The only way I have ever found to get dents out is with a dent puller which means you have to drill a hole in the tube and weld it shut,sand,buff.
Probably best to leave it alone and try not to get any more.
I have been in the weld shop at Bennington for 11 years and OMC/Suncruiser for 9 before that so I have tried everything you can think of and the dent puller is the only thing that works.
Why wouldn't a pops a dent work for this. Bought one at W.World for 20 bucks and pulled dent in my truck. Can't see why would not work on pontoon unless the dent is creased.
As Bamby mentioned, if it is not creased, one of those big suction cups they use to move plate glass with, and use at auto body shops, might work. I have also seen them a tool rental places if you don't want to buy one. Not sure how big your “toons” are, it might not work on a small diameter tube.
There are also those systems that look like rivets, that are surface welded to the metal. You then use a reverse hammer type of tool attached to this rivet looking thing, to pop it back into place. Cut the rivet thing, grind, sand, and polish the metal back to it's original finish.
The rivet gun may work but heat warps aluminum so you will at best end up with smaller wavy dents and a big shiny spot on the tube where you sanded it.
Suction cups may work on car fenders but won't on a tube, the metal is alot thicker, you can dent a car fender with your thumb, try that on .080 or .090 aluminum, not gonna happen.
I have tried bridge pullers and they just don't have the grip to do anything because the metal is too thick.
Paintless repair works because the guy gets in behind the metal and works it out with special tools, again, no way to get inside the dent.
I have repaired hundreds of tubes in my 21 years, it is very difficult to do it and have it look good, there is no bondo or paint to cover anything, as I said, it is only a small dent, I would leave it alone.
Try some dry ice by rubbing it on the dent might pull it out, body shops use dry ice to take out dents from hail damage... try it on a dent on you car first, and use handling cautions too.
Dry ice does work. My toon had a 8" across x 6" across x 3/4 deep inpression (non creased). I heated the dent with a hair dryer on High, then used a hand size piece of dry ice (using protective gloves) applied to the dent in a circular motion and POP goes the dent. Watched this being done on "you tube"......
I'm going to try something this weekend (or next) when I get back to the boat. I have a few dents to remove due to an over the winter mishap. Heat the area for about a minute or less with a hair dryer. Then spray it for 10 seconds with canned compressed air (C0 2). The quick cool down should pop the dent. I'll let you know if it works.
18' pontoon dent removal?
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