Dent repair

My current project is a 17' deep v tracker. It has a pretty large dent. What is the proper or the best way to try to get some or most of it out? I'm planning on a new coat of paint when finished? My thought was use two people ,one on the outside of the boat with a heavy flat metal object and the other person on the inside with some sort of hammer. The dent has put a crease about 18" long. It will not just pop out. Thanks.

Bear - it is extremely difficult to provide any kind of help
without seeing photos of your concerns.......
photos will always help the gallery help you !!!

For sure pictures will help! A crease could likely crack, so you should anneal the area, but still no guarantee for a crease.

Anneal temp is 650-degrees F for 5052 alloy. Some say apply a Sharpie marker and stop heating it when it burns off or disappears, but I used a special Temp-L-Stik that melted at that temperature. I used MAPP gas heat hammer (torch).

Then you'd want to use the largest & heaviest hard rubber mallet you can. Wear hearing protection ... and be aware your neighbors will hate you ...

See here for aluminum 'hammer forming': https://www.tinboats.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=38054&hilit=anneal+5052

Thanks fellas, I'm gonna try to post a picture.

ohhhhh that's just a flesh wound !!

in my world, I would break out the basic automotive dollys, hammers and mallets.
starting with the less aggressive pinging and dinging..... working from the outside towards the middle.
perform the dinging, pinging and hammering on the inside with the dolly (flat metal) on the outside.
if you have very little to no bodywork or tin bending experience, you could very well make it worse.
if you don't mind looking at the dent on the inside of the boat, you could use body filler, prime and paint.
it boils down to your level of craftsmanship and imagination.

this article is far beyond what you are wanting to do. but it will give you a little bit of information
of how and why to anneal aluminum prior to any aggressive flexing and bending.
https://www.tinmantech.com/education/articles/aluminum-alloys-annealing.php


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I have a few like that in the front of my boat from the previous owner, I've never even considered pushing them back out it does not seem to hurt anything and the fish don't seem to care. Also I think you could end up cracking it open as you push it back out.

Thanks Johnny. The dent is the mark running horizontal,the other marks running somewhat up and does are just scratches. I didn't know you could use filler on it, I would think it'd have too much flex. It does have a bunch of deeper scratches/ gouges at the very back I would like to fill them with something before painting. The original owner said the rear of the boat came untied one night during bad weather and beat up against a concrete piling. I'll post up a pic of that since I know how now.

there is an art in using body filler - - - - not just slap it on and be done with it.

first - try to get the metal pounded back as flat as you can get it with mallet and dolly.

the area to be filled must be taken down to bare metal abraded with 30-40 grit disk (the rougher the better)
THOROUGHLY clean with acetone - apply body filler in 1/8" thin layers - again, 40 grit block sand between layers.
block sand smooth smooth after 24 hours curing.
apply sanding primer - wet sand to desired degree of smoothness.
apply general purpose automotive gray primer (NOT self etching).
paint as desired - simple as that.




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I have extensive collision repair experience, and i am currently a paintless dent repair technician at a large bmw dealership. Aluminum has no memory compaired to steel. Its an awesome alloy, but it sucks to repair. I personally would anneal the surface and work it very slowly from the back side. Banging out aluminum can get out of control quickly. The problem with annealing is that if you are not experienced in it, you can put hard spots in the alloy that can possibly fail under certain stress situations. Not sure of your hull thickness, but tin canning is also a possibility if you over work the surface. I agree with jonny on filling it, but might i suggest that you use marinetex marine epoxy. Its expensive, but its an awesome product. I have a buddy that fixed a nasty crease on his alumicraft riveted boat, and its been holding for 6 years with no signs of failure. I used it to repair gouges and dents in my boat, and i felt 100% confident in the product after 3 days of curing. I would not try to use traditional bodyfiller to pave that crease without pushing the majority of the damage back up. The new quality fillers are awesome compaired to fillers of the past, but applying it thick is a recipy for disaster.

I agree with Kingbryce. Aluminum stretches too easy and it can be very difficult to shrink it back to its original condition. You might get it to look almost perfect and you'll lean into it and it will stay and then clunk or pop back out, kind of like when you turn metal juice caps into clickers.

I'd bring it to a body shop. A man with experience could probably get it right for under 60 bucks.

Thanks for replies, keep em coming..Here's the deep scratches at the back where it rubbed up against a concrete pilling

Man how deep are the gouges? What is the thickness of your hull? Theres alot going on right there. Looks gnarly.