rileyprice•1d agoRising Star

Watched a guy in El Paso fix a dented aluminum hood with dry ice

I was down at a body shop in El Paso last month visiting a buddy, and one of the old timers there popped a dent out of an aluminum hood using just dry ice and some heat. He hit the backside with a heat gun for maybe 45 seconds, pressed a block of dry ice against it, and the thing snapped right out with zero filler needed. I had to see it twice to believe it, and he said it works best on shallow dings where the metal isn't stretched too bad. Has anyone else tried this trick on aluminum panels without damaging the grain?

3 comments

3 Comments

corah7523h ago

Gotta push back on this one. Dry ice tricks work sometimes but heat cycling aluminum like that can mess with the grain structure and leave you with a wavy panel that's even harder to fix.

harpercampbell22h ago

I've seen that "grain structure" issue firsthand on an old hood I tried to save. Heat cycling on thin aluminum is risky business unless you really know the alloy and have a thermometer on it the whole time. Better off just taking your time with hammer and dolly work honestly.

emmaking21h ago

Old neighbor of mine had an aluminum boat with a parking lot ding he swore he'd fix with dry ice and a garden hose. He ended up with a wavy mess that looked more like a potato chip than a side panel. Wish he'd seen this post first because he spent three weekends trying to smooth it back out with body hammers and still gave up.