Thanks for the info guys. I was just pondering this very subject.

 

The dollies I use the most are the heel dolly and spoon, and rather unorthodox, a curtain weight from an auditorium. I had a good friend and great body man tell me that he spent 10-15 years buying tools only to find out he didn't need them. He was talking about all of the pneumatic air tools. He restored Rolls Royce, Pierce Arrows, high dollar Parckand and Cadillacs. After a time he learned his best tools were his two hands.

 

So I don't need to buy this? It's only $1200 with free shipping.


Sorry, just saw that and had to post a picture of the set. That's one serious set.

I'm in no rush, I will watch for some used tools. I really like the extra old ones....

 

I am a retired sheet metal worker and I have several of these still, of different size and weight, I use them all the time doing body work. I believe these are one of the best tools in my collection.
I think Larry is saying to just go out and do the bodywork and let the tools come with time and experience

 

Harrier
Just get a hammer and dolly and go to work. Your hardest thing will be to learn to "feel" with your hands what you need to do to make it smooth. If you get a 10 dollar hammer or a 200 dollar one, it is not going to make any difference if you can't learn to "feel" the panel and figure out what you need to do. You have to learn to feel high and low spots. It just takes lots of practice.
I have been doing body work for over 50 years with 25 of that full time rebuilding totaled vehicles, and building custom street rods so I have lots of years of feeling metal.
I retired 3 years ago and sold the shop with paint booth frame machines etc. You can do it, just don't get intimidated or caught up in technical stuff.
Go by one of your local small body shops and talk to those guys. You might be surprised how helpful they might be.
I usually had from 4 to 6 vehicles in the shop at any given time and did very little outside work. When someone came in I was happy to stop and talk with them and help however I could. I didn't want to do their work so no reason to not help. Lots of smaller shops feel the same way.
Larry

 

Don't forget to add "The Key to Metal Bumping" to the toolbox that you put all those hammers and dollies in..

 

I have to get in on this.......

I do this as a hobby, not an expert. As so, I expect to have to use some filler. I would like to eventually get to the point I can completely metal finish a panel, but I just don't have the time, and money to do it. To me it comes down to do I want to drive this truck in 5 years, or 10......... I can live with some filler if it gains me 5 years of drive time.

Now as far as the hammers, I have used quite a few different ones. The ones we had in my body classes were NICE, but they were paid on the taxpayers dime not mine.

I purchased a cheap fiberglass handle set for about $20.00. I cleaned the heads up, and the dollies up with files and polishing. They work, do they feel as good as the more expensive ones, NO. As I get better, and learn to understand the metal, I have added to my collection through ebay... buying good used ones, heck I have even made a few custom ones because I couldn't find one big enough/long enough etc.

I am hard on my tools, just my nature. I take care of my expensive stuff, but it is nice to have the cheap stuff laying around so if I need to abuse something I can do it and not feel bad about it. I have ONE specific crap body hammer that I use just for rough stuff out to keep from having to polish the heads as often.

So I guess after all that BS, I would actually recommend the cheap 20$ set, and add to it as you go.

IT IS LIKE GIVING TIGER WOODS A SET OF $100.00 CLUBS, VS $1000. AT THE END OF THE DAY THAT GUY IS STILL GOING TO PUT UP A GOOD SCORE. A GOOD METAL GUY CAN TAKE A CHEAP SET AND DO FAR MORE THAN YOU AND I EVER COULD DREAM OF WITH THE BEST THERE IS.

If you really want to learn, go over to Metal Meet Forums - Powered by vBulletin. Those guys are amazing, and willing to help..........

 

One thing I love about this site. I asked a question and got all ends of the spectrum and leaned a ton of stuff. That's exactly what I was looking for.

I decided to bid on the set in post #12. I was the only bidder and got them. I bid on a Martin hammer last night, but the instant I put a bid in the other bidder bumped it. I figured something like that would happen with this set. The dolly looks like junk with all the major nicks in it. The hammers look pretty good, but we will see. For $33 including shipping it will be worth it for wall art.

So, once I get them here I will have something to play with. After that I can see what I want to do. I will probably still hit a few pawn shops to see if they have anything as well.
Shoot, I guess I need to buy that metal bumping book now.....

clintonvillian, you give me a $100 set or a $1000 set. I still won't break 100.

 

I found the pdf version of the book online. Yes it is a crappy scan, but it is enough to get me started. While I wait for my hammers to arrive and can read the text to get more info. But I can see that the actual book is definitely worth the money to buy.
Key to Metal Bumping PDF

Have I mentioned before that you guys are a bunch of enablers? I wonder if my wife would be able to hear me pounding on metal while she is still sleeping. Being the only early riser in the house does have a few drawbacks.

 

I just found in the similar threads section below another thread from way back in 2007.
Not much different info, but worth the read.
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/6...ody-tools.html

 

A couple of my favorite metal moving tools are 2x4 wood blocks and a 4 pound sledge. Shape the blocks to the desired contour and a couple taps with the big hammer gets you there without over working the metal. Great for hard to reach areas....

 

I have been banging on car bodies for over 50 years now and have accumulated quite a few hammers and dollies. In my own experience I have found that you find tools that fit you and you tend to use those tools more than others. Here are the tools that I use most...they are mostly Martin and I am sure that I paid a fair amount for each. I used many other tools of varying shape and style before I settled on these. Perhaps you will find that you too will grow from one type of tool to another as you learn the skills you need.

 

Charie, That's a good basic set of body tools, and similar to the ones I also reach for most often. My only addition would be a longer more slender pick hammer. I have many more dollys than hammers. I you look at the picture of Gary in my shop using a plastic torpedo mallet (above) to bump up a shallow low area he is using a simole scrap piece of 2x4. Before HMW plastic became available I made a lot of shaping hammers out of broken baseball bats. I even made one by welding a pipe handle onto the side of a compressed gas cylinder valve safety cap (the caps make a good cheap mushroom stake as well). Many a bowl and compound curve panel was hammered out on a piece of tree trunk.

 

That's exactly my thinking. I have never done a lick of metal moving in a constructive way. BJMayberry came out one day and fixed a screw up of mine. That's the only live demo I have seen. Now, because of you guys I'm studying hammers. I will get a feel for the ones I bought when they arrive and most likely start looking more closely for some quality used hammers as I move forward.

Another thing I learned here was to recondition or recrown a hammer. Again as a person with zero experience, I will be researching how to go about doing this in an effective manner. If anyone has tips on how to do it right, I would be grateful for your knowledge. (And hopefully other guys coming across this thread in the future.)

 

For the future guys here's a detailed reconditioning how to:
You will need a set of crown curve templates (see below), A quality "second cut" 12" flat file, a 4 or 4 1/2" angle grinder with rubber sanding disk backer, a pack of 36 and 80 grit red fiber grinding/sanding disks, a DA sander and/or a sanding board/block, a couple sheets and/or disks of 100, 120, 240 wet or dry sandpaper, a roll of plastic packaging tape. a black permanent ink marker. Except for the templates, these are all tools/supplies you should have on hand in most shops.

To make the templates: You'll need: a computer and printer, a approx. 6 x 6 piece of aluminum roof flashing or siding trim wrap (find a local roofer or siding installer and trade him a donut and/or a soft drink for a piece of his scrap. If all else fails big box DIY stores sell single pieces of aluminum step flashing with the roofing materials. looks like a square of thin aluminum sheet with a bend in the middle), a utility or hobby razor knife with a new blade, some thin superglue.
I have made a full scale drawing of the low, medium and high crown curves with a cross section of the correctly shaped hammer head. I tried to upload this drawing into my gallery (see my "why can't they leave this place alone?" topic) If anyone would like a copy of that file PM me your email addy and I'll send it to you.
Print a couple copies of that file once you have verified and/or adjusted your printer's scale to match the 2" measurement indicated in the drawing. Rubber cement or superglue the drawing to a piece of thin aluminum roofing flashing or siding trim. (put you hand or fingers in a heavyweight plastic bag like small parts are packaged in to keep from gluing them to the metal or drawing, runs a couple drops of superglue between the paper and metal and rub down with the covered fingers to spread and set the glue. Lift any unglued portion of paper, add more glue and repeat until the entire drawing is glued and the glue is set.) VERY carefully lightly score along the curve line(s) with a single stroke of a utility or hobby razor knife with a new blade. You aren't trying to cut through the metal just lightly score it. Gently bend the metal along the score line and it should snap clean along it. You now have accurate templates of the correct curves. Mark each one with the crown designation.
Choose the curve template you will be aiming for. (you want a hammer with a low and one with a medium crown to start.) Place the hammer in a bench vise with the head face horizontal. Use a permanent marker to blacken the entire face and edges of the hammer head. Use a bench grinder and/or the 36 grit fiber disk on the angle grinder to rough out the crown shape. using the marker coloring removal as a guide to where you are grinding. Re-color as you grind it all clean. Try to keep the grinder moving evenly and smoothly across and around the face to create a smooth even curve from edge to edge. Check progress with the template frequently. Finish correcting the shape and removing any/all 36 grit scratches and eliminating any flat spots especially in the center of the face with the 80 grit disk followed by the flat file. use the file with two hands, one on the handle and one on/guiding the tip. Follow the crown curve from edge to edge with each file stroke moving the strokes evenly around the face like the spokes on a bicycle wheel. Remember a file like a saw only cuts on the push stroke, ease up the pressure on the return part of the stroke to keep from dulling it. Re check often with the template. When satisfied with the shape, use the 100 grit sandpaper on the DA or sanding block to remove all file/grinding scratches. Apply two overlapping layers of packing tape to the back of a sheet of 120 wet or dry (black) sandpaper to strengthen/reinforce it. cut it into 1" strips the long direction. Grade a strip at each end and use like a shoe shine cloth to polish and smooth away any remaining scratches from the 100 grit. If you have any remaining scratches, examine and decide what produced them, then go back to the next smoother operation and redo. Don't try to take out 36 grit grinding scratches with the 120 paper, go back to the 80 grit grinding wheel remove them and re do each finer finishing step from there.
Remember any nicks or scratches will transfer to the metal with each hammer blow.
Refinish/recondition/rework your dollys the same way.
Avoid banging your hammers and dollys together or against other tools, take care of them.