>Keith -
>
>I am in the final 10% of an aluminum panel un-tweaking operation. What did
>you back into?
>
>NOTE: You may not like the results- attempt at your own risk. If you like
>the look of a smooth, pristine panel, you'd better buy one and replace the
>damaged one. This procedure isn't going to make it look new without lots of
>bondo and fairing (which is baaaaad). You will probably want to finish your
>work with some paint and primer - matching original faded paintwork may be
>difficult.
>
>It's pretty straightforward and >>I<< can live with the results. Chicks
>DON'T dig body damage. When you bend, fold, spindle, or mutilate the
>Birmabrite on the outside of your cherished Land Rover, you are tempering(
>hardening) the aluminum alloy, such that you will get compound folds and/or
>tearing when you try to straighten it. You must first anneal the folded
>areas before you bend/pound/whack/pop/push/coax them back into a proper Land
>Rover shape. Enter the pig...
>
>Step 1: Goto the grocery store and buy some Lard - I had to look in the
>Mexican food section; apparently Thriftway considers lard Mexican food.
>Scared of that.
You use it in beans. Everyone else has given it up for health
reasons. Of course, you could skip the pretending to be in the
African bush, and just head to your local welding shop and buy a
TempilStik(TM). 450F, part number TS0450, would do if you're going
to buy just one. Won't cost much more than a tin of lard would, and
it's a whole hell of a lot less messy.
>Step 2: Get a propane torch (not one of those carburetted hi temp jobs).
I'd prefer an oxy-fuel torch. They get thing up to temp a whole heck
of a lot faster, and with a little care, you won't overheat things.
A slightly reducing flame, on a #1 tip works for me.
>
>Step 3: Assemble your panel-beating toolkit. I got a body hammer at a
>garage sale years ago that has a very nice wide flat head. You will want a
>STEEL dolly to support the backside. I also bought a bodywork kit at NAPA
>for $17.00 with 4 or 5 dollies that have all kinds of curves - not really
>vital for most LR work and three different hammers, with different
>sized/shaped double heads. Find a big heavy flat chunk of steel- a short
>section of railroad track might work. Not too big -you might need to
>squeeze it into some tight quarters. The NAPA kit had one dolly with a flat
>side that I dressed on some flat wet/dry. Make sure it has a FLAT side and
>no sharp edges - bevel them a tiny bit to avoid digging into the back of the
>panel.
Soft wood works well for making Al panel beating dollies out of.
>\
>Step 8: Panel beating. Using a light touch, with the dolly behind your
>work, knock the folds, bends, ripples, and dents flat and smooth. If you
>try to get everything perfectly flat, you might end up stretching the panel
>from the combination of the initial bends and the subsequent hammering and
>flattening. I haven't found a good way to "shrink" aluminum if it gets too
>pounded out, but there are probably some tricks out there. Shoot for smooth
>over flat. Use a worklamp set up at 90 degrees to the panel to highlight
>high spots. Keep the face of the hammer parallel to the panel. If
>something won't flatten, try annealing it again. Remember those curved
>dollies I mentioned? One worked quite well on the curve at the upper edge
>of the front wing.
You want to work off the dolly as much as possible when shaping
aluminum. Put the dolly under the low spot, and hit the adjacent
high spot. That causes less stretching. Reheating the panel, and
beating while it's hot will shrink the aluminum. Repeat the heating
and beating as needed. Spoons and slappers help. If you're really
good (I'm not!), you can get the thing as smooth (or smoother) than
when it came out of the factory with just some hammers, dollies and
spoons.
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