Kirkham University Aluminum Fender Dent Repair

[intheMixup]

thank you for sharing your knowledge with the little guy. we need more cool people like you in this world. hopefully you'll make more videos in the future. God bless you!

[Smackeddie]

Exceptionally good repair. Although. I Stil see lows in that fender lol !!! A layer of paint would reallllly highlight them;-) great work tho mate!!!! Thumbs up

[wulliethedent]

This is quite simply a work of art and beautiful to watch.

[wulliethedent]

They ire simply. This is a work of art and truly beautiful to watch.

[BrewPub]

That is some unbelievably top notch work.

[ricecarkiller]

ok I seen this back when you made it out of wood like in 2005-2006 getting it dialed in.. well now its dial in billet aluminum!!! thats bitchen!!!!!!!!! now its 7 mos. later did you get close to being on the dyno? and what would be the cost for this block be at ,, $8.000 -$10.000 give or take!!!!!!!! I know billet blocks are not cheep to do lol.I I like it to no more than $4.000 but thats wishing in one hand and shitting in another..lol..It would be nice to build a cammer from this block

[vanstry]

Wow, impressive work.

[bladder1010]

Wow, now that is craftsmanship and skill.

[checkmate110]

What does a repair like that cost?

[TheTruthHurtsYup]

I saw some low spots. ;)

[ronnocleahcim]

Excellent instructional video

[dumdumcry]

thats one bad ass mofo

[vwdarrin]

wow amazing

[EffroyableMat]

This guy is the very definition of winning. Hit the showers Charlie Sheen.

[jdhchi]

Wow! Nice work…amazing results!

[tomekjozwiak]

Good to see that proper craftsmanship is still in price and sometimes there is no CNC to replace it :)

[522design]

Very nice work!!!!!! I work with aluminum a lot and I can appreciate good craftsman ! Your cars are not to shabby either!

[KirkhamMotorsports1]

@522design Thanks :)

[Fastskippy]

Just brilliant, well presented. Thank you.

[KirkhamMotorsports1]

@Fastskippy Thank you :)

[Jpatronas]

Amazing.

[KirkhamMotorsports1]

@Jpatronas Thanks :)

[rickrichard01]

Thanks for your response. And for the definition of tempering, I have used it incorrectly for all of my life it turns out.

[KirkhamMotorsports1]

@rickrichard01 Happy to help. Thanks so much for watching :)

[iiu212]

That is beautiful. Thank you for sharing. My favorite part is when your in the office high back chair hammering away!

[KirkhamMotorsports1]

@iiu212, Thanks. The reclining chair really works well. People do wonder why I have aluminum shavings in my office chair, however. LOL

[jacobhuns]

Enjoyed the video very much thanks for sharing your knowledge!

[KirkhamMotorsports1]

@jacobhuns Thanks :)

[ghettajetta]

Am I the only one who finds it awesome that the president of this company just did 3000$ worth of repairs, while making a video to show it to the world?

Kudos to you mr Kirkham for being a master of your craft

[KirkhamMotorsports1]

@ghettajetta, Thanks for the kind words. I do appreciate them :)

[OceanDashTwo]

Who says craftsmanship is dead and gone?

[KirkhamMotorsports1]

@OceanDashTwo, There is a lot of craftsmanship left in the world. Go to any Hot Rod show and you will find all sorts of people who make the most beautiful things. Many guys have far less tools than we do, but they make up for it will endless imagination.

[thefekete]

@KirkhamMotorsports1 Amen to that...

[HotepofGaul]

Man, labor intensive, that had to cost the customer a bundle though obviously not as much as a new car. Soooooo....how much would a repair like that run?

[KirkhamMotorsports1]

@HotepofGaul, The video part of e repair was just under $3,000--really not that bad compared to even a new car.

[marzolian]

I'm not in metalworking or auto repair, but things like this are fascinating to me. Just one tiny suggestion: If you could have started off by showing the other fender, so we could see better how much damage there was, and how much work it was going to take to fix it. Cheers.

[KirkhamMotorsports1]

@marzolian, I'm glad you liked the video. Thank you so very much for the suggestion! I will keep that in mind for future videos.

[Phill0046]

Holy crap. Thats amazing.

[KirkhamMotorsports1]

@Phill0046, Thanks! Glad you liked it :)

[CrispinFreemont]

That is awesome.

