TIL pulling dents with a stud welder beats the heck out of using a slide hammer for big quarter panels

I did a 2015 Camry quarter panel last week and started with a slide hammer like I always did. Took me like 45 minutes to get the main dent out and it still looked like garbage, tons of high spots. Then I remembered this old guy at a shop in Toledo telling me to try a stud welder for big flat areas. Grabbed the Harbor Freight stud welder I had sitting in my toolbox and pulled the rest of that dent out in maybe 15 minutes with way less filler needed. That slide hammer just puts too much stress on one spot and warps the metal. The stud welder lets you pull from multiple points so the panel stays straight. Has anyone else made the switch and noticed a big difference in their dent repair time?

2 comments

2 Comments

walker.michael13d ago

Dude yeah the slide hammer is brutal on big flat panels. I tried doing a 2014 F-150 door that had a nasty crease near the body line and the slide hammer just made it worse. Ended up with this rippled mess that took forever to block out. The stud welder sounds like a game changer for that kind of stuff. How do you keep from pulling too hard and blowing through the metal though? I always feel like I'm gonna punch right through with those things.

the_stella13d ago

I read somewhere that a good rule of thumb is to set your welder to the lowest heat setting that still gets good penetration on that gauge metal. On my stud welder, I actually tested it on a scrap piece first until I found the sweet spot. And you gotta pull straight out, not at an angle, or you're way more likely to tear through. Once that stud starts to lift the dent, I stop and move to the next spot instead of yanking harder on the same one.