Hey all..
so I have bad luck..
trying to fix up my dakota...really want to get it back in original shape..going to be farely hard.but i want to bring my investment back to par..
im going to hear alot of trouble from you guys but im trying to make things right.
i took some pics...one is of my quarter panel...id be happy with getting the dent out..but if i have to replace the panel then i will
and the other dent is pretty serious, its my passenger back door. i got hooked on a ground stabelizer, those rods that comeout of the ground to hold electric poles in place..and it peeled upmydoor,and then i wasbacking inbetween two trees to load up the back and dented it some more...best solution for this is replacing the whole door...went to two body shops asking them to check into a door and neither have gotten back to,. i havent really followedup too much..
and then there is the bumper... i have the actual bumper its in fine condition but the underneath part that it clips on to was cracked on one side where the fog lights sit , so it doesnt hold up...wondering if i can scrrap that part from a yard..anyway
i have a lot of body work to do?

 

questions - can i get the dent out of the quarter panel? or do i need to replace it? do i find one in a scrap yard? or order one online? or off ebay?or smt

 

okay so i think i figured out the part i need that is under the bumper. bumper bracket i found a site
http://info.automotix.net/bodyparts/2007-dodge-dakota-bumpers-repd013501q.html
let me know if this is a credible siteand if you know of any better sites. thanks
ACTUALLY I NEED SOMEWHERE TO SHIP TO CANADA..
maybe im better of searching a scrap yard?

 

In my opinion, neither bit of damage is very bad and could be repaired. The rear looks the easiest and can most likely be done even without a torch. The door looks like it would need both some heating as well as some welding to get it back close to original shape and then some body fill, smoothing, and finally a paint job, but all this depends on how much experience you have and what tools you possess. If you don't have the experience, you have some simple damage on which to learn. Body hammers, dollies, and oxy-accetylene equipment would be needed for a really good start.

Getting parts from an auto salvage yard isn't hard, it just costs some cash & you'd still need some gas welding equipment to do the job (you can get a whole door & replace all the guts with what you currently have, but the quarter panel would need to be cut out and then new one welded in, and then you're still into the hammering, heating, body filling, etc. None of it's hard, it's just time consuming, especially when you're learning at the same time (I know, that's how I learned). Try this site. Put your Postal Code into the equation, and see what's available locally.

Buying after market parts from the US is an option, probably the most expensive and you'd still need to weld the door skin on as well as the quarter panel and then do all the rest of the smoothing & painting. If you're into buying parts from the US, there aren't too many that will ship directly to a Canadian address, but if you live reasonably close to the US border, you can get a US address and have the stuff shipped there - there are businesses set up to do just that. I live close to Toronto Ontario, and have a US address in Niagara Falls NY where my orders are drop-shipped, I pick them up (a 1 hour drive) and clear them through customs myself. If you don't live close to the border, there are various re-shippers that will accept your goods and re-direct them to a Canadian address for a fee. All this info can be found on the internet with a few simple searches.

One of the biggest things you need to do your own body work is warm space (outdoors is OK here in the summer, but in the winter you need a heated garage).

 

I would be interested in doing some of the work myself. starting with the quarter panel..it all seems welded together i dont know how i would get it apart to maybe use a body hammer, like youmentioned, i havent anyexperience...im currently looking for a new trade to get into, maybe autobodyrepair would be something...i was roofing for 10 years but i am slowly trying to getout of it...
and the door. i was hoping to justreplacethe whole door. or maybejust the skin like youmentioned?

 

The whole bed is welded together so the hammering needs to be done on the truck. You would remove all the inner fender and anything else that's in the way of your access to the dent first, then, you would start the straightening process. The metal at the bends is going to be stretched, so without heating, you won't get a perfectly smooth finish, but most times you will get it back to "close enough" so that you can use body fill to make it cosmetically perfect. Depending on how much metal stretch has occurred, you may still need to heat up some areas to bring it to the "close enough" point, otherwise it will either spring in or spring out. Once you've beat out the dent, you'll need a warm enclosure to warm up the body and to keep it warm while you do the finishing - don't start this process unless you can finish it, you'll have the finish all beat up/burned/ground off and this will start a lot of unnecessary rust -wait for spring or a garage.

If you can find a good door at an auto salvage yard (you can usually get them cheaper without the glass or inside mechanism & use your own from the old door), this would be the cleanest solution - you don't care what color it is since you'll be spending money on a quick paint job anyway. This way you'll just need to remove one door and attach another - this is a 2 person job to get it installed (the door gets pretty heavy when you try to hold it with 1 hand and attach the hinges with the other). Once the door is attached, you need to align it, install all the guts, and you're done. If you choose to go for a skin, you'll need to gut the door, cut out the old skin with an angle grinder, and then weld in the new skin. Now you can beat the seam smooth & finish it with body fill.

