Re: Larry's 1951 Club Sedan Project

Posted by Rusty O\'Toole On 2010/4/18 7:52:42

An old motorcycle mechanic taught me how they removed dents from gas tanks in the old days.

He would sand off the paint and tin the area with solder then solder a roofing nail to the metal. By clamping the nail in a vice he could easily pull out the dent.

After melting the solder and removing the nail or nails, the metal was already tinned and ready to be smoothed over with lead body solder.

In case they go by a different name in Australia a roofing nail is a galvanized nail with a large head used to fasten asphalt shingles to a roof.

He learned to do this in P. A. McBride's motorcycle shop in Toronto in the early 20s. So this is definitely a vintage technique :)