Tin Bashing

After blasting the roof panel clean I was pleased to find that there was no significant rust but it was much more dented than I had thought. The large dents along the back I had already popped out and I am not too worried about them anyway because the body that will go back on has a Luton so the cab roof is pretty much hidden from that angle. However, the front edge of the roof will show and had numerous dents so after a few hours at the University of YouTube I went to our local second hand shop and bought some tools.

...and set to making a lot of noise. I also used a rubber mallet with a rounded head for knocking the bigger dents roughly into shape. The best combination for this job seemed to be the red hammer which as quite a crown to its faces and the mushroom shaped dolly. The technique is to run a sanding board with 40 grit emery over the surface to reveal the high spots and low spots, then work on them with hammer and dolly, then repeat.

The panel and its dents did not photograph well but here is the end result.

I'm sure a real panel beater would scoff at my efforts but the result is a great improvement from where I started so I'm pleased enough. I think that a thin skim of filler will give an acceptable result.