Advice to pull the dents out of jacking point

356 Porsche-related discussions and questions.
Message
Author
Dave Whittick
356 Fan
Posts: 376
Joined: Wed May 10, 2017 4:14 pm

Advice to pull the dents out of jacking point

#1 Post by Dave Whittick »

Over the years, people have placed floor jacks under the jacking points of my C and dented the crap out of them. They're very solid so I hate to cut them off and replace with aftermarket but the surrounds are pretty much flat. I have a stud gun with a two lb slide hammer but it's not enough to get any movement. What have you used to pull out your damaged jack point surrounds?
Image
Last edited by Dave Whittick on Fri Oct 04, 2019 8:59 pm, edited 1 time in total.

User avatar
Phil Planck
356 Fan
Posts: 2030
Joined: Wed Mar 26, 2008 7:21 pm
Location: NE Michigan, lower penn.

Re: Advice to pull the dents out of jacking point

#2 Post by Phil Planck »

A picture might help.
Phil Planck

User avatar
Martin Benade
356 Fan
Posts: 12184
Joined: Wed Nov 23, 2011 10:52 am
Location: Cleveland, Ohio

Re: Advice to pull the dents out of jacking point

#3 Post by Martin Benade »

A factory apprentice must have welded that tube. He didn’t get it hot enough! You can weld tabs to the dented area, put a clamp on it, and yank down with a heavier slide hammer. It won’t be easy but a skilled body worker could get it pretty nice that way.
Cleveland Ohio
62 Cabriolet
56 VW
02 IS 300
04 Sienna

User avatar
Martin Benade
356 Fan
Posts: 12184
Joined: Wed Nov 23, 2011 10:52 am
Location: Cleveland, Ohio

Re: Advice to pull the dents out of jacking point

#4 Post by Martin Benade »

That looks totally rust free! It took 25 years to get my car that way.
Cleveland Ohio
62 Cabriolet
56 VW
02 IS 300
04 Sienna

Dave Whittick
356 Fan
Posts: 376
Joined: Wed May 10, 2017 4:14 pm

Re: Advice to pull the dents out of jacking point

#5 Post by Dave Whittick »

Martin Benade wrote: Fri Oct 04, 2019 9:31 pm That looks totally rust free! It took 25 years to get my car that way.
Ya, it’s a really clean car. It’s a good one restore as my first. It was nice to not find any drama under the 4 or 5 resprays.

User avatar
Phil Planck
356 Fan
Posts: 2030
Joined: Wed Mar 26, 2008 7:21 pm
Location: NE Michigan, lower penn.

Re: Advice to pull the dents out of jacking point

#6 Post by Phil Planck »

Dave
Can you show on above pic where you put the stud/s?
That can be repaired, but you have to start at the edges of the dent and work your way to the deepest part. The age old advice is last in, first out. This will be a slow process and require quite a few studs. There are some clever tools out there for leveraging studs instead of using a slide hammer. They give you more precise control.
Phil Planck

User avatar
Phil Planck
356 Fan
Posts: 2030
Joined: Wed Mar 26, 2008 7:21 pm
Location: NE Michigan, lower penn.

Re: Advice to pull the dents out of jacking point

#7 Post by Phil Planck »

Phil Planck

Vincent Gillespie
356 Fan
Posts: 439
Joined: Sun Jul 18, 2010 8:33 am
Location: United Kingdom

Re: Advice to pull the dents out of jacking point

#8 Post by Vincent Gillespie »

I'm by no means an expert on this, far from it in fact, but it looks like, on top of the years of use, these jacking points were pretty 'basic' from day one and now your car is stripped to bare metal? If this is the case why not carefully drill out the spot welds, remove the jacking points entirely, then you can really get at it from all sides/angles to sort out the dents/dinks/holes and whatever else is there, then plug/spot weld them back. Under all the modern coatings you will use they will look exactly as bucolic as they were under the wonderful rustproofing used by factory on day one. You will have kept originality and no one will be the wiser unless you wish to tell them.

Hope this is helpful.
V
V. Gillespie

User avatar
Phil Planck
356 Fan
Posts: 2030
Joined: Wed Mar 26, 2008 7:21 pm
Location: NE Michigan, lower penn.

Re: Advice to pull the dents out of jacking point

#9 Post by Phil Planck »

Or, you could break open the middle seam welds and get a hooked tool in to help pull the metal down.
Phil Planck

User avatar
Martin Benade
356 Fan
Posts: 12184
Joined: Wed Nov 23, 2011 10:52 am
Location: Cleveland, Ohio

Re: Advice to pull the dents out of jacking point

#10 Post by Martin Benade »

I would say my method or removal and straightening are the two best bets here.
Cleveland Ohio
62 Cabriolet
56 VW
02 IS 300
04 Sienna

User avatar
John Brooks
356 Fan
Posts: 2146
Joined: Tue Jul 08, 2008 11:50 am
Location: Whidbey Island WA.
Contact:

Re: Advice to pull the dents out of jacking point

#11 Post by John Brooks »

You are going to need to drill out the spot welds, remove the jack post. Then you can repair it or get a new one. Then plug weld it back in place. Sounds scary but it's probably 2-3 hours work,

I would clean it well, maybe a overnight in evaprorust, the use a weld through primer and epoxy paint. Mask off 3/4" of primer when the plug welds will go, before apply the top coat. Weld it back on and the prime and paint, undercoat. Sound complicated but it's doable.
Some examples here
https://www.abcgt.com/new-forum/forum/m ... n-projects
John Brooks

62 Roadster
66 912
84 Cab
getting pushed around in porsches since 1965

User avatar
Don Gale
356 Fan
Posts: 1170
Joined: Wed Jul 26, 2017 6:27 pm
Tag: Black A's Matter
Location: Albuquerque
Contact:

Re: Advice to pull the dents out of jacking point

#12 Post by Don Gale »

You could use the spider from a harmonic balancer puller with 3 carriage bolts in the corners and weld a nut to the center of the dent and wrench on it. Probably an iterative process cutting off the nut and repeating at logical locations. In the end, it's still going to need bondo.

Image
1958 356A 1600 Super Sunroof Coupe
former 1966 Euro 912 Sunroof
former 1978 Intermeccanica Speedster w/'68 912
Member Since 1983, #4039

"Nostalgia isn't what it used to be"

Dave Whittick
356 Fan
Posts: 376
Joined: Wed May 10, 2017 4:14 pm

Re: Advice to pull the dents out of jacking point

#13 Post by Dave Whittick »

Vincent Gillespie wrote: Sat Oct 05, 2019 6:43 pm I'm by no means an expert on this, far from it in fact, but it looks like, on top of the years of use, these jacking points were pretty 'basic' from day one and now your car is stripped to bare metal? If this is the case why not carefully drill out the spot welds, remove the jacking points entirely, then you can really get at it from all sides/angles to sort out the dents/dinks/holes and whatever else is there, then plug/spot weld them back. Under all the modern coatings you will use they will look exactly as bucolic as they were under the wonderful rustproofing used by factory on day one. You will have kept originality and no one will be the wiser unless you wish to tell them.

Hope this is helpful.
V
I did consider this but access to the top spot welds is really limited because the rockers are in the way. My smallest right angle drill can't fit in there to drill out the original welds. Also prevents nice welding afterwards when I want to reinstall. If my rockers were soft, it would be a no brainer to repair the jacking points while I have good access. My rockers are flawless so I don't want to disturb them. Thanks for the suggestion.

Dave Whittick
356 Fan
Posts: 376
Joined: Wed May 10, 2017 4:14 pm

Re: Advice to pull the dents out of jacking point

#14 Post by Dave Whittick »

Don Gale wrote: Sun Oct 06, 2019 12:04 pm You could use the spider from a harmonic balancer puller with 3 carriage bolts in the corners and weld a nut to the center of the dent and wrench on it. Probably an iterative process cutting off the nut and repeating at logical locations. In the end, it's still going to need bondo.

Image
Great suggestion! I've got a 7 lbs slide hammer now and I'm going to weld nuts onto it today and take some shots with the heaver hammer. If that doesn't work, I'll try your suggestion. I think it would provide a lot more control than a slide hammer. The only downside I see is having to move the 'pulling nut' to get different pull points I'll take some pictures of it rigged up if I go down that path. I'm OK with using some filler to smooth it out afterwards.

Dave Whittick
356 Fan
Posts: 376
Joined: Wed May 10, 2017 4:14 pm

Re: Advice to pull the dents out of jacking point

#15 Post by Dave Whittick »

Phil Planck wrote: Sat Oct 05, 2019 10:02 am Dave
Can you show on above pic where you put the stud/s?
That can be repaired, but you have to start at the edges of the dent and work your way to the deepest part. The age old advice is last in, first out. This will be a slow process and require quite a few studs. There are some clever tools out there for leveraging studs instead of using a slide hammer. They give you more precise control.
Image

Post Reply