Yesterday, I was in my garage and I heard a bag, did not think much of it, I thought it was a garbage can cause it was some what windy. About a 1/2 hour later, I open the garage and noticed my son's basketball hoop was on the ground, I went to pick it up and noticed that my van has a big dent in the hood. Its about the size of a hand.

I want to try and tackle this repair, I have an idea on the step by step process, if I am wrong, please let me know.

1. Use a De-greaser/wax remover to remove any off the hood. Make sure the hood is dry.
2. Sand the hood down. with either 400 or 600 grit sand paper.
3. Tack cloth to remove all or as much as I can of dust.
4. Get out my body filler and mix it up to make sure there are no air pockets in it. Spread it around the dent, wait for it to dry and the sand some more.
5. When I get it smooth, clean the hood again with soap and water and make sure it is dry.
6. Tack rag it again. Prime and paint the hood.
7. Color sand, and polish.
8. Admire handy work.

ummmmm.ok if ya say so ...lol....
no need for all that prep work until time to paint then ya take the wax and greae remover and so on and so on
hoods are very thin and can be warped with ease if ya don`t know what your doin
i am not sayin your wrong just sounds like you need not to tackle it your self and take it to a shop
or call around to pdr shops
you really never just fill a dent with bondo you can always work out the metal you want to get it worked out enough to then apply the filler
you lightly grind with a angle grinder metal has to be ground down for a filler to stick to it
i am not goin to try to explain this kinda hard to on line
take it to a shop and get estimates

can i haz bondo

Check under the hood and see if the dent is near any glue spots on the underbracing if it is, then take a knife and cut that glue in that spot loose and push up on the hood a little bit, it will ussually just pop out if that is the case. If not then i wouldn't try and tackle it yourself because like big daddy said hoods are relatively thin and easy to warp. If you do too much sanding then it will give it a "can" effect and cause it to pop up and down when you push on it. If it starts doing that then the metal will need shrunk. After reading this if you still wanna try it shoot me an email and i will give you in depth instructions to try and make it work for you.

Not to mention body filler won't stick especially if you're using 400 to 600... you need to GRIND off all the paint to metal... etc.... etc...

I'd take it to a shop. It shouldn't cost that much, but it'll be done right and last.

Thanks all, took it to a shop, 400 to fix. Not that bad of a price. I was not expecting it to me more then that any way.

I thought it would be something to get my hands dirty with and start learning how to do body work. Maybe if I ask the shop, I can "sit in" on the repair process.

Its good that you want to get started with body work, but thats not a dent you want to start with. Im sure your son will make more dents for you to practice on.

Some body shops will let you sit in and watch, but some cant allow you because of insurance reasons.

Why not head out to the local junkyard and look for a hood of the same color with less than the amount of damage yours has? I can't imagine that they would charge $400 for one....

Just a thought...


<img src="http://img78.photobucket.com/albums/v290/americonium/Heavy_weight.jpg ">

AMERICONIUM <~~~ yep i totally agree.... could easily get one around here for 100-150 bucks at a bone yard.......


<img src="http://registry.gmenthusiast.com/images/its2nv4/achop.jpg">

Chris wrote:Thanks all, took it to a shop, 400 to fix. Not that bad of a price. I was not expecting it to me more then that any way.

I thought it would be something to get my hands dirty with and start learning how to do body work. Maybe if I ask the shop, I can "sit in" on the repair process.

Here's an idea...

Find a door or hood in a junk yard with some damage... and start practicing doing body work on that. When you fix it... make a new dent and go to town!!!

It's a good way to start hands on... and you don't have to worry about messing up YOUR vehicle.

But... you can't just fix dents by slappin some bondo in there... you have to pull them out as much as you can, then fill in the rest to make it smooth. It takes years of training to learn all the proper methods and be really good at it. It's not nearly as easy as most think.

[quote=¤§Fallen Angel§¤]
Here's an idea...

Find a door or hood in a junk yard with some damage... and start practicing doing body work on that. When you fix it... make a new dent and go to town!!!

It's a good way to start hands on... and you don't have to worry about messing up YOUR vehicle.

But... you can't just fix dents by slappin some bondo in there... you have to pull them out as much as you can, then fill in the rest to make it smooth. It takes years of training to learn all the proper methods and be really good at it. It's not nearly as easy as most think.

Getting a door or a hood was exactly what I was thinking of doing. Need to start somewhere, and not on a car that is used everyday.

As for filling in the dent with Bondo, I know that the dent needs to be popped back out and then filled in to smooth the high and low spots.

I have years to learn the trade, I want to start working on my second career for when I pay my house off in 10-11 yrs. I dont want to be driving into NYC everyday for the next 20+ yrs doing something I don't like doing anymore.

Thanks for the advice and if I need more when I actually start my "NEW" career, I will be sure to ask.