Removing a Sharp Stretch on the Bodyline

The above video shows how I removed a sharp stretch on the bodyline on the boot lid of a Nissan Qashqai. My customer reversed back straight into a pole and as you can see, the bodyline took the brunt of the impact. It really hit it hard and pushed the bodyline right in and forced some of the metal up. This gives us this crown above the dent and it pushed the metal below. So we've also got a crown below the dents. 

Warming up the Panel

And you can really see the reflection of those lines just how much tension is held in that panel. The first thing I want to do is start warming up the panel to protect the paintwork and also just to start releasing some of that tension. I apply a little bit of heat just to make the panel nice and warm. And then with my hammer, I've put some tape over the soft end and also got a tip on.

Reduce Some of the Tension

I try to soften the metal so it begins to move a little bit easier and reduce some of the tension. I need a little bit more accuracy so I've got an R4 tip with a cherry cap on. I am focusing on the main tension where those lines are pinched together. I also start to move the metal so I push this tension up into the low. From the top, I push down some of that high spot or that crown into the body line. That's going to help when I come to the pushing stage to make sure it gives me a nice clean repair

Find Some Hidden Tension

So any time that we're working on body lines is always a good idea to try and open up the dent on the line itself. There is nearly always some hidden tension in the body lines. Just give that a light tap as well and start to open it up. It will help to soften the metal and open up the repair making it much easier to work with.

Let’s take a look at the inside of the tailgate and you’ll see good open access. So this is the hole that I'm able to get a double bend, bar through and get to the back of the damage. And that's what the damage looks like from the inside. We can see that there's plenty of room to work around and start to work this dent out.

Press the Metal

You can see from the top, I've already released a lot of the tension. I get my bar behind and I'm using a double bent bar with an R4 tip on with that cherry cap. I press the metal and you can see those lines moving. See how the panel is starting to move or respond to my pushes. 

There is still a load of tension surrounding this dent. I switch to my root beer tap down, this allows me to get precise with my tap down. I’m making sure that I'm just working on where the tension is and those lines pinched together.

Work on the Bodyline

It is a cold day so I am consistently using heat to make sure that I keep that panel nice and warm. You can see the shape is coming back into the panel. The high amount of tension above and below the body line is massively reduced. So now it's time to go back and continue working on the bodyline itself.

Let’s see a nice zoomed-in image and see the two main lows. So these are the two areas I'm looking to push with my tip and bar from the inside. Be careful in using any type of cap at the end of the tip. We're back on a brand new cap and gently, we work on the dents. You can see the inside view. I have my right hand on the handle which gives me the force to push the dent. My left hand helps with my stability and accuracy.

Finishing

We're coming close to the finishing stages now. There's still a lot of texture, some highs, and lows, a kind of ripple effect. This repair is probably about 70% of tapping down against 30% of pushing. Let’s speed up this process and show my body position as I move around while moving the line board.

Here we can start to pick out and there is a bit of a crown that sits above the dents. I reposition the line board, cross-check from the other angle. We can now see those micro lows and a little bit of texture that needs to be taken out. I switch to this tip, not a sharp tip but it's a bit sharper than the R4 I was using. And it's really going to give me a bit of accuracy now that I'm coming to pick out those micro lows.

A Good, Clean Image

I've got lots of little lows and I'm trying to pick them out of the tip. You can see how close I've got my head and eyes to the dent which really gives a good, clean image. You can see I'm trying to read through the lines just above the dent, nice and straight as it should be.

That gives the true line to start working with and start to pick out the shape of the panel into this finished stage. There's a little bit of texture and still some micro lows across the body line. You can see the clean section of the panel, the distortion, and then again, the clean section below the dent. I'm going to continue this process until the lines read through.

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