Summary
In this video, Jonathan Vandenfontyne demonstrates the KECO Centipede Crease and Curved Body Tabs. They are used to repair big dents in curved body lines.
Video Transcript
today we're happy to talk to you about our whole range of Centipede tabs. Why in the world would you need Centipede tabs? Well it's our flagship line of tabs. These tabs are what we build most of our big lifter tools around. And why are they so important to us and for your body repair or for your big dent repair? We're going to explain all about them, the features that they have, how they work, and why they look like they do.
One important thing first, is if you want to repair bigger lines or bigger creases, but big dents, and you want to pull those what did you do in the past? You used all kinds of different, smaller tabs, and pull them separately. That creates like a zipper effect and gives you a whole lot of knockdown work to do. These tabs got rid of that problem.
Why is that? You have one big smooth surface. You glue it on there. Pull it up with a big adapter like these. All the adapters that we have with the K bar and the K-Beam, you slide it over, and with a lot of power you're bringing up the whole dent; the whole line, the whole body line. You bring it up. You release it with the glue after the pulling, and it leaves a flat surface on your metal.
Half the work already done. So why all these different kinds of centipedes? Why the whole range? Well because they all have specific features. It’s very interesting to use in different applications. Let me tell you what the differences are in between all the centipedes.
First of all we got the rigid ones. The rigid line is like the ice line that you see here. They are very rigid, durable, and harder than the Flex ones that we have. For example, this flex one here as you can see flexes quite a bit.
What's the difference? Well you want to use the strongest tab possible on the dent that you are repairing. Why is that the strongest tab possible? Because the more force you have, and the more force you can apply to pull out a big dent, the faster you will repair.
But it's not always possible to use the strongest tab ever. For example, if you have a dent that's really deep, then you need to reach the center of that dent. That's why you use the Flex centipedes like the one you see here. That's why we have these different adapters, because if it's a rigid one you can use this hundred, ten centimeter, or hundred millimeter one and slide it over and just pull it up with the big adapter.
Of course if it's a deeper dent, and you have to glue it into the center of the dent (because you always want to pull up the center). Sometimes this big one does not slide over so you use these ones in conjunction with the K bar or K-Beam. Then you use a smaller one and that will always reach the center.
It allows you to pull it off first. Then, if it's pulled up but this tab is not strong enough to bring it all the way out, or to bring that body line out as far as you would prefer. Next just take another one, a rigid one, glue it on that again. This time after the first pull it will have brought the metal way up. Now you'll be able to use a big one with a strong adapter like this one. Put it on there with the K bar, K-Beam, or even with a hydraulic rack puller. Pull it up, and finish it as far or as wide as you prefer.
To pull it out we have three different kinds of sizes of the head, or the face of the tab. We have the 44 millimeter. We have the 25, and a 12 and a half millimeter. Of course that depends on the dent or body line that you're working on because these straight centipedes are specially designed to dent out or to repair big dents around body lines.
As you know the strongest parts on big dents are on sides, body lines, or on the curves like on a quarter panel. So you want to pull them straight first, and then repair the rest of the dent. The deeper parts will move easily when you have repaired the strong spots first.
There are different shapes of faces or head that you can use while studying your dent that you are repairing. One extra feature that is very important to know when using these centipedes is a logical thing, but you have to think about it while using these.
If you use normal tabs, what you always do is pull in the center of the tab. For every tab you always pull the center because the neck of the tab is always in the center of the tab. You will never be pulling this here or this here because you're not able to.
The centipedes are different because of the long stretched out neck that they have. It allows you to actually pull it wherever you want, but it's not intended to do that. Instead of a tool if you're doing a crease, you would start from right to left, or from left to right with a push tool.
With a centipede, if you start pulling centipedes with a robo lifter or even with the K bar or K beam, with the smaller adapters make sure to always start pulling in the center. You pull up the center and in the end you go to the sides to the to the right of to the left.
Why is that? Some of you might have noticed if you start using the centipede wrong. It's glued on there with a strong glue with a lot of power, but if you start pulling on the side, you will pull the sides loose and you will peel it off like a banana without having any result.
So the key feature on using centipedes is using them actually as all the other tabs, but we don't always think about it. A usual tab you pull in the center of the neck. Pull it up and it does exactly what the centipede does, but you can use the whole neck here. So start pulling it in the middle. Pull it up and finish it on the edges; that's a very important thing to remember. If you start using it this way you'll have great results.
Another interesting centipede that we just got brand-new are the 19 inch curved centipedes. What are those? They have the same features. We have a twelve and a half, and we have here as you can see the 25. They are curved to follow those body lines on fenders or quarter panels. Why is that so nice? This will work with a curved body line instead of fighting it when you would be using a straight line on a curved body line. So this feature allows you to follow that body line, push it in again with a flexible one if you need to be very deep in a deeper dent or with a trong very rigid one to finish it off or to pull the whole thing further out.
We are the only ones producing these tabs today, so if you don't have them yet and you're doing Big dents, check them out.
