tools & products for restorations

[bbspdstr]

Nice work, Phil. "Tools make the man"...or is that 'clothes'?

A long time ago I employed an old Irishman named Mickey Keeley who had patched airplanes that had taken hits through their aluminum skins during WWII. He was trained by old 'tinkers,' itinerants who went town-to-town making pots and pans and remaking things of metal construction. His favorite tools were hammers and a log, one end hollowed. He would scrounge whatever it took to make about ANYTHING we needed on an old Porsche, all the while humming or singing pornographic songs in Gaelic about some royalty somewhere.....

Mickey was the guy who told me in all seriousness that as a boy, he and other boys would sleep in the hayloft in an Irish farmer's barn on a Sunday night to get a head start on bringing in the crops on first light Monday morning. While still dark, the farmer would be waking them up by shouting "Git up, git up...the day after tomorrow is Wednesday and half the week is gone already!!!"

Not a bad way to be conscious of time.

My first experience with a bead roller was with another old fabricator of some repute, Don Diehl. I became the hand-cranker on a big PEXTO when the electric motor went bad, but I learned by doing that much and watching the experienced hands form the metal.

I wish I could have learned more from those good ol' boys while they were alive. Running a business that has supported all of that has definitely gotten in the way. I am a master of none of my trades, Jack.

[Phil Planck]

I do have a nice cherry stump which I plan to hollow out sometime. I will post when I do under tools. Justin, this bead roller is rated to 18 ga. and the metal I used was 20 ga. which surprisingly was what this 1994 quarter panel was made of. I did note some flexing particularly if you use the beading mandrels, which displace a lot more metal than the step mandrels. Many users of these lower cost rollers add metal at the top to stiffen the unit up. If I get into a lot of bead rolling I would do that. My biggest complain so far is the pressure adjustment thread pitch seems to coarse for fine adjustment. Probably could be fixed by drilling out to a slightly large size and running a finer pitch tap through. JOP there are two metal working forums I check daily and occasionally ask a question on. The original one is metalmeet.com and the newer one(I think created by a falling out of some sort) is allmetalshaping.com and now usually has more posts. On both I believe you have to be a member(free) to post or see pictures on posts. I go by foamcar on both of those also.
BTW, here is the part all welded, metal finished and primed. My grandson turned into the dolloy man while I plannished the welds. Very little filler was required. We also top coated it, but he wanted me to do it and I made one run so will not post that picture unless pressured to do so.




Oh what the hell:



Phil

[John Pierce]

Here's a tool that everyone has and is a must. I did a long web search and this is the longest one I could find. It is 24" in overall length (the throat is about 8" shorter). It would be nice if someone would make a 30" model.

[MMW]

If you need it longer just cut it & add a pc. in to make it whatever length you need. In the fab shop I used to work we had many modified clamps.

[Phil Planck]

Added another tool this week. When welding, I need good light on the weld joint to get a good weld. I started with those halogen shop lights, but they put out a lot of heat. Bought a led shop light about 2 years ago and it is very nice and not hot. Was at Tractor Supply and saw this rechargeable version:



Now I don't have to worry about the cord or heat. About $40.

Phil Planck

[bbspdstr]

I hope this works, the first time I've tried to move a picture (Mic's) from one thread to another (Mic's).

(Edit: it did, yea!)

I have 2 old Cabriolet hardtops doing nothing but taking up space and I think they are about to become hanging storage devices. Thanks, Mic!

-Bruce

[Phil Planck]

I'm stretching the word "restoration" here, but I made this tool to restore the sync between my carbs at high rpm. Got tired of asking my wife to do this so had a piece of threaded rod laying around and made attachments at each end. One clamps to a brace under the dash on my PreA and the other slips over the throttle pedal. A knurled adjusting screw works great to dial in the high rpm you want to sync the carbs.
The black thing hanging down in the picture is loose sheathing from the starting circuit cable used on the PreAs.

[bbspdstr]

I needed some help with an aluminum project, so yesterday I went to a local shop that does high end restorations. Metal finishing and lead ONLY. Equipment I had used in another shop, seen center behind this early Speedster are now in Rick's inventory:

There, among the giants of classic metal forming machines like this:

....are basic tools like this:

[roy mawbey]

I like the tree trunk Bruce, very useful indeed.

Roy

[JTR70]

WOW! That is the "dream shop"! Love that old cast iron E-wheel!

[JOP]

Here is the copper that I use when welding as I wrote about before.
The thin on is super if you dont want to weld two pieces together when doing a repair to one...like a folded edge on a door or just any panels that meet up


And YES a dream werkstatt in the above shown pictures by Bruce

[Phil Planck]

I find this video pretty amazing. We may never need this dent removal method, but simply ingenious what people come up with:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vAM8_BEz7g

Phil

[JTR70]

Thanks for sharing Phil! That is a pretty slick method for dealing with soft metal that you have no back access to.

[roy mawbey]

Phil,

That was excellent, Really nice. I wonder how it work on double skinned car panels?

Thanks for that.

Roy

[John Pierce]

I was reading DG's old posts on the "R" site and came across how he produces such fine spot welds! HTP (http://www.htpweld.com/products/spot_welders/quickspot2.htm) makes a micro-processor controlled 230V spot welder which is sold at http://www.usaweld.com for $636 shipped to your door. I've been trying to use a 230V Miller spot welder and finding that the tongs won't clamp tight and the welds are not reproducible. And the damn thing weighs a ton!! I thought: why not try it? If it doesn't work I can return it.

My QuickSpot II came today and I was amazed. You dial in the thickness of the metal (up to 14 gauge) and the strength of the clamp and the micro-processor figures out the rest. The welds were beautiful and I couldn't rip them apart. The Miller spot welds were often easily ripped apart.

Thanks DG!