If you're unfamiliar with oxy-acetylene use on body repair, don't start with any fine work. It takes quite a bit of practice to make a good flat seam. Use it to help remove any large amount of metal stretch and leave it at that. If you choose to do some welding, use MIG or TIG if you can get your hands on one, and do your welding on the side that can't be seen.

 

I have a quick question.
would you suggest a Auto body repair course? for someone who doesnt have much starting experience to go into the course? pretty much to start the course with no experience? it seems really interesting and something that i like. i always liked working with metal.

this is the course! if you have a chance - take a lookg
thanks
http://www.cna.nl.ca/programs-course...asp?program=81

 

From your choice of school, I guess it would be fair to say that you're from Newfoundland As to the quality of the school, I can't answer you directly, but it would be easy for you to find out by going to some of the better/larger auto body repair shops to see what they think of the training that college provides - at the same time, you can ask them a few questions on apprenticeship within that field. They should be able to tell you what the job opportunities, pay, etc., is like - this will give you a good opportunity to see if that's what you really want. You can also check with the school to see when they have an open house so that you can see first hand what the teachers, classroom, and lab facilities are like.

The trade itself, once you achieve the Red Seal level, won't make you rich, but you certainly should be able to make a comfortable living. It will certainly be a lot more comfortable than sitting on the top of a house hammering down shingles.

I hope that answers your question to get you started on a good trade.

 

hey all
i just realised. I can probably reach at all those the spots on the dent that i need to just going under neath the truck and between the be and the quarter panel. i thought it was all closed off an welded in..
im gonna check out princess auto and pick up a body kit
ANY SUGGESTIONS? wlak me through it
/buddy ol pal?

 

There are quite a few odds & ends you should know about body work to end up with a really good job and to lay it all out here would be like writing a book. There are lots of articles and videos on the internet that are good and can walk you through the general process fairly easily. I'll try to give you a quick "heads up" on some of the most important points. On most dents, there's some level of metal stretching, so you shouldn't expect to be able to hammer the dent flat without a torch. You will be able to hammer it flat enough to smooth the rest off with good body fill, keep these points in mind:

• Grind off ALL the paint on the affected area
• Hammer it as flat as you can using some body hammers & dollies, but don't have any points higher than what they were originally - areas that won't flatten well because of metal stretch should be left on the low side so that you can bring the level up with fill.
• Make yourself a template from some cardboard, using the other side of the truck as a guide for the profile. This will help in getting a "hammer out" that has no points that are too high.
• If you end up with extended areas that will need 1/4" or more body fill, you'll need to drill some holes to allow the fill to anchor itself and won't lift (you'll need to seal the back side of this area really well to keep the moisture out).
• Get some good body fill & mix it according to instructions and put it on - you'll need to mix it well and apply it fairly fast, it usually sets quickly & once it starts to set, stop working it - let it dry, grind any rough areas and apply some new stuff over top.
• You should have some body tools (a couple of hammers and dollies), angle grinder with a flapper disk (this makes short work of taking of the original paint and to take the initial high points off body fill), some fill spreaders or putty knives and a sheet of tin or plastic to use like an artists palette for your body fill (I use some pieces of stiff plastic - it's easy to clean with the flapper disk).
• To smooth the fill, you need to first get a good profile. You can use the flapper disk to get the rough profile, then you'll need a body file or two - the best would be something that looks like a cross between a flat wood rasp and a wood plane (I guess you could call it a body plane) - this tool is about a foot long and about an inch or so wide and allows you to cut down the high points of the fill to bring them all to the same level. This still leaves a rough surface, but is good enough to put on a skim coat of body fill to get everything up to the same level and then you can use a body belt sander or good orbital sander to smooth things off. You'll need to vary the sand paper grit from around 80 grit to start and about 400 to finish this process.
• Now you're ready for some good primer.

The job itself isn't hard. Attention to detail & good tools are very important, don't rush and think things through. Hammering is important, but it's the finished product that everyone will see, so you should judge as to how good you are at finishing things - how much detail you consider important. If you aren't good at fine details, don't start the job. A ding is often better looking than a botched body job.

Take some scrap metal (thinner than 20 gauge, tin cans are OK) and practice a bit on them - bend them and then flatten them, try some body fill on them and finally try smoothing that you did on the cans. This bit of practice will give you some hands on experience so that you can get a bit of a feel for what you'll need to do on the vehicle.

If you get to a point on the truck where you can't finish it, don' just leave the area covered with primer - primer is porous and will allow moisture through it causing rust. Cover any unfinished areas with paint to seal the area. Cover the backside with some of the "spray tar/undercoating" products available. This will keep the rust from setting in from the holes/cracks in the finish from the back.