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24th May 2020, 12:16 PM #1Intermediate Member
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Vintage brass fire extinguishers- How to remove dents?
Good Day,
Anyone have any experience removing dents from old brass fire extinguishers? I have an old 2 gal foam fire extinguisher that has a few dents in it, worst about 5 mm deep and 75 mm long. Googled "removing dents from fire extinguishers" and found nothing except removing dents from a tuba. Plenty of polishing info on line but I am actually going to repaint it the correct blue colour once restored. Going onto a vintage truck. Thought about heating it up and cooling the dented area quickly to anneal it a bit then push it out with a shaped bit of wood. Don't want to stuff it up however and anyone's experience would be most appreciated. Likewise the base is a bit battered and thought about annealing it, removing the wire ring, then bead rolling it if I can find someone locally with a bead roller.
Cheers,
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24th May 2020, 12:39 PM #2
Cant see the dent ? If it is on the main body and seals tight you can do a few things. Fill it with air and see ifvit pops out as you heat it.
Get a bucket of water rag and heat the area and about around it, soak the rag and quench the area this will shrink and pop the dent out.
As you say bit of timber or metal used internally heat and force the dent out.
Good luck
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24th May 2020, 12:40 PM #3
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24th May 2020, 12:48 PM #4Senior Member
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Try deflating a soccer ball and placing inside where dent is. Slowly inflate and gently tap with a soft hammer or leather mallet. Ive used this to push out dents on car panels.
and yes they do look better polished up.
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24th May 2020, 01:24 PM #5Intermediate Member
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24th May 2020, 01:47 PM #6Most Valued Member
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a little bit of bog.
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24th May 2020, 02:30 PM #7
How you fit a fire truck beside a fireplace is mind boggling. My wife wont let me bring tools in unless a job needs doing Darn but wirh impending invasion Blue will be best.
The soccer ball is ideal for car panels as they are not thick were as the copper side wall needs to be due tp pressure. It just might work tho.
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24th May 2020, 02:31 PM #8
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24th May 2020, 03:21 PM #9
Google "bullseye pick", it is the tool used in auto bodywork to get to dents in hard to reach places.
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24th May 2020, 06:00 PM #10Member: Blue and white apron brigade
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If you're just painting I would also go bog.
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24th May 2020, 07:06 PM #11Intermediate Member
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24th May 2020, 07:21 PM #12
If your painting it, just bog it up as others have suggested, you will never get them perfect anyway, unless you really know what your doing and have a lifetime experience.
There are some good body fillers on the market, that will stay on and outlast us.Using Tapatalk
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24th May 2020, 07:28 PM #13Senior Member
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Take a look at the way people remove dents from motorcycle fuel tanks for some ideas.
I have gotten dents out of steel fuel tanks before with a hot glue gun and some screws - put some glue down in a blob, work the screw into it, let it all cool then gently pull on the screw with vice grips. Works best if you work from the edge of the dent in.
I often put a bunch of blobs and screws down at once and work them slowly and evenly around the inside of the dent.
Never tried it on brass but I would give it a go before using bog, myself...
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24th May 2020, 07:37 PM #14Intermediate Member
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Thanks J.C. for your suggestions. Think I will give that a try first. I have a glue gun and have read about paintless dent removal so I should be able to get a good pull from the outside. I can live with a few defects even if it isn't show perfect with bog. Just put the dent to the back of the holder on the truck.
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24th May 2020, 08:02 PM #15Diamond Member
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The short answer is fill the fire extinguisher with water and put it in the freezer.
The longer answer is as above but be cautious about how much water you put in, you don't want to create a volume of ice larger than that of the extinguisher or create too high an air pressure within the extinguisher.
Water expands by around 9% when it freezes, filling the extinguisher to 90% means the trapped 10% of air will reduce in volume to 1%, Boyles Law comes into play.
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