[witty73]

Hello fellow rodders,

I apologize in advance if this has been covered before and I missed it with the search function. I also apologize if I bend some etiquette on picture posting. I belong to a few different forums and can never keep the "rules" straight.

I am working on my 74 f100. As you can see by the photos, I shaved the door handles. Not my finest work, but an excellent opportunity to hone my metal working skills. I need to work out a few dents, but before I do, I have a low spot I need to raise. When you look at the picture, the low spot I need to raise is below the body line, from about the magic marker towards the right to the radius or curve and below the body line. its not very clear from the picture, but the body line is where the primer ends. I have tried heating and quenching, I have tried shrinking with the pick end of a hammer, I have tried pulling it with studs, shrinking discs, and even pushing it out with the porta power from behind. I can move that body line back out to where it needs to be pushing with the porta power, but I cant get it to stay there. I cant get in from the back side to shrink it with a hammer decent, and have been focusing most of my efforts on shrinking from the outside. I need to raise that body line back up, and then focus on smoothing the rest of the metal. I hope somebody can understand from my poor description and give some advice. Thank you.

http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/k...0/IMG_0200.jpg
http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/k...0/IMG_0217.jpg

[Old Fool]

Originally Posted by witty73

Hello fellow rodders,

I apologize in advance if this has been covered before and I missed it with the search function. I also apologize if I bend some etiquette on picture posting. I belong to a few different forums and can never keep the "rules" straight.

I am working on my 74 f100. As you can see by the photos, I shaved the door handles. Not my finest work, but an excellent opportunity to hone my metal working skills. I need to work out a few dents, but before I do, I have a low spot I need to raise. When you look at the picture, the low spot I need to raise is below the body line, from about the magic marker towards the right to the radius or curve and below the body line. its not very clear from the picture, but the body line is where the primer ends. I have tried heating and quenching, I have tried shrinking with the pick end of a hammer, I have tried pulling it with studs, shrinking discs, and even pushing it out with the porta power from behind. I can move that body line back out to where it needs to be pushing with the porta power, but I cant get it to stay there. I cant get in from the back side to shrink it with a hammer decent, and have been focusing most of my efforts on shrinking from the outside. I need to raise that body line back up, and then focus on smoothing the rest of the metal. I hope somebody can understand from my poor description and give some advice. Thank you.

http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/k...0/IMG_0200.jpg
http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/k...0/IMG_0217.jpg

want the best answer- go to www.metalmeet.com and ask the pros

[witty73]

I have registered over there as well and am waiting for the mods to approve me. Looks like a great site.

[DanielC]

I conveniently have a 1974 F250, Supercab truck. I went outside and looked at the area where the door handle is. This area is slightly crowned, high in the middle.
Shrinking the metal in this area will tend to pull the crown down. You need to stretch the metal slightly to "bubble" the area higher.

You did good by registering on "metalmeet" follow advise there,

[OneMoreTime]

When that was welded that caused the metal to shrink...what you need to do is stretch the metal to raise that line.. actually looks good and sometimes you just need to know when to quit and use a bit of filler to finish..

Sam

[tech69]

bodylines themselves have to be worked out to get them to stay put but if there's no noticeable issues with that it would not need shrinking. I suggest you know how to use a shrinking disk before trying it out or at least read up on it cause it can have adverse affects when used improperly. Your issue sounds like shrinkage from the welding you did. I can see it's shrunken by results of the welds after grinding. Hammer on it with your dolly directly behind it and it should stretch the metal and in doing that it should pop out a little bit. Also hammer from the inside on the lows and block from the outside where it's not low, but only after you stretch it to make it more workable. Finish it off by smoothing it out with hammer over the dolly softly. Once you stretch it the body line will be easier to get back, if that's indeed the cause of the bodyline being in. If it's bad use the porto power(after stretching) with a piece of wood that's angled to fit into the bodyline with no edge that will contradict the curves and shave it if you have to. Then as it's pushed out use a flat tear drop mallet or hammer over a 2x4 just above the bodyline that's not low and adjacent to the lowered area. If the low is created from a dent than you should shave a piece of wood to hammer form the bodyline back to it's shape and it will hold the metal in place better.

[witty73]

Ok, Thank you guys for the replies. I wanted to update a little...after a few more hours with no acceptable results it occured to me that I was reading the panel wrong and my experience with this sort of repair is limited. I was trying to "shrink" the low spot up from the outside. It was like a brick hit me in the side of the head when I realized I was doing it wrong. I needed to stretch that metal, get the body line back where it needed to me and then shrink the area below it. I worked the welds some, and then went to work attempting to stretch the low spot. I tried hammering, but space is real limited. Im not proud of how I achieved progress, but it seems to work. Air hammer with a long pointed attachment from an access hole in the back side. I turned the pressure way down so I could control it. once I had raised it back up, I was amazed at how easy I was able to smooth it, and work that body line back. I was able to raise about 3/4 of that low area back where it needed to be in no time. I have a small area left towards the back of the door that will be even harder to get, but I intend to get that stretched out so how as well. Thanks again guys, I look forward to any more tips or constructive criticsm.