How to Fix a Dent in Aluminum

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Aluminum is one of the most valuable metals we have for use around the house: light, strong, cheap, and durable. It's useful enough that many people use aluminum siding as the exoskeleton of their house, using it to protect them from the elements and seal off as much of the environment as possible. But there is one disadvantage to aluminum: it can dent. When it does dent, especially in your home siding, what exactly can you do?

You're about to find out some of the best dent removal tricks out there. What will you need? Start with a drill, a sheet metal screw, a flat washer, a pair of pliers, metal filler, sand paper, and metal primer.

It's a tall order, but you should be able to retrieve many of these items at a relatively low price at a local hardware store. Once you have your tools and supplies ready, it's time to get down to business.

The process of removing a dent in aluminum siding is essentially to drill a hole, use that hole to pull back the dent, and then cover up the hole so that it looks like nothing was ever there. You can begin by drilling a couple of small holes (one-eight of an inch in diameter) and screwing in the sheet metal screw you have with a sheet metal washer partially into the hole. This will give you some leverage with which to pull the aluminum dent out. Pull on the screw with the pliers, protecting your hands. The washer will protect the rest of the aluminum on your siding from the pliers.

Once you've pulled out the dent, remove everything and take a look at the holes you drilled. It's time to fill them up with metal or body filler, also making sure to fill up any of the residual dent so that everything is relatively smooth. It will probably take a couple of coats of body filler in order to make sure that everything is smooth.

After those coats have dried, sand everything even. Clean out the scrapings so that the area is dry, and then apply a metal primer. After this primer has dried, apply some metal paint to the area - everything should look properly covered, as if the dent and the holes were never there.

Voila! You've fixed your own aluminum siding. Now you'll have a couple of extra supplies and tools around the house if you need to make similar repairs somewhere else.

Photo Credits: D. Bjorn

Originally posted 2009-08-05 06:00:34.

This post involves:

aluminum siding, body filler, dent removal, diameter, elements, exoskeleton, flat washer, hardware store, holes, home siding, leverage, metal filler, metal paint, metal primer, metal washer, metals, pliers, sand paper, sheet metal screw

... and focuses on:

Handyman, House, How to Fix

Posted by Fix Handyman on September 17, 2011 in Handyman, House, How to Fix