Want to know how stuff is done? - properly ?- This album should give a good overview on whats required and how good results are turned into great results... And yes we normally do operate with all the appropriate saftey gear - some shots may show otherwise - but saftey first kids!

Ok - I keep getting asked how do I do stuff... so I will attempt to shed some light on what it takes.. many of these pictures are already available on the other albums but I will go into more depth here... The above shot shows Filing after hammer welding.This was joining a Wagon roof onto my 1962 EK Holden Panelvan.

Starting with a straight peice of 1mm zinc I will show how its formed into a shape to be welded into a car. (this is only a demo peice - not the actual peice I used... so dont be confused...

Bending to 90 degres a piece of steel in the magna bend (not a device for bending Mitsubishi Magnas - but a magnetic folding device - taswegian invention..)

Here is the bent steel

Putting the folded steel through the shrinker stretcher ... an ingenious device that allows me to replicate complex shapes. This tool has two different jaws that are air operated in this case. It grabs the steel and depending on the jaws fitted it will stretch or shrink the folded steel forming shapes...

This shows the distortion free shapping.... both shrinking and stretching

Another view.

Ok this is a different peice - but shows what can be made... this has had some welding done on it at the ends

Ready for welding in with the oxy.

dem9_recess_finished

Finished product. Later I added a recess into this as well to get the catch to sit flush- this was formed by heating and beating it into the middle of this new peice. Looks factory formed - so this is the objective with customising or fabrication... make it look like you have not been there.

When fitting panels that have had to be reskinned such as a tailgate skin it is quite normal that these panels are a bit tight or too loose in the original opening. This is over come by slicing along the edge of the opening with a 1 mm cut off disc and then moving the edge to where you want it. This (as shown in the pic ) is welded up again taking great care to keep the gap uniform. Some times the closing panel runs out of adjustment and this means the only option left is to cut the jamb and rework it to suit.

This is a very typical rust repair I have to do on the HQ - WB (WB Van in this case) cowl area. This area traps moisture in a pocket above the plenum chamber and also in the windscreen opening. Here I have had to replace the opening and part of the dash as well as the usual piece needed on the cowl. I use a combination of oxy welding (for the screen opening and dash ) and mig welding( for the cowl area) . Notice how well the moulding follows the contours of the screen opening. This piece was formed on the shrinker stretcher and the cowl piece was formed seperatly. All is metal finished , as I hate doing copious amounts of boring bog work...

This is the very basics of dent removal This is on the rear 1/4 panel of the wifes FC project.

A closer view shows the dent has been caused by sometging falling against the panel during the years of storage.

Using a rounded dolly the dent is very carefully tapped up - being aware of your own strength is important here ! - You don't want to drift it up too far! However in this case the metal used in the old Holdens meant that it was a bit harder than you would expect...

Using a slapper - which basically is a re-worked horse hoof file and a dolly of similar shape to the panel on the inside of the panel, Careful slapping brings down the high spots and shrinks the steel slightly at the same time. The way this works is the teeth on the slapper as its striking the surface is pulling the metal in towards its self. Concentrating on rolling the dent in towards its self by slapping on the ridge left around the outside of the dent is a sure way of ironing it out.
Now here is the confusing bit - to bring a low spot up find where the slapper is making contact with the dolly by gentle tapping until you hear steel on steel. By slapping on the low it becomes stretched and comes up into a high.

Using a steel file (finer teeth than a bog file) the area where the slapping has been taking place is filed to detect the highs and lows.

By progressively filing down the highs and tapping gently up the lows to make them highs the panel surface is slowly brought back to its original condition. Care must be taken in not creating a large high spot by chasing up the lows. The end result may have all the appearances of having got the dent out - but you may find that the whole area is now too high. This is where a few heat shrinks may be needed as the metal is too stretched . So work slowly and constantly check that you are not creating a large high spot. Highs can be tapped down again with either the panel hammer or the use of the slapper again. You dont want to concentrate on small areas if this is the case - rather bring the whole area back down.

When fabricating brackets I or rust repair sections - I always make the part first using stiff white card. I run my thumb around the sharp edges and this gives me an indcation on where to fold and make holes. I then mount the card in place as I would with the final metal peice and make adjustments as needed - or just make another template. This method ensures that the final part will fit right the first time. This is the bracket that holds the A/C condensor on the EK van.

I get requests from around the country for the supply of parts. A customer in Sydney required a decent a pillar cut to repair his EK project. This donor car in my collection is being slowly reclaimed by the elements - but this pillar area is remarkably unnaffected- so I reclaimed it b4 the cancer crept this far in.

As you can see this is the customers rather rusted pillar.

After a mornings work I have removed, trimmed and welded any pinholes on the donor section then blasted the whole item. This is typical of how I supply parts- this leaves no doubt as to what they are getting. This part cost $150- plus postage. Before it was packed and sent, I coated it in Wattyl black etch primer