1940 Ford Pickup Spare Tire Dent Removal

On the Day of Decision, I hauled out my old Ford fender to the planishing hammer and mounted the fender over the lower backing plate. My course of action was to start hammering around the perimeter of the inward dent with an overlapping motion on the previous hammer mark, working towards the center in a sea snail's body path. After one pass around the perimeter, I had to back off the pressure of the backing plate a couple of turns because the surface was showing signs of 'peening' marks. Peening marks are sharp high spots and look like a dent that was made with a ball peen hammer or hail. They really stretch the metal in a small area. As I worked the metal of the fender in my chosen path, it was gradually conforming to a new convex shape which blended into the overall fender's shape. It took me about 40 minutes to get the spare tire dent to an eye pleasing surface that resembled the left fender except for a few high spots that I had to pick-hammer down. A light coat of body filler would fill in any blemishes that were showing.

On the Day of Decision, I hauled out my old Ford fender to the planishing hammer and mounted the fender over the lower backing plate. My course of action was to start hammering around the perimeter of the inward dent with an overlapping motion on the previous hammer mark, working towards the center in a sea snail's body path. After one pass around the perimeter, I had to back off the pressure of the backing plate a couple of turns because the surface was showing signs of 'peening' marks. Peening marks are sharp high spots and look like a dent that was made with a ball peen hammer or hail. They really stretch the metal in a small area. As I worked the metal of the fender in my chosen path, it was gradually conforming to a new convex shape which blended into the overall fender's shape. It took me about 40 minutes to get the spare tire dent to an eye pleasing surface that resembled the left fender except for a few high spots that I had to pick-hammer down. A light coat of body filler would fill in any blemishes that were showing.