Knockdowns to Remove Dents in Paintless Dent Removal
There are a few differences between these particular knockdowns. The main difference is the material. So there are those made of aluminum steel, nylon and plastic.The other difference between them are their tips which are either thin or sharp while some have a soft rounded edge. This allows technicians to pick and choose between the correct tap down for the damage or the high spot that you are trying to tap down.
Different Knockdowns
So we have a quite heavy steel tap down and another with a rounded tip so it's not too sharp. It will take a lot less impact with the hammer to move the same amount of metal as you potentially would do with a lightweight nylon tap down. A rounded edge for tapping down soft high spots or ridges and crowns as opposed to those very tiny little high spots.
A lightweight tap down will take a lot more of an impact of a hammer or force with a hammer to create the same amount of force as in this heavy weight metal tap down but these both fairly rounded tips are for doing those high spots.
Often during the dent removal process with the tools we can occasionally hit small high spots into the area that we're working at while we're trying to put a lot of leverage in reducing dents. Sometimes we'll pick little high spots into that panel, so by using a very small fine tip tap down we're able to access those high spots and really just tap down that small area as opposed addition in a larger area around it.
The Process
So that explains the differences between some of the tap downs available, the different materials and also the different tips on the tap down.
Now when you are tapping down high spot damage you will hold the tap down with one hand and the hammer. It doesn’t really matter if there is a whole different variety of hammers as long as it's the right weight for you and the right model. So effectively it's the tap down and the hammer and with one hand we are holding the tap down and the other hand just hammering it in very lightly to tap down those high spots into the panel.
So that is the process of using the tap down and a hammer to tap down high spots and a brief explanation into the different knockdowns, tap downs that are available and the materials.
For more PDR techniques and tips visit us!