[KirkhamMotorsports1]

@CrispinFreemont, Glad you liked it :)

[lightdavem]

What kind of car was that?

[KirkhamMotorsports1]

@lightdavem, We make these cars.

You can visit us at kirkhammotorsports d o t com

[marhar2]

That is amazing work. Hats off to Kahn Academy for inspiring you to share!

[KirkhamMotorsports1]

@marhar2, Kahn Academy is the greatest. Happy to throw our few cents of knowledge into the great world of knowledge. The internet is a wonderful place. I hope it helps someone out there realize they can accomplish anything they set their mind to in life.

[TheAlphadial]

Part blacksmith, part sculptor, part metallurgist... un-freakin-believable. A true artisan engineer. How long did it take to do this?

[KirkhamMotorsports1]

@TheAlphadial, Thank you so much for your kind words. I was fortunate to learn the art from a gentleman in his twilight years who worked for Rolls Royce before WWII. The repair was about 30 hours total. However...

[KirkhamMotorsports1]

@KirkhamMotorsports1 There was an enormous amount of time planishing all the little dings out before filing. Also, many hours were spent sanding all the little file marks and coarser sanding marks out of the body with successive grits to eliminate any hint of the coarser grits. The customer wanted a really nice job so we spent quite a bit of time blending the brushing into the original body to get everything to look right.

[KirkhamMotorsports1]

@KirkhamMotorsports1, Finally, the damage wasn't confined to the area in the video (I just limited the video to the major damage so the video wouldn't get too long to upload). The trunk gaps were messed up because the fender had been pulled away from the trunk. There was also damage by the jack hooks where the metal tore and had to be welded up.

[rickrichard01]

Very nice. Was wondering however, you began by annealing the metal, was it tempered again after the shape was achieved?

[KirkhamMotorsports1]

@rickrichard01, technically speaking, "tempering" is heating up a metal to a certain temperature to make it softer. In other words, on heat treatable alloys (that are quenched from a high temperature to achieve their hardness), tempering is used to draw some of the hardness back out of the alloy so it is not so brittle.

What I think you are asking is if the metal gets hard again as I hammer it back into shape. Yes it does. That hardening process is called work hardening.

[lindo745]

How many times did you have to re-anneal the AL. I've done stuff like this but the Al gets cold worked and hard again. I then had to re-anneal the piece

[UrsusMorologus]

does the annealing make it permanently weaker there?

[KirkhamMotorsports1]

@UrsusMorologus, "weaker" is a difficult term to technically explain in a few words. Annealing makes a metal softer/more ductile. Yes, it is permanent...until you start to work harden it again by moving it with a hammer and dolly (or anything else). The more you move a metal, the harder it becomes--until you anneal it again.

[KirkhamMotorsports1]

@UrsusMorologus, I think we re-annealed 3 times--but only in the very tight fold in the middle of the fender. The rest was only annealed once.

[creo43]

You guys do awsome work!! How long did the repair take to complete?

[KirkhamMotorsports1]

@creo43, Thanks for the kind note. I was fortunate to learn the art from a gentleman in his twilight years who worked for Rolls Royce before WWII. The repair was about 30 hours total. However...

[KirkhamMotorsports1]

@KirkhamMotorsports1 CON'T,

There was an enormous amount of time planishing all the little dings out before filing. Also, many hours were spent sanding all the little file marks and coarser sanding marks out of the body with successive grits to eliminate any hint of the coarser grits. The customer wanted a really nice job so we spent quite a bit of time blending the brushing into the original body to get everything to look right.

[KirkhamMotorsports1]

@KirkhamMotorsports1 CON'T,

Finally, the damage wasn't confined to the area in the video (I just limited the video to the major damage so the video wouldn't get too long to upload). The trunk gaps were messed up because the fender had been pulled away from the trunk. There was also damage by the jack hooks where the metal tore and had to be welded up.

[chuckarama451]

Wow. Beautiful! That turned out way better than the bondo I would have used. Well done!

[SPQRImperator]

You make the impossible look so natural.

Amazing work.

[KirkhamMotorsports1]

@SPQRImperator Thanks guys. I really appreciate the kind words. The internet is fantastic. A special thanks to Kahn Academy for inspiring the world to share our learning :)

[Pervalot]

Awesome workmanship, many thanks for sharing.