Knocking Dents Out Of Birmabright

[need4speed]

Im carpeting the bulkhead behind the front seats of the 110. There is a golf-ball sized dent that i need to flatten a bit before i stick the carpet down. I tried tapping it flat with a hammer but discovered just how resilient the birmabright is...

Is the trick to add some heat first? Its obviously not going to glow cherry red like steel so how can i tell its soft enough to flatten without melting a hole in it? Any tricks?

[muddy]

Bit of washing up liquid/soap on the back side, when it goes browny bubbly it's about right I was taught. 4x4 is born shows a similar thing iirc.

Will.

[discomikey]

ditto that. if you use a dolly the other side to it makes it easier.

in order to completely remove a dent, a special hammer is needed, as the dent stretched the metal, it needs shrinking again.

but for just flattening it a bit, a normal flat hammer and something reasonably solid behind it should do with the application of heat

[steve b]

Candlewax rubbed on and then heated to meltpoint does the same , it just shows the annealing point , and as

stated a dent has stretched the matl so careful hammer work with a heavier dolly behind will get it back in shape

cheers

Steveb

[tychoS]

If you get the temperature just right, Birmabright turns very mallable, almost like butter. So often you can press and gently force the panel back into shape instead of hammering it against a dolly.

But as soon as you get the temperature too high or too low, it turns rock solid and you have to wait until you have the temperature ok again.