More tools

Today the UPS man dropped of a box from Eastwood Automotive, which specializes in products for restoring old cars. In the box was a "stud welder" which looks like this. It plugs in to a 110v outlet and with the push of a button welds a 2mm stud to the body panel you're trying to pull the dent from.

Here's what the stud looks like once it's welded on. You then use a slide hammer which grabs on to the stud to pull the dent out. Once that's done, you cut off the stud and grind it flush. I've only used it on a couple places and I have a lot to learn but so far it seems to work really well. The tool came with 100 studs. I'm definitely going to need more!

Here's a particularly nasty portion of the driver's side rocker panel which will need more than a little work to get straight. You can also see where the dent has gone upward, affecting the shutline between the bottom of the door and the top of the rocker panel.

For the next few weeks all the work on the Alfa will be about bumping metal, welding holes, filling and sanding.