[Lay'nFrame]

I was shaving up my tailgate handle, and to make a long story short someone warped my tailgate. The warp is about the size of a soccerball and indented about 1/4" to 3/8" deep. How would guys go about fixing this?

 

[Halloweenking]

Holey mongo look at the size of that crater!

Couldn't resist

Thats some most definate panel warpage Theres only three things you can do, use a spoon and a shrinking hammer and try to beat that sucker back to shape and smooth with filler. #2 replace the panel with a patch panel, but considering the amount or warpage someone did to your tailgate I'd stay away from this. #3 If you have access to dry ice, get a big cube. Bring it home and slowly wave it over the serface of the crater about 1/2"-1" away from the steel. This should shrink the metal enough to pop it back out to shape or at least enough to smooth it with a little bit of filler.

HK

 

[Lay'nFrame]

Thanks Halloweenking, It actually was my auto shop teacher who did this, it really made me mad. Me and my friend were stich welding the filler panel in and when we were waiting for it to cool down a bit the teacher came over and did a 2" bead on it , so that is how this happened. I did the method of using a torch to heat the metal a bit and then using dry ice on it after. This got the warp down to about the size of my fist, and about 1/4 deep. Do you think it is safe now to put filler on it now? Or should I try to pull even more out?

Thanks

 

[Halloweenking]

Well if a teacher did this I would consider moving to another class. Also why would you stitch weld on sheet metal? Spot welding every 1/2"-1" is usually about as much heat as it can take. Also when doing the torch method you don't want to use dry ice for cooling. Dry ice will cool the metal much to rapidly and it will become brittle. Of course there are many different ways of doing things so whatever works for you. If the crater is 1/4" deep I'd try to pull it out much more, no need for 1/4" of filler on anything <img src="graemlins/drunk.gif" border="0" alt="[drunk]" /> Filler should never be more than 1/8" thick. Hope you get it worked aout and next time if anyone tries to work on your stuff just slap them with a welding glove and say "you have insulted me sir".

HK

 

[Lay'nFrame]

When we stich welded the plate in we would tack the 4 corners and let that cool down. Then do like 4 more tacks and let that cool down untill we hade a full weld around the plate. Is it ok to just do tacks every 1/2 inch then grind them down and use filler over it to make the panel smooth? when we used the torch we did'nt get it real hot, I hope I did'nt get the metal brittle How should I keep pulling the dent out if I can not get the back side of the metal?

Thanks again

 

[Halloweenking]

The way I was taught and the way alot of people weld in a patch panel is depending on the size of the panel spot or tack weld every 1/2"-1" untill you have went all the way around. This will keep the area around cooler than anything and is also faster even though it doesn't seem so. After its cooled you spot or tach between each previous weld and continue these same steps untill it has a continuous stich around the perimeter, then let cool, grind smooth and your done. As for your preticular repair I'd spot weld three pins in the circle shape like a triangle and use a slide hammer and go from there, get it out and pound it back into shape if possible then use as little filler as needed.

HK

 

[Lay'nFrame]

Ok thanks alot for your help HK, you have been a big help. What you explained about the welding is what we were doing (our teacher told us it was called stich welding) but what does he know after all he did a 2" long bead on sheet metal

Thanks again

Tyler

 

[Halloweenking]

No, stitch welding is 3 spot welds done side by side at on time every 1/2"-1". Thats at least what most people call a stitch weld, but what do I know <img src="graemlins/drunk.gif" border="0" alt="[drunk]" /> Happy to help.

HK