't know if the 05's are the same way, but if you go look next to the airbox, you'll see the inner fender with 2 holes, hardly big enough to fit a hand in or get proper leverage to pound it out. Same way with the bed just under the taillight.

Unfortunately there’s no way to just pop that one out. The metal was stressed in the upper and lower crease and next to the marker. You’d have to heat the edges and work it and wind up using some filler to smooth it out. Not seeing the back quarter panel damage cant say if 1700 is high but for the front fender it shouldn’t be more than 200-400 hundred installed. I’d just buy a used fender or new one. Pull the old one and test fit the replacement. If it lines up good take it to the body shop and have it painted then install and adjust as needed.

There are so many salvage yards here in CO call around and see if you can find a replacement its really not to hard you may just have to drive a ways but a lot of the time you can get a color match so its worth it

Shawn, one of the guys on RMFTC told me he had a friend who used to do bodywork on streetrods, but now does his own. I'll be going to talk to him on Friday, see what he will help me with. I know LMC has brand new fenders for it for around $230, so I may end up ordering one from them and finding a reputable paint shop. As far as the bed goes, I'll have to brainstorm some ideas. Here's a picture of the majority of the damage to the bed, there is a small crease up along where the taillight is cracked and a small dent, half dollar sized, along the crease up high.
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Well I see why they quoted you 1700. It probably could be fixed but the labor will be up there. For the price replacing the outter panel would be perferred. Either way its gonna be up there. Only other choice is looking around for a used bed, but the cost to repaint the entire bed will eat up any savings there.

Like you said with the used bed, yeah that is an option I was looking at. I know of one junkyard that stocks pickup beds from those that have a utility body on them, and they had a few brand new Ranger beds in stock, it would just be a matter of stripping it down and re-painting it. You were right on with the labor, they quoted me $1300 for the labor and the rest in parts.

One option I may look at is a flareside bed. Who knows, it's up in the air. Other than the 2 major dents, my truck is flawless.

You wouldn’t necessarily need to strip the bed. If the old paint is in good condition on the used bed I would only lightly sand to break the gloss and spot putty any small scratches. If you have the fortitude to do some of the prep yourself you can save some money on the labor. That’s how I saved a bunch on my dent repairs.

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