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Things I Made

Pete Wrigley

Pete Wrigley

Forum Apprentice
Past Site Supporter
Made a couple of "things". Thought I would share on this cold morning. -1F (-18C...I think).

Converted an old paint roller into a dent removing tool to get inside the gas tank. The steel ball is a pre threaded 1" 1/4-20 from McMaster-Carr. Added threads to the end of it w/ some thread locker. I tried to drill out my own 1 inch ball bearing but drilling hardened steel is difficult. The proper drill bits are expensive.

The other 2 are valve adjusting tools. The wooden dowel worked fine but sine I had to buy 100 box end screws (:frown-new:) I thought I'd get a little fancier and bought a cheap nut driver for conversion.


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haha like that de-ruster!;) I guess a person could get some similar rod and make similar to reach all sorts of places...one thing...experience chipping rust inclines me toward wedge shaped (like a slot-end screwdriver but with some mass behind it) rather than ball-bearing but it's true a sharper end is more likely to perforate the tank too....
 
hey, just a thought imagining that in action but possibly you could add weights just behind the business- end of rod because room to swing inside can be so limited?...
 
I made the same type of valve adjuster using a piece of a hockey stick shaft. I found by using a larger knob, I had a little more leverage and was able to move the adjusting screw more accurately.
 
Suzukian said:
Here's what a Professional Motorcycle Dent removal kit looks like. This one costs around $800 bucks! The poictures give you a good reference for making your own. :)

https://www.ultradenttools.com/produ...t-repair-tools

Click to expand...

That kit looks like a sucker magnet to me.
I'd rather like the ball on the end of the roller, looks like just the right tool.
If I was asked to do a serious job on a badly dented tank, I'd try cutting the tank bottom off neatly so it could be welded back on. Then I'd have full working access to the inside of the dent.
 
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I wouldn't go as far as saying it's a sucker kit. I posted the pic for reference only, not to encourage someone to buy it. Some people have no idea what it tames to do any of this stuff. I have a nice Square Wave Mig and a Miller Eonotig welders. I too would cut the bottom out and fix from the inside. It was just a pic to stimulate those people who make their own tools. I have a small machine shop. I purchase nothing. If make the tools I need.

I've been machining (manual, CNC, programming, fixture design, end mill design, etc) for 30 years. I think we're on the same page, I make what I need. I wouldn't buy that kit, the bars would probably bend, but it's interesting to look at. I welded my M.G. '73 Midget tank. They aren't expensive, but they don't come with drain plugs anymore. It was easier to just fix the tank. I've welded a lot more on that car, but that's for a different forum. The fuel tank on the M.G. hasn't leaked so far, and it's been 20 years. The tips on that kit screw on, I found that interesting.

:)
 
I have patience for a lot of things... using one of those kits not so much!! :D
 
Learning to do Paintless Dent Repair is a long hard road. I have been fixing damaged cars for over 20 years now, bought my first professional PDR kit about 5 years ago. Most of the time I can get a dent out to what I would call, ready to sand and paint stage. Hail dents I can get 99% of them out, but it always seems there are a handful that are just beyond my ability, I have a couple of guys that I sub that work out to, as they are way more efficient at it than I am, and I can concentrate on the work that I'm fast at and makes me money.

When it comes to push rods, you actually want a pointed, sharp tip. This allows all the force you can apply to a rod to be concentrated on a small surface. If you think of a dent as a bowl, you start by pushing around the dent in several places (I go 12:00, 2:00, 4:00, 6:00, 8:00 10:00) then into the middle of the dent or bowl and push. By going around the outside of the dent, you are not only helping the metal move inward, but are also tensioning the metal for the push in the middle. Wash, rinse and, repeat until the dent disappears. Sometimes you have to overpush a dent to get it to come out, and that is where you use either a knockdown (basically a punch with several non-marring interchangeable tips) or a blending hammer to smooth out the overpush.
 
PDR has always been a magical skill. It does indeed need many years of practice, patience and skill. My wife's car had a small 3" long crease just under the passenger door mirror, and a small door ding in the middle of her driver's door. It was only a week after we got the car..argh. I turned it over to a pro, and he had both smoothed out and finished within a half hour. So perfectly done it blew my mind. He showed me before and after pics on his phone of dents he'd removed the size of soft balls that he worked out to perfection. I've been painting for 45 years and to this day..it's a skill I wish I had. He charged me $200 for the work, but it would've cost 5x that if the two panels would've needed to be repaired, repainted and blended into surrounding panels. You do 5-6 of those small jobs a day, and you're bringing in a nice paycheck and saving others a ton of money at the same time. I'm envious.
 
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Larry, you remind me of a GTI VR6 I had about 20 years ago... while parked outside my office was hit by good ole Virginia hail storm. Every panel had dozens of dents from 1-1.5" hail. The PDR guy fixed it all in a day and it looked like new. As you say... magical skills.
 
I had something like that get me home a few years back. The OEM battery terminals were made out of stamped metal and corroded away into nothing over time.
 
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