Topic: Fender repair?

[Terry in Australia]

I don't think a shot bag or a piece leather or anything soft would work that well, folk who build gas tanks and fenders etc use them to roughly shape an item, but they then use an English wheel to sort out the myriad of dents created in the process of shaping the item.

You need a hard surface to tap the dent out, with preferably the same outline as the fender so you can tap the dent into the same profile as the fender. You could bend a piece of flat bar to the same profile as the outer profile of the fender, then carefully tap the dent out from the inside using an aluminium or copper hammer.

[ofreen]

I made the first beater bag out of an old welding apron and filled it sand. I agree most wouldn't have good results trying to hammer out a dent in a chrome fender. Which is why I suggest working it out with dolly. Working from the outside of the dent in with the bag supporting the piece is a pretty forgiving method on chrome if the metal isn't too stretched.

[Don R]

 My brother got me a body dolly that's close to the radius I need. I spent a few minutes of the belt sander smoothing the edges and removing a little rust. I had a bike to sell and heads, cylinders to pick up today not much time for the fender.
 I do have a heavy canvass bank bag and enough lead shot in my old dragster front weight box to make it work, I always wanted a shot bag to work with. I doubt the chrome can be saved anyway but nothing ventured, etc. I paid $20 for the fender so WTH?

[754]

 So if its a 20.00 single cut...practice on something else. A single cut is worth money fixed.
Terry, an english wheel only works on some stuff, if the radius is right, it could work on a fender, but a fender roller has better control.
 The advantage of the bag is it is non scratching, and in most cases will conform to most shapes. Before they had bags, cedar stumps were often used..

[chewbacca5000]

Take it with you to Harbor Frieght an use their English wheel.  I did this with a gas tank.  Worked great.

[Terry in Australia]

So if its a 20.00 single cut...practice on something else. A single cut is worth money fixed.
Terry, an english wheel only works on some stuff, if the radius is right, it could work on a fender, but a fender roller has better control.
 The advantage of the bag is it is non scratching, and in most cases will conform to most shapes. Before they had bags, cedar stumps were often used..

No worries Frank, I've never seen a fender roller, although I've seen plenty of fenders made on English wheels on "American Choppers" etc. My point about the shotbag is that hitting a piece of metal into a shot bag is a great way to stretch the metal into another shape when you're making your own tank etc, but because this is the purpose of a shotbag, it's really easy to turn a concave dent into a convex bump. Cheers, Terry.

[PeWe]

I could not hold myself from a quick search on english wheel
http://www.homemadetools.net/category/english-wheels?sort=title

[Don R]

So if its a 20.00 single cut...practice on something else. A single cut is worth money fixed.
Terry, an english wheel only works on some stuff, if the radius is right, it could work on a fender, but a fender roller has better control.
 The advantage of the bag is it is non scratching, and in most cases will conform to most shapes. Before they had bags, cedar stumps were often used..

 Good point Frank.  I have a perfect practice dent on a K5 fender. I've been fixing cracked head fins today and flushing a dirty gas tank. I'll get to the fender after a couple of the "for sale" projects get done.