Removing Dent In Alloy Boat

[Bleeding Green]

Hi Raiders,

My quintrex has a dent in the side which looks like it happened by banging into the side of a jetty. I have just taken off the old stickers and before I put the new ones on I was hopeing to be able to bang out abit.

Does anyone have any advice on the best way to do it? The boat is painted so I am not sure how that would react to heating if heating is necessary.

I will take some pictures tonight and post them. Hopefully the dent will be clearly shown.

Cheers.

[Gym_]

Can you post a few photos of the dint from inside and out my best mate is a trades qualified panel beater who dose aluminum hot rods and stuff from scratch if you can show us some pics of this ill show him tonight wile he is over here having a few beers and post back what he thinks is the best for you ..

Gym_

[Bleeding Green]

Thanks for your reply GYM_.

Sorry I didn't get the pictures up in time.

Here they are if anyone else might have any ideas.

Cheers.

[Bleeding Green]

I read on the net somewhere that aluminium doesn't get soft when heated. It will withstand heat to a point then starts to melt. Given that, I'm not going to try and heat it, plus I don't want to burn the paint.

So I am going to take to it with a mallet and a block of wood. Fingers crossed. I'm not after a perfect result, but would be happy to push it back out to make it less noticable before I stick on the boat name.

[austral]

it ads a bit of charm

[prawn*]

if it was my boat i would try using a hard rubber mallet to see if it helped push the ding out. good luck

[smithy744]

sometimes it pays to leave these jobs to the pros , i could nt see this popping out real easy.

if you have boat insurance im sure this would be covered

[Bleeding Green]

I gave it a go the other night. Didn't have much success. Managed to push it back out a bit but I quit while I was ahead. It took a huge amount of knocking and I was reluctant to continue - didn't want to break any welds where the side sheet meets the gunwales. Alu is much harder then I imagined. The rubber mallet has too much bounce and a timber block and hammer didn't give me any advantage. I ended up using the ball hammer with continious light taps making sure I didn't put any dimples in it.

If it really gets to me one day I might take it to a pro (would smash repairers work on this or would I need to take it to a boat specialist?) but till then I'd rather spend the cash on other parts of the boat.

Thanks for your help.

[fishon]

I gave it a go the other night. Didn't have much success. Managed to push it back out a bit but I quit while I was ahead. It took a huge amount of knocking and I was reluctant to continue - didn't want to break any welds where the side sheet meets the gunwales. Alu is much harder then I imagined. The rubber mallet has too much bounce and a timber block and hammer didn't give me any advantage. I ended up using the ball hammer with continious light taps making sure I didn't put any dimples in it.

If it really gets to me one day I might take it to a pro (would smash repairers work on this or would I need to take it to a boat specialist?) but till then I'd rather spend the cash on other parts of the boat.

Thanks for your help.

try one of those paintless dint remover guys maybe they could help a

[Fester]

Aluminium stretches, it wont just shrink back into original shape.

[Bleeding Green]

So how would a professional repair it? Fill it in completely with bog?

[zaya]

I read on the net somewhere that aluminium doesn't get soft when heated. It will withstand heat to a point then starts to melt. Given that, I'm not going to try and heat it, plus I don't want to burn the paint.

So I am going to take to it with a mallet and a block of wood. Fingers crossed. I'm not after a perfect result, but would be happy to push it back out to make it less noticable before I stick on the boat name.

Becareful with Aluminimum, Its point of heating up & melting is very narrow. Before you know it you will have a big hole in your boat !

[Fester]

I personally wouldnt repair that dent, not big enough to worry bout, just make up a great story about how a great white chased your yellow fin tuna to the boat and rammed you! lol

[Bleeding Green]

I personally wouldnt repair that dent, not big enough to worry bout, just make up a great story about how a great white chased your yellow fin tuna to the boat and rammed you! lol

Might take that on board. I have trouble lieing though, and considering the dent was there when I bought the boat that story will be much more then bending the truth.

[Bruce the Postie]

Bung a Fishraider sticker over it mate,all good.

Cheers,

Bruce

[Gym_]

Sorry its taken a wile but Ive been crook as crap lately ...

Anyway my best mate of 30yrs who is a pro panel beater and who has just been promoted to boss and is a qualified PDR ( paint-less dent remover )whom help build my show car ( won 4 1st place trophies ) and builds custom aluminum hot rods gives you this advice ...

" Get a good quality nylon head hammer and a peace of hard wood to use as a dolly ... Rap one layer of a cotton rag around that wood as to not scratch the paint .. give it gentle to firm hits form the inside out holding the hard wood on the opposite side or better still getting a mate ( or worse scenario ) misses to hold the dolly firm to hard against the out side of the dint . you will not get it 100% but you will get it to within most ppls tolerance .. to get it perfect you will need to use a oxy acetylene on orange flame to blacken ( carbon ) the paint so you can then use a sanding block to find out were the dint sill is and keep taping it ( long process ) and rubbing it with a fine fine fine sanding block till the black carbon is no longer visabile... if us still Can no get the dint 100% out which is quit likely you will need to sand the paint with 400 to 600 grad paper to take any shin or wax off the pain and put a thin layer of bog ( bondo )in the dint and use a etch primer then under coat then a color matched paint ... "

Or if your in the northern rivers ( Tweed heads aria ) You can take it to my mate for a free quote.. or take it to a panel shop and get a quote which would be between 200 and 450 bills ...

Hope this helps you out some mate,,, let us know how you go...

Cheers Gym and Gyms mate Ron

Edited August 13, 2010 by Gym_

[spaners]

Hi Raiders,

My quintrex has a dent in the side which looks like it happened by banging into the side of a jetty. I have just taken off the old stickers and before I put the new ones on I was hopeing to be able to bang out abit.

Does anyone have any advice on the best way to do it? The boat is painted so I am not sure how that would react to heating if heating is necessary.

I will take some pictures tonight and post them. Hopefully the dent will be clearly shown.

Cheers.

Mate,if it was my boat I would use a block of wood and a baby sledge to knock it out while someone is holding a length of wood as a dolly on the outside just under the point of impact so it does not punch out the side.DO NOT let anyone put bondo/bog on it,it might look like a nice repair after its all painted up,but bog is porous and will start to swell,and if you hit the jetty again the bog will crack and your back to square one again

[Gym_]

DO NOT let anyone put bondo/bog on it,it might look like a nice repair after its all painted up,but bog is porous and will start to swell,and if you hit the jetty again the bog will crack and your back to square one again

LOL Ok bog is porous Yes right up to the point were you put a coat of etch and under coat and several - matched 2 pac coats on it.. after that its not porous any more.. sort of like saying a peace of wood is porous so don't make a boat out of it because the wood will swell after sucking in water ..

Now as far as hitting it in the same spot yea sure 100-1 shot might get it on the same spot but your only talking about a mill thick coat of bog to get rid of any hammer marks or a slight indent left after panel beating it...

After all that if ya still paranoid use fiberglass bog which is not Porous and will take a full on hammer blow and not even blink ...

Cheers Gym_

[locodave]

I've got one too, but decided to leave it.

Got quoted around $500 to fix it, similar to the sample above. The panel beaters said they would bang it out, heat it up and paint it again.

The dentless removal guys told me they don't work with aluminium, which I found was a bit odd.

[spaners]

LOL Ok bog is porous Yes right up to the point were you put a coat of etch and under coat and several - matched 2 pac coats on it.. after that its not porous any more.. sort of like saying a peace of wood is porous so don't make a boat out of it because the wood will swell after sucking in water ..

Now as far as hitting it in the same spot yea sure 100-1 shot might get it on the same spot but your only talking about a mill thick coat of bog to get rid of any hammer marks or a slight indent left after panel beating it...

After all that if ya still paranoid use fiberglass bog which is not Porous and will take a full on hammer blow and not even blink ...

Cheers Gym_

I understand where your coming from but it depends on the quality of the repairer.Some just bang it out and fill with bog.But even a good repair can get damaged duco on a boat and in that case the bondo can swell up,thats all I was trying to say.

Regards Stu.