In today's video I'm sharing with you my top tip for getting the very best leverage when it comes to working door dents, so stay tuned. So in an example when we set up working on a door dent, we've typically got our window garden, our wedge and for example if we're using a hockey stick style tool now it doesn't matter whether it's interchangeable handle, left, right, kind of a sharp tip tool or a blade tip tool, flag tool.
Generally, if we're doing door dense, we normally have a handle one side the bar coming down and then the tip the other side or the handle the same side as the tip. So logically we put it in a kind of straight down. So if we've got a dense halfway down the door, we push our bar into the point and that bar is generally in a straight line going up to the handle. So depending on the shape of the door, sometimes this will give you just the right leverage you need between working on the window guard and the door skin and that bar in between being able to twist off or kind of leave it off the window guard and push the door. But you can have just a slight tweak on that bar.
Rather Than My Arm
So if you take that bar again, I will do this on a tool on a door to make sense rather than my arm, but just by moving that bar left or right, a little bit, it's going to change the angle of the hook as to whether you're pushing kind of down the section or up on a section, but also not just the left and right off the handle of the rod of the bar, but also being able to push it away from the dent itself.
What that effectively does is create a wider space so that you're changing that leverage point once again I'll show this on a door skin outside with a body line and it would just make it a little bit easier. I hope to see what it is I mean but generally that kind of leverage point or the angle that you have, your router is going to make a huge difference to again how easy it is to repair a dents and I say easy in the sense it's going to be easy.
So if you have your setup correct with your leverage at its optimum point you're going to have more control and exert less pressure. Now the reason that helps is the more or the less force you have to put into it, the less likely you are to slip with your tool. But also the less damage you're doing to your body, you're not having to pick quite so much effort and strain on your body joints and muscles if you've got your leverage point correctly.
So or set up correctly. So definitely paying attention to that but it's not just the obvious leverage point when we're using a leverage block. For example, just a slight angle of the tool and how we're twisting it again can make a slight difference as to the pressure that we're pushing through the rod onto the tip of the bar. Hopefully that makes sense.
Bear with me, let's pop outside again and I'll show that same example kind of with a rod set up against the door.
Natural Leverage
So again in this example, if I've got my bar set up here logically we will put it down in a straight line and that allows us to twist the bar which creates that natural leverage. We are leaning off the door guard so the window guard that creates our leverage point and twisting. But just a couple of different tweaks, we can move the bar at this angle and it will change that leverage point slightly and it might give us a slightly better angle to reach the dents, particularly on a body line scenario rather than coming like this, a straight line to the body line.
We can twist the bar at an angle and we're now getting that tip in to the body line. So that's one sort of the first sort of tweak to pay attention to. Is this position of the bar? As to what effect it has on kind of the tip itself in your working position. But I'll take the camera a little bit closer and you'll see that leverage point I'm talking about as we start to position the bar.
So when we've got the left and the right from your angle there, but also pulling the bar kind of away from yourself so towards into the car that brings out that panel and again it's going to change that leverage point as to how far down the bar it is um touching on the board.
So sometimes we can pull the bar back towards ourselves and create some leverage off the back of the window guard. Sometimes pushing it forward again, depending on the angle, I'll try and zoom in a little bit more and show that difference a bit close up.
Angle And Twisting
So with my bar set up like this I can twist and that's my leverage point if I have my bar and angle and twist and then just slightly moved this leverage point from inside on that door card. But if I put the bar towards myself, so I'm now coming away from the panel, I'm gonna move this leverage point.
So now I'm leaving off this part of the bar before with my bar flat, I'm leaving here bringing my bar towards myself. So note this gap. I've now got my leverage point where that bar is touching so it's lower down the bar, it's going to change the amount of pressure. I need to if it's higher up the bar so equally if I tilt the bar away from myself so into the car like that I've now moved my leverage point up here.
Changing Angle
So just by moving my bar forward off back, I'm moving that leverage point all the way from down at this hook to the middle point or further up the handle. So we've got the left, the right, changing our angle and then bringing it towards ourselves away from ourselves, changing that leverage point. So do play around, see the difference and you'll find a huge amount of difference in how much pressure you need to exert and you'll really notice your repairs come on when you get that leverage point just right and you're able to create the optimum force and energy to be able to get all of that pressure you needed into this tip because no matter where you're pushing on the bar, it's this little section here that's pushing the repair.
Optimum Pressure
So sometimes it can feel like you're given all of your force in that handle and really creating a tiny bit of effort or force here. And generally it's where you've got that bar as to where that leverage is really going to come into play to give you optimum pressure with this tip to really push into that dent.
So hopefully that all made sense as always do go and put it into practice and let me know how you get on those slight different tweaks can make a world of difference in how easy it is for you to take out damage on door, dense, particularly on body lines. So do go and practice, let me know your thoughts and we can discuss it in a little bit more detail. Until then I'll see you in the next one.