Dent pulling with a MIG welder

[Durango2k]

Hi guys,

After I remooved about 4 kilos of Bondo and / or its relatives from my bonnet, I have to pull out the dents. Some dents are crash-related, and some have their origin in an evil hammer which they used to make small holes to keep the Bondo in place !

Now, I do have a MIG welder, and ordered a 4" shrinking disc.

I heard there are special gas jets for the MIG welder to set nails ? And pull them with a slide hammer ?

Any advice....would be nice.

Carsten

[E600]

There is a Wheeler Dealer episode showing a dent pulling tool used by Ed, I don't think it was an accessory for a mig welder though. I have also seen a slide hammer style spot welder which allows "nails" to be spot welder to the dent then pulled to reduce the dents depth. Hope this helps

Pat

[paulsco]

Hi Carsten,

I have one of these: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/GYS-GYSpot-26 ... SwO~hXIg8j

This works great for pulling dents by temporarily welding the slide hammer to the panel; it can then be twisted off without leaving much of a mark. It also has an attachment for localized shrinking if you create a 'dimple'.

The welded on studs you mention need to be ground off and this can make a worse mess and if you over-pull, you will get a raised 'dimple' area.

If you can get at both sides of the dent, as you can on your bonnet, I would think you are better off using a hammer and an assortment of different shaped metal dolly’s to get the dents out.

If you want to go the MIG route, you can simply tack weld a nail to the panel and use a claw hammer against a bit of wood to pull up the dent. I have done this with some success, but you are back to grinding off the nail with the aforementioned problems.

Paul