You can do most body work with just a small amount of tools: the right body hammer or even a reworked ball peen, a couple of dollys, and an OxAc torch set (add a small MIG welder that can use shielding gas as soon as budget allows). An old baseball bat, a hockey puck and a bowling ball can also be useful. If you are going to shape your own repair patches then some scraps of MDF and a coping or power saber saw, a leg from a pair of bluejeans, some dry sand, and a large wooden mallet can be added to the tool list. I bought my hammers and dollys off ebay for < 30.00 each, some much cheaper.
If you can't figure out anything to barter with, you always have two hands to offer as long as you don't mind getting them dirty.

 

Ax
Im looking for some dolly/hammer kits now on Ebay I see a lot of them ranging from about $15 to $40, would anything work or is there a lot of crap out there that i need to avoid?

 

There is a lot of crap. You really don't need a set of hammers, one will do 90% of all body work. what you want for your first hammer is a combination of a flat face and bullet shaped pick end like ebay # 4441473000 It should have a handle with a somewhat slender "neck" compared to a carpenter's or ball peen hammer. You see a body hammer with a thick handle it's probably a piece of crap. You also want a universal dolly and a heel dolly. Almost any tool I have ever bought needed to be "tuned up" to work it's best, and body tools are no exception. I like the face of my hammer to have a very shallow crown across the face rather than perfectly flat, with softly rounded edges. You can use a belt sander with carbide grit belts or a small angle grinder with a flap disk to reshape the face, use a steel straight edge to check the crown so that it's centered and symetrical there should be no sharp edges. I sand my hammers and dollys to 400 grit paper to leave a smooth polished surface. Any nicks or imperfections will transfer to the panel you are working on. If you don't crown the face make sure it is perfectly flat, not concaved and the edges are softened. The pick end should also be dressed to a 1/4" hemisphere at the end, NOT a point! Once you have prepped your hammers and dollys, wipe them with an oiled rag after each use and store them in a dry place. NEVER EVER hit another tool (or nails!!!) with a body hammer!!!! A ball peen hammer is for hitting chisels, punches, knocking apart or hammering together parts.
Some of the top brand hammers are Martin and Snap-on (Blue Point). A top grade hammer should be ~ 40-50.00, but an intermediate brand is a servicable tool. Just avoid the cheap no name imported stuff, they are soft steel so they will mark up about every time you use it, are poorly balanced and crudely finished. A used name brand hammer is fine as long as the face hasn't been too badly abused or rusted, even then it can be made useable but it will take a fair amount of time to restore it so buy accordingly.

 

This is a good intermediate grade hammer:
http://www.toolsource.com/ost/produc...9L2PX1KSGEF1C7
Not the same Martin, but a good tool at a fair price.

 

Hey guys I've added a couple of gallerys of a bunch of pictures of the truck. The first gallery makes it look alright, the second goes into detail of all the "crap". Check it out and give any comments and tips that you might have

Ax take a look at that bumper panel and give me your opinion on if you think its hammer-repairable. Thanks!

 

Hey Jeff, Whats wrong with the grille ???? That thing looks great ...... take it to a chrome shop. They can get that thing looking like brand new! You got yourself a nice truck ..... the "pic is kinda "HUGE" LOL but good score.

Mason

 

Jeff, That bolt that you said you can't tighten should have a piece of the bed wood between the bed side and the floor brace. It's going to keep you busy for a while but thats the fun of it. Oh if it were mine I would just replace that front gravel pan, it's just bolted in place and most of the vendors sell them in fiberglass or steel.

Chuck

 

Yes from what I can see it is very repairable, but get Covell's video first, if for no other reason than to learn the difference between on dolly and off dolly hammering. The tip in fixing collision damage is to analize what forces caused the damamge then reverse those forces as you work the creases out. If that damage was caused by hooking the panel while backing up I would clamp a couple pieces of 1/8" plate to the bottom edge where it hooked with vise grips, then hook a come-along or even a loop of rope with a windup stick in it to the crossmember and put some tension on it. Watch what happens as you pull it. Is it returning to shape? see if tapping down some of the creases working off dolly (you would not need any on dolly hammering in straightening a panel like this, on dolly would stretch the panel, and there is no stretching needed here. Continue adding tension and tapping out creases until the area where you are pulling from has returned to it's original position and stays there when you release the tension. Don't try to take it all out by pulling without releasing the creases or try to take it out with pulling alone you'll don't want to add more damage. Always stop and analize whenever you stop making progress, try to figure out just what is preventing the metal from returning to shape. Take your time use taps to "unfold" the damage as if to be ironing out the wrinkles or unfolding and smoothing a crumpled up piece of paper not beating it into submission.

 

I would probably replace it too, but it's a perfect practice piece to prepare for working out all the other creases and dings in more valuable sheet metal. If it gets more messed up or he can't straighten it, no great loss, but you can't learn body work by bolting on new pieces.

 

I agree. Its a good practice piece. Looks almost impossible though to get it perfect as my first try. Like I said before I'm an estimator so that means I'm cheap lol. Counting my costs.. it would be CHEAPER to go ahead and replace that piece but I think the education would be an investment and worth far more. Too bad that DVD is $40 though, lol!

 

It's worth every penny! (I'm pretty cheap myself) Think of it as a very inexpensive education.