Bought a $400 dent puller I thought was snake oil

I was dead set that those stud welder/dent puller combos were a gimmick until I had to fix a hail-damaged hood on a customer's Silverado last month. Turns out with a little practice (and the right slide hammer attachment) it saved me 3 hours of filler work - anyone else get humbled by a tool they swore they'd never use?

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oscarwright3mo ago

The trick is to use light taps on the stud welder and let the slide hammer do the pulling instead of cranking it tight. Once you get the feel for how much tension the metal can take before it stretches, it saves a ton of time on big flat panels like hoods and roofs. Just keep a small hammer handy to tap down any high spots after you pull, and you will be surprised how clean it comes out.

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the_wendy3mo ago

Saw a buddy try this once on an old Ford truck hood that had a crease the size of my arm. He got too aggressive with the slide hammer and pulled a bubble up that looked like a pregnant mosquito bite. Took him twice as long to hammer that back flat than it would have to just start over. Sometimes you gotta learn the hard way that less is more with these things.

1