Our first lesson here will be on the basics of pulling dents…yes, pulling dents. After all, dent pulling is one of the most challenging and rewarding of all aspects in the body shop.
Let’s create a scenario.
Grandma just hit the garage again backing out and you’ve got to help her out. Well first of all you’re gonna want to give her a hard time, and remind her how you really love her classic fresh baked chocolate chip cookies.
First you’re gonna want to analyze the damage. The quarter panel damage is minimal, but touch up paint isn’t the answer. Grab your flash light and take a look in the trunk. Can you hammer at it. Grab your favorite body hammer, preferably the one with a pick or dove tail on the other end. Where the damage is you’ll have to be able to reach around well enough to apply the contoured dolly. A hammer and dolly sure work well together in these situations, you may need a helper to do this or your “go-go gadget arm extension”. From the inside of the trunk, begin tapping gently. You’ll want to walk the dent out together. Don’t start in the middle, analyze the dent. I found that pulling out a dent works well if you back track it from the way it went in. If you use the hammer & dolly combo together you should be able to hear the hammer hit the dolly. It makes a ping sound as if you were hitting them together without the other metal in between. It takes a little practice and of course the panel is damaged. There are a variety of hammer & dolly combinations, so find yourself a cheap set of these, check out my store at Begin Autobody.com. The more time you spend doing this the better. Again, just take your time. Don’t grab the sledge hammer if this isn’t working. No! That will normally make the damage worse. If you can’t hammer it out, try a couple of different pry bars. Sometimes they help, even if it’s only a little bit. Take your time, this will be a challenge for you as it is with all of us, you won’t get it out completely here, but it helps in areas you can’t get at very well. That’s not working though? O.K. here’s the secret if you have a few bucks laying around especially if you enjoy doing autobody work and pulling dents. You’ll need to find yourself a stud gun uni-spotter. This is a must have in the shop if people (grandma) keep on hitting the garage. It’s a hand held spot welder that will weld pins to the damaged area. This can be quite fun, but make sure you grab your basic essentials. “SAFETY FIRST”. You need to get down to the bare metal, the pins will just spark if you don’t have a good contact. Pay attention to where those sparks are flying, especially near flammables such as the gas cap or door, or that 5 gallon gas can on the floor, the dog, your little sister, etc. If the damage is near this then wet a rag with water and shove it in there, just to be safe. Be careful not to hit tail lights or adjacent panels when grinding. NOTE: Use duct tape if you have to, a couple pieces here and there will assure you that you won’t cause any extra unnecessary damages to fix while you’re at it. Alright, back to the Uni-spotter. If you’re lucky enough to have one, then you need no advice as to how to use it. If you don’t have a stud gun, you could possibly ask your favorite body shop, or someone else you know if they can or you can borrow theirs. First things first, about every inch or so weld a pin directly where the damage is the worst, normally in that crease. Get yourself that slide hammer and tighten it on the pins. Begin pulling the dent out, in this scenario she was backing out of the garage. You want to then start at the rear of the car where it’s damaged and begin pulling or tapping gently all the way to front. NOTE: It’s from where it started to where it ended To get it back to the original contour may take a while, but keep at it as long as you like. The closer to original the better in the long run. Cutting the pins off is rather simple. They cut easy enough with a decent set of side cutters. Carefully grind off any remaining nubs. NOTE: If you let the pins you cut off fly all over, you’ll want to pick them up. They may find their way into your tire 
Okay!!! Great, you should be good to go. Light tap the high spots back down, do this extremely light, tap-tap. With the uni-spotter put away, your not gonna want to haul it back out again. Tap all the way around the dents (high spots) using the pick side or dove tail side of your favorite body hammer. You’ll need to feel around it with your hand really good. Shut your eyes and get rubbing. Putting a glove on may help you feel the contour of panel better.It will be rougher than a cob at this point, but you’re looking for the outies (high spots, nipples). These you do not want. Now that you’re this far you can grab your hammer and dolly combo and flatten it out a little more. This will most of time yield decent results. NOTE: you’ll be putting a lot of body filler on trying to form your way around high spots or by having to pound them in after each course of body filler. I’m not being cynical, it is a woe to every body man out there. You’re just making life easier by eliminating these high spots. Congratulations! If you did these simple steps thoroughly, you should be about done with this step. Take a breather for now, it’s time for some fresh baked classic grandma cookies.:). We’ll haul out the body filler (bondo) and finish this dent at a later date.
London Vande Zande is currently the owner of London’s Autobody, a local autobody shop located in South Central Wisconsin. He is also a passionate freelance writer of everything automotive at London’s Autobody enjoying over 20 years in the autobody and paint industry. After years of answering endless questions he has decided to write down in layman’s terms the tools and techniques to assist all who are interested in the autobody and paint industry. Whether you a beginner or the advanced, there are always little nuggets that someone will appreciate you for. 