Pound it out or get a new piece

[karasmer]

Picked up this roadster body recently and something crushed the this panel, been working it out but seems to be a losing proposition, had to cut out a piece to relieve some tension, wonder if I'm just better off cutting out that area and welding in replacement or any thoughts of how to get this straightened out?

[Mike V. Florida]

The true answer depends on your abilities. Heating and cooling properly will reduce the high spots shrinking the metal.

Hammer and dolly with a shrinking hammer.
Use of a shrinking disk.
"portable" english wheel will level out the metal as well.

I have seen metal that I would have bet the house on that could not be made flat, flattened.

As for me, I have none of these skills and have destroyed more then one piece of metal trying.

[karasmer]

I don't have an english wheel but I could make some special backing tools and such but still the amount of work there.... put it this way anybody have scrap quarters laying around they would sell a chunk of? never know if I don't ask.

[mshmodela]

If it was me, I'd get seem scrap old metal of similar type and practice on it.... If by then you're not satisfied with your results then consider another path... You'll still learn something..

[100IH]

Sort of like making the bed after getting up in the morning. Do you just push the wrinkles down or do you grab the edges and pull them out in the right direction? Pounding down on the wrinkles will expand the metal where ever the wrinkles were. Working the wrinkles while being pulled in the right direction simply helps the wrinkles unfold.

[Logan]

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Pounding the metal into shape is no good if the edges aren't in the correct spot. The top beaded area Needs to be pushed up, and I'm just assuming the door seal edge needs to be pushed forward. Get all your outside edges in the right dimensions then work the center. Otherwise if you work the center then try to get the edges right, all the work you just did will be undone; or worse, if you shrink the metal to much then push the edges you won't have enough metal to stretch the edge back into place.

[captndan]

Save the frustration. Cut out the stretched area and weld in a new piece of metal.

[tuneman]

Contac flops custom Pittsburgh pa, he posts here from time to time. His metal work is
Just unbelievable. I think you could do a search on here and get lots of pictures of his talent

[Kevin in NJ]

Kind of tough.

The high crown curves will not move nice. They will keep the metal short.

The crinkled metal is the same. You have move all the metal areas slowly to get the shape back. Cutting the section out probably made the job harder cause now you don't have that piece to help move the metal as you change the form.

Get some videos on metal working and see if you can get it close enough. Can't make it worse. Likely you will need a new panel.

[Tom Wesenberg]

There is a guy not too far south or west of you that has several Model A's and body parts. I can't think of his name right now, but he often lists the cars on ebay. I'd check and see what he has for a better panel.

It just came to me........you should call Rudy Ruffus and he calls his place Ruffus Ranch.

[Russ/40]

I see the biggest need to be the belt rail and above. Get that pulled up and the reveal fleshed out, and I think you'll have better luck the lower panel.

[flatford39]

Who is the guy on the east coast...Wray Shaleen??? Buy one of his shrinking discs and watch the video that comes with it. That can be saved without welding in a new panel. It's just going to take a lot of time and if you don't have the time than weld in a patch panel

Just don't throw away what you cut out as someone is looking for it.

[BILL WILLIAMSON]

Why not hire a good body man to do it for you?
Bill W.

[Randy in ca]

I salvaged this a few years ago - looks like it was made to order!! Send me a PM if interested.


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[Tinbasher]

It looks like something was dropped on the panel at the top on a angle so it took the body line with it. The best way to approach the repair is to jack up the upper section of the 1/4 and then jack out the body line. This will remove most of the displaced metal. Then you can hammer and dolly the remaining damage back into shape. Once into shape then you can shrink out any of the stretched or high metal.

If you drop me an E-mail with your address I'll send you out one of Sheet Metal Repair Books.

Give it a try. That's how you learn.

John Poole

P.S. If you go for the replacement panel make sure you work out the damage before you cut off the old part. You need to remove as much Tension and Pressure in the panel as possible or the whole panel will go out of shape. JP

[JBill]

If it were mine, I'd be contacting Randy about that salvaged panel. As Ross/40 says, the biggest problem is not the flat part, it's the belt rail. It's all there on Randy's panel.

[C26Pinelake]

buy the replacement panel and leave the frusteation behind! Wayne