Best way to bend sheet steel

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.

I'm about to tackle the same thing... as soon as I figure out a better way to get these dang spot welds out.
i have read a thread on here about using plumbing drain pipe. The old clay type. Not sure what the radius was, but that is what I am gonna try first.
Seems like you and I are doin about the same thing... I saw your posts regarding seat cross members.
I'm repairing a 74 myself.

Brad
 
for the spot welds buy a spot weld cutter...about 12 bucks on ebay...works like a charm...on the rear quaters i bought replacements from canada cruisers...i have one left over from the project if either of you are interested....maybe use it as a template for the radius...let me know

osagecruiser
