Technical Lets Talk hammer and Dolling

I am trying to learn about body work, So what is your tricks to using a hammer and dolly, I have read a couple of body working books, One , The key to metal Bumping witch go into a lot of detail. But I still would like to know how people that have used them for some time do different repairs from a small dent to a crease. What Dolly works best, what not to do. I know this covers a lot but hopefully some of you can share some advice and knowledge with me.

 

Take a look at the shapes.
Buy a shape that resembles a shoe heel,
then perhaps cruise the summer flea markets tool vendors.
Make a slide hammer, watch Youtube to observe techniques.

 

Very important learn off doll & on dolly hammering differences

 

There are so many different dollies, and all of them come in useful from time to time. You need a heel and toe, and a universal to start with, and a large one that I call.a.flat dolly. After a while you will learn that you will pick up one 99.9 percent of the time. You will also develop on eye for alternatives to dollies, and will look at every hunk of steel with an eye toward using them as dollies.

 

Here is another book you may like.

 

yup, hammering on the dolly (with the metal between the hammer and dolly), will stretch the metal a little. Hammering off the dolly will just move the metal.

I use a relatively high crown hammer, and a toe dolly and a general purpose dolly, for most things. I'm not an expert, but I do eventually get some cars done.

 

I do most of mine with ball peens
Even use em as dollies.
Finish with real body hammers. A good flat one and a slight crown one. Flat chisel tiped on the other end. Don’t like real sharp pic ended hammers.
You have to be a “metal whisperer”. If ya listen real good, the metal will tell ya what to do.
Don’t be scared, it’s not glass. Pay attention that ya don’t over work or over stretch the metal. But that’s what a torch is for. Learn the sounds the hammer makes when striking metal both hammer on and hammer off.
A piece of titanium makes a great dolly. It absorbs hits with little if any stretch.
A good piece of rail road track should be in every shop. Rubber coated dollies are useful too.
You will end up making a lot of tools as you do more metal work. Anything that fits the shape is fair game in the shop.
Finish with a shrinking disc

 

Practice.

 

number one issue I see with new guys is they seem to try to move to much at a time. Metal work is more like a Dancing a Waltz than Stomping Grapes. Rule #1 is last movement in is first out and first in last out. I have a pretty large assortment of hand tools but a favorite selection of 2 hammers for most everything, dollys very depending on final shape I want. Also you need to learn to read the damage before you pick up any tool.

 

Cut and shaped spring leaf pieces to get into those tight places like fender well edges and quarter panel corners.

 

Yes, but getting there also helps to have some guidance.

 

Here's some smooth Dolly work.....

But in all honesty I've done bodywork for 40 + years the only way to learn is hands on with experience giving you pointers as you go. You have to learn what doesn't work also by swinging a hammer the same as what does...

 

Dent some sheet metal and experiment with what you've read.

 

100%

 

As has been said...practice.
Get some bent up panels, and...practice.
That's the ONLY way.

Mike

 

Two hammers, two dollies, and a chunk of railroad track made me a ton of money.

 

The whole truth and nothing but the truth. If you cannot read you need to go back to school. Details on wether it is a ripple , dent, crease etc helps to know how to work the metal out in reverse . You need to sneak up on it , not use a BFH and a pry bar.

 

Made a ton of parts on the rail track
Lots of nice shapes

 

Also , I have found that patience is a virtue . I have to repeat that to myself a lot

 

Kind of like block sanding, you have to learn when to quit hammering. If you have a small shallow dent and you start hammering the back side with a dolly on the front it will usually just stretch the metal and now the dent will become a bump above the surface. Now you are tempted to start beating the bump back down, don't. The metal needs to be shrunk to get it back flat. Old school is to heat a small spot near the edge of the bump to a dull red then quench the area with a wet rag. Depending on the size of the bump you need to move over a little and heat another small spot and repeat the quench. This will usually shrink it back to almost level and a few light taps with hammer and dolly and it will just take a few passes with a file and prime it.
I learned body work from an old Italian man while working part time. He had been in the business since he came home from WWI and had wonderful stories about fixing bent fenders with 2 X 4s and all sorts of odd tools and methods. There have been some posts from HAMBers that are absolute metal art.

 

I had a coach in HS that used to say "practice makes perfect but only if it is perfect practice"

 

Old

New

hammers
nothing but hammers, rail track, and a block of wood

dont have a bead roller? hammers
dont have a shrinker stretcher? hammers
I do have those tools now, and they are very handy but dont let equipment limit trying
how were suits of armor created? hammers

 

Any sharp crease usually stretches the metal and you will have to know how to shrink. The shrinking disc works good. Don’t get to aggressive with the hammer and dolly ,light to medium strikes. You don’t want to accidentally stretch the metal with hammer and dolly by striking too hard. When you have a high spot that you chase around your repair area, you’ll need to shrink.


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here is a look at some basic metal bumping and shrink disc demo

here is a hammer method similar to how I make style lines for replacement parts

 

I have a couple of dollies and a couple of body hammers but I've got a whole drawer full of odd shaped junk. I have a trailer hitch ball and a cut up and polished piece of leaf spring that I use a lot. Couple of pieces of rail road track too.

 

Acetylene bottle cap welded to the bench, bowling ball and other various curved objects Add a hammer and ya got a planishing hammer

 

I like to save old drag links from 4wd pickups, to weld an appropriately shaped lump of metal to. A dolly on a stick can be quite handy, and can also be used as a hammer, or a pry tool. Old floor shifters from from trucks can be turned into picks also. Old leaf springs can also be turned into spoons. If you want to practice on something, take a ball peen hammer and put a dent in a 6"×6" piece of sheetmetal. Using a pick hammer, see how well you can straighten it out. We used to test the new applicants that way, one kid got done with his and went outside to his wife and said he got the job, that we had him fixing dents already. Another came in the office and handed us another 6"×6" square. He had borrowed some tin snips from one of the bodymen, and cut a new one. Said it was much faster than pounding out a dent Yep, we hired him, he was good help.

 

a burlap bag of sand or buckshot......railroad track, I am still using the rounded pick hammer I bought in 1972. Use it almost every day. Dollies and adverbs.....

 

One thing is hold on to whatever you’re using for a dolly. I’ve seen lots of guys let just bounce off the backside. One of my favorite odd dollies are railroad spikes. I grind them to whatever shape I need for out of the way spots I need to back up. Black walnut works good too.


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There’s a lot of things to learn.
This one tip took me years to get.
30lbs force on the dolly, 3-4 ounces on the hammer taps.

Spoons are great

Spend some time with or watching a paintless dent repair guy