There are many types of body hammers collision repair technicians use to work sheet metal back into shape. Each hammer is intended to be used for a specific repair operation. To avoid stretching and marking soft sheet metal, a hammer with a large, nearly flat face should be used. The face of the body hammer should have a dead flat center with a slight crown on the outer edge to compensate for errors when striking a blow. A small face will usually have a higher crown than a large face.
Bumping hammers are commonly used to “bump” out large dents during the initial straightening process. They are typically more heavily constructed than their counter part – dinging hammers. These hammers may have round or square faces and flat or crowned striking surfaces. Their faces are large so the striking force is spread over a larger area.
Dinging hammers is a term used to describe a broad range of lighter weight metal finishing hammers which includes a variety of pick and finishing hammers. A pick hammer is used to remove small dents. It has a pointed tip on one end and a round smooth face on the other end. The smooth face is used to bring down high spots on a damaged panel. The pointed (pick) end is used to gently raise the low spots from the underside of the damaged panel. Due to the variety of sizes and shapes, the technician will need to select the one best suited to the repair. The finishing hammer is used to achieve the final panel shape and contour. The finishing hammer is lighter with a smaller, more crowned face than the bumping hammer.
A shrinking hammer is similar to a finishing hammer but it has a serrated or crossgrooved face. This hammer is used to help shrink stretched sheet metal.
Aluminum hammers are usually designed differently and made of materials that may be different than those used for steel repair. Although the standard steel repair hammers may be used for repairing aluminum one must cover the contact surface to avoid cross contamination on the aluminum surface.
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