What would you do with this old thing?

[Jim Stamper]

     A vote to stay original. The restoration creep is a nasty companion.

     There appears a small dent in the left front fender. That is easily repairable with little or no damage to the paint.  " Metal Bumping" I think is the book Eastwoods has or had. $8 as I recall. Old very effective dent removal method.

     I discovered the book a few months after working the technique out on my own on a 37 LaSalle coupe wearing serious dents on all fenders. Basketball sized. In a nutshell, the goal is to exactly reverse the order of damage. The outside of a dent is the last part of the damage to occur. The repair is lightly tapping that outermost part of the dent. Lightly. One hand on the outside where the tapping is occurring on the inside. You can feel the light tap, and also feel the metal does not quite go back to where it was. Many hundreds or thousands of taps later, always moving all around the remaining edges of the dent, the dent slowly moves back out until it is all gone. Done carefully the paint isn't even damaged if the original collision didn't hurt it too bad.

     The reason for the light tapping is that those pointed body hammers are made this purpose. The point delivers a lot of force to a very small spot. Put all those small spots together and the dent disappears.

     This might seem like slow business. But, get comfortable so there is some hammer tapping space and get a rhythm going. It is surprising how much metal can be moved in an hour. The dent in the 60S LF is an easy one. A practice dented fender is a good idea.

     That is a great little book, and is the remedy for situations like this.  Jim Stamper  CLC#13470