Rocker Repair - Volkswagon

Summary

In this 17 minute video, Jonathan Vandenfontyne demonstrates a rocker repair using KECO tools to bend the metal to its original form. 

Video Transcript

We’re gonna start at the beginning, getting the dent out. Like every time over and over again, we're gonna clean the dent first. Properly, using a glass cleaner using alcohol even some acetone. It depends on how dirty it is. Don't worry about the chip guard because I thought at the beginning too - can you pull on it? If you pull on the chip guard is it going to release? Well as you will see at the end of the repair it's gonna stick on there, and you can slide hammer it you can full control pull it with our k beam or k bar. We will be showing that with some centipedes. We're going to show the full repair. What kind of tabs we use, what kind of glue we use, how to release it, how to fix it, and return the car back to the client.

So let's check out where we start cleaning. First get on the debris off so that we make sure that our glue has the best possible grip and attachment that it can have. So let's start with the cleaning.

So when the cleaning is done you see there's some paint damage here, and here as well. We're gonna get it out as far as we can and if they want to paint it they can just tape the chip guard and just give it a quick paint over the repair that we're gonna give back to them.

So first of all we're gonna try to get the line back in. There is a double line here that you can see in the chip guard. We're gonna pull this one out here, help it a little bit by slapping it while we are pulling, and well let's see what we can do.

There are two options here. We can use the K beam over it, that's what we're gonna start with, or you can use your K bar and hold it against the line of the rocker panel here the welded edge and then pull it out. It's up to you with what you have and what you want to use, but I like the most control possible to start with the strongest possible pull, and that's with the K beam. It’s always stronger if you can put the cable on that to use the K beam because it's a double action tool.

You put pressure on it it's both you can put pressure on it and leave it on, and then start slapping around helping the repair, helping  the dent to release,and to get the tension back to the original shape. Let's see what we can do.

The centipede that I'm going to start with is one of my favorites. It's this flat smooth one, and bendable one.  The reason is, i want to touch the center of the dent, and because it’s bendable it allows you to touch the center, and we're gonna pull it and see what happens.

The first time before you use tools, you want to feel what the dent does, how it moves, because you don't know anything. You don't know what's behind it, where it's welded, what's in the inside. So you need to feel what the dent wants to do how it wants to move.

The way we want you to move our centipedes is like this, you hold the ends and you push it on there, but slightly. Not enough to push all the glue from underneath. You want glue in between the centipede and the paint. I’ve seen some guys push in their tabs so much that they almost push a dent. That's how hard they push those tabs. We don't want you to do that.

If it's a dimpled tab you just put it on that without any pressure. If it's a smooth tab like the smooth centipedes, just hold it in place but do not push all the glue from underneath the centipede. A little bit is okay like here. If you close the edges with glue, then the air surrounding it will not be able to get under the centipede that fast while you're pulling. So you're closing the tab with some glue around it. That's how we want you to use a centipede and get a hundred percent performance out of it. To get the best possible look, in the right occasion, on the dent that you’re working with.

So what we don't want you to do is from the first pull, try to yank it all out. This tool is a pressure tool so what you want to do is check how it moves. As you can see it moves quite a bit already, but put some pressure on it, and then to help to release the rest of the pressure. We're gonna use a slapper. This is a slapper and upper body hammer, and it will help you release.

So then after you relieve some pressure, bring it further out and see how it moves. Check the feet, check what we’re doing and as it releases we're gonna check. Now it's a little bit high here. That's okay, so we need more here and some more pressure build up here. So again same drill, let's use this one, the blue one. It has a little bit of flex in it no longer just a little bit. So I'm taking the K bar here to show you exactly what I mean. If we use from underneath you can put the foot like this or like this, and use this protected side to push like this one here. You can put it underneath push like this hold it back behind the edge and start pulling or yanking it. Find your favorite or a steady spot and make sure your hinge is able to move because that's why this is here.

I don't know if you can see it properly, just a glue releasing. There's no problem here,  exactly the same put the centipede on there put it against the edge. We almost got it. Again look at the glue, only structured but no paint release, even though the paint is damaged there is no paint release.

Don't give up on those centipedes try to use them as long as you can because they give you a strong steady pull. This one here is too deep, so we're gonna use this centipede again to yank this one out and try to bring it to its original shape. You can see because it's bendable, you can follow the shape of it. All these fingers are sticking out at a different height. That is no problem at all. This adaptor here, make sure to grab the fingers that are the deepest. I will pull the deepest part out first and then straighten it out. Because it's an aluminum extrusion, I will be straightening out those tabs. So don't worry about that, it'll straighten out the dents.

We want to check on the edges before we start pulling to see if the glue is strong enough. See how that see how that rocker moves, so that first pulling brought out the major part of the the damage.

Now we're gonna go over on those using those black ice tabs here, and do pinpoint pulling. This here is too deep we need to push out this little bit and see what happens. You wanna use this one, change glue just to see how it performs. It’s like 30 degrees it's summertime here now so you might laugh with 85-90 but for us that is warm. I was in Oklahoma a few weeks ago they already had a hundred we have that like two weeks in a year maybe, and then they call it the heatwave.

Change to the small adapter here, see the one especially made to hold tabs. There's a tube here preventing you from sliding away. Now let's see how it moves. Why would you use a slide hammer if you have all that control? You see that? You see how that rocker moves? That's what he wants.

Taking the other adaptor again, it's easy. You slide it on there and tighten it. As you can see even with the paint damage, the glue does not release the chip guard. I'll be doing the same here, pulling out that line a little further. See you hold it in place you don't want to push it too hard. Let the glue do its work. There needs to be enough glue in between the centipedes and the paint.

See how that metal moves. Now i just need to bring out a corner, or a rocker or whatever  strong part you’re pulling. Now we are where we want to be. That's exactly what we need.

Perfect, we don't need anything more, that is it. The way to use this on a rocker is very easy. You glue your centipede on like I did here. Put the K bar with the foot like this into the corner and that's why we have all this regulation here, you see? Tighten it all the way until you think that the height is right, and then you can regulate the height of the bar by turning it and use the whole thread for what it's meant for. Then look at what a leverage bar you have here.

So these ones are the strong ones and the narrow adapter will pull the center of the centipede because it gives a little bit, but just enough to keep it on there and put the thing back into its place with a lot of force. You've seen how strong you could pull on that thing. Apply it the way we intended you to do.

Now we kept it original. This is an original repair. We did not touch the paint. We did not touch the inside of the car. We did not burn any metal. It’s changed nothing to the original shape and how the OEM has delivered the car to the client. So a better repair after all.

So the tools that we used.. K beam, K bar, release agent, glues, a slide hammer,  tabs, and of course all our different centipedes, small tabs, some hammers, and knock-down tools.