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Hey Guys,

I have several 6 inch Marx box cars which still have pretty nice paint jobs, but have two or three unsightly pressure dents in the tops of the cars.    I know from experience that you can never really  remove an imprint dent 100%, but I was wondering if there are any techniques to smooth them out to a more acceptable look.

I was thinking of opening up the car, and using a large carriage bolt, with a smooth round head, as a tool to gently hand-press the dents out from underneath the roofs, by rubbing the bolt head on the underside of the dent.

Any other ideas would be greatly appreciated. 

Thanks, Mannyrock

P.S.-  Anybody ever just give up on removing dents, and instead use Bondo to fill them in, and then sand and repaint the top of the car?

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I recently had some hail dents removed from my car via paintless dent repair.  Watched the guy - not sure that I'd try it myself on a nice car, but might give it a shot on a beater.  I think that the tools and supplies are available to the DIYer.  Might be worth a try, although I'd suggest practicing on a junker first. 

I found this by searching for 'how to do paintless dent repair yourself' -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omIjDCDo9pM

I presume "pressure dents" are shallow smooth dips, not hard, defined nicks. Remove the car body (usually 6 tabs under the frame).  Place the body upside down thumb on a slightly flexible surface to support the entre roof (ex., high density foam, folded towel, etc.).  Use your thumb to rub the inside of the dent continually pressure until it smooths the dent.

When removing the body, it's not necessary to completely straiten the tabs (they'll break with repeated bending), Bend them about 45 deg. or slightly more.  Then tilt the body to release one side of tabs and repeat on the other side to remove the body.  Use the "spring" of the tabs to release them instead of completely bending them. You can massage the body back on the frame the same way.

Go to youtube and search on videos, “repairing body panels”, “using a hammer and dolly”, and similar videos will pop up. Craftsman collision repairman can straighten most steel sheet metal panels without using fillers like bondo, there are many techniques, most not obvious, to do this. Example, you should never simply push a dent out from behind. Watch as many videos as you can and you will begin to understand how its done. Generally you only need a few hammers, a dolly or two (hunk of smooth rounded steel), and sometimes a torch to shrink the metal.

Dent doctors use similar tools in miniature to avoid actually removing a panel but the theory is the same.

Pete

@Mannyrock posted:

Hey Guys,

I have several 6 inch Marx box cars which still have pretty nice paint jobs, but have two or three unsightly pressure dents in the tops of the cars.    I know from experience that you can never really  remove an imprint dent 100%, but I was wondering if there are any techniques to smooth them out to a more acceptable look.

I was thinking of opening up the car, and using a large carriage bolt, with a smooth round head, as a tool to gently hand-press the dents out from underneath the roofs, by rubbing the bolt head on the underside of the dent.

Any other ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks, Mannyrock

P.S.-  Anybody ever just give up on removing dents, and instead use Bondo to fill them in, and then sand and repaint the top of the car?

Very timely question, as I am doing that right now with some 6" Marx cars from eBay.

I remove the frame from the body.

Then I use a hammer handle inside the roof and slide it at an angle across the dents to remove them. Use a burnishing motion and have a semi-firm surface under the car roof. Leather, cardboard, wood work well.

Also take the axles out and straighten them. They are bent more often than not.

Last edited by RoyBoy

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