"oil can" dent

[merca]

does anyone know how to fix what they call an oil can dent.i got my door to hot hot while welding now i have a wandering dent.any help would be great .thanks

[Ds86C10]

so you warped the panel? i'm not a pro body guy but get out the hammer and dolly...

[merca]

that's what i was going to do but if i push the dent out with my hand it dents in about 6 inches over. so where do i begin straighting it?

[d10s69c10]

heat warps are kinda tricky. a picture would help alot to find out where and how to attack this issue.

im thinkin its at your weld and you just need to cut it there and it should straighten out and reweld a little slower.

[N2TRUX]

You need to shrink it. Heat the area and then cool it with a wet rag will cause it to shrink.

[merca]

i'll try and get a pic tonight. i welded the door where the window channel used to be,and the warp is down the door horizontal to the door handle line

[James McClure]

Merca, Heating area and then quenching it will pop the dent out IF it isn't real bad or deep. If it is deep you'll have to cut and reweld repair. To avoid this issue in the future do what I call "stitch weld" the repair panel into position. Use as low a heat setting as you can and still get a good weld. Our trucks have large expances of flat straight metal and this makes getting a good flat weld difficult at best. To minimumize wharpage do this. It sounds wierd but it works. First tack in the panel then let it cool. Next check flatness, then, weld an inch and skip an inch quenching each weld as you go. When your done, go back and weld the spots you skipped. This won't eliminate all wharpage, but it will minimumize it to a large degree. Grind weld carefully as not to heat it up to much. Don't try to grind weld flat, leave it raised a hair and dolly it down, fill and refilish panel. A note for your own saftey. Be extreamly careful working on the floors or floor area. Metal in this area is galvanized. It is VERY dangerous to try to weld it because of the smoke galvanized metal gives off. If you breathe this smoke it WILL tear your lungs up big time. If you have floor work to do grind the zink off first then do the repair (welding) I finished my truck a while back, have a bunch of picture but can't get them to upload (I'm a computer "dumb ass") I can e-mail them to someone who can upload them for me. My e-mail address is jmcclur2@nycap.rr.com Drop me a line if anyone wants to upload them for me, jim

[seanconnery]

Yeah, James McClure has the right idea. Alternating areas of the repair will allow the weld to cool. What I like to do is have a dust blower nozzle on my air hose and keep it next to me when welding thin metal. As soon as you make the weld, blow it off with the compressed air. Just like the rag and a bucket trick, but the air works better for me.

[7T7]

I think what merca is talking about isn’t a dent but rather a warp.
If the door was never impacted then no stretching occurred.
You don’t want to do the wrong thing and heat where you should stretch and visa versa.
Metal always pulls (shrinks) when welding. You just can’t avoid it. Stretch the weld area and the stressed area (warp) will relieve itself.
The hammer on dolly technique on the weld area should put the metal back to pre-welded state.

Working metal is a skill and one that isn’t easily explained.

Perhaps this topic needs to move to Paint and Body.