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Hot Glue Dent Removal


imagineer
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What to do when it’s too cold to work outside and you have a few hours to kill?   Remove dents from a motorcycle tank of course (in the basement where there is heat and coffee).   

 

One of the cosmetic to-do items on this 2002 Bandit I’ve been working on is to repair a small dent in the left side of the tank.

  

bandit11-30-14_zps92fe51a2.jpg

 

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I’m terrible at bodywork and am “bondo” challenged so I didn’t want to just fill the dent.    I needed to somehow pull or push out the dent to make it less deep.   I looked into Paintless Dent Removal, but the tools are expensive and the only local body shop that offers it refused to work on a motorcycle tank.    Internet research pointed me to hot glue dent pulling.    Again, the tools are way too expensive for the scope of this dent repair, so I settled on the hot glue dent puller kit from Harbor Freight (item #66957).

   

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Not surprising, the kit sucked and didn’t work at all.   The two dent lifters in the kit are made from some kind of plastic that the hot glue doesn’t stick to, so in order to develop any tension, I had to build up a huge blob of hot glue on top of the dent lifter to encapsulate the lifter.   Whereas this technique worked, both dent lifters broke on the first use.

  

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Not one to give up, I decided to make my own version of all metal dent lifters from random ¼-20 hardware.    I used various carriage bolts and wide flat head bolts.    I ground the heads flat and them drilled holes to provide a place for the glue to push through and provide more strength for dent lifting.

 

gluedlifters3_zps0762c151.jpg

 

One of the distinct differences between the harbor freight dent kit and the expensive professional kits is the pro kits use a tool that allows you to quickly apply tension to the glued dent lifters and then let off.   You do this action over and over and actually “coax” the metal into moving before the glue joint fatigues and breaks.   The Harbor Freight kit uses a threaded knob to apply consistent tension.   What happens with their kit is the glue joint fatigues and breaks before the metal can move.     Unwilling to give in and buy an expensive kit, I decided to try and ‘invent’ my own.    It turns out that some time ago, I purchased a threaded insert install tool from Harbor Freight (item # 1210).  

 

1210tool_zpse2f840ad.jpg

 

This tool is capable of installing ¼-20 inserts so with the addition of a ¼-20 coupler nut, I was able to use this tool with the cross bar from the dent puller kit and my homemade dent lifters and, to my surprise, it worked.

 

gluedlifters1_zps7132eb38.jpg

 

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I appolgize for not having a better before picture, or pictures showing the progression of the dent being lifted, but to be honest, I didn’t think it would work.

 

I few closing thoughts…

The glue gun provided in the kit is weak and wouldn’t heat the glue enough to make it really liquid.    I had another glue gun and used it instead.  

 

The glue sticks (3) provided in the kit are not the best for the job.    After cooling, the glue was still very pliable and flexed easily.    Along with the old glue gun, I also had two different types of glue sticks (not sure of the specs though).    I found that the sticks that were more rigid (and yellowish) seemed to work better than flexible ones (that were clear).

 

The Harbor Freight instructions say to wait only 10 seconds before pulling the dent.    Nope, give the glue 5 minutes or longer to cool before pulling on the lifter.   I suppose I could have sprayed water on the glue to cool it quicker, but the 5+ minute delay facilitated drinking coffee.

 

The acetone provided in the Harbor Freight really does work to assist at removing the residual glue, but if you also clean the surface with rubbing alcohol, the hot glue seems to adhere much better.

Edited by imagineer
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Wow, nice.  I wonder if it would work on a much smaller dent that's more like a ding in the tank.  A rock flipped up and put a nice little ding in it.  Didn't bust the paint, but there is a small depression for sure.

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  • 5 months later...

Or you guys could call a professional and have your tank fixed not left still damaged.

I could have fixed it without paintwork. I would post pictures of before and after but it says pics are not allowed.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Nice introduction post. Welcome to OR not that you'll be around long.

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  • 2 months later...

gas tanks are some really thick steel.   those dent pullers are meant for the flimsy shit car companies use on your car.  probably 15-20 thousandths thinner steel.  much easier to pull a dent from.   

 

I highly doubt those can be successfully pulled or removed without still seeing them or damaging the paint.  and on any body line like a rounded edge forget it.    a body shop would grind off the paint and weld on a stud to pull it out.  body filler isn't hard to do it just takes time to sand out just right.  just keep adding more if it's still not right no big deal.  use sanding blocks.  sometimes you have to use different shape blocks.

 

http://dura-block.com/sanding-blocks/

Edited by serpentracer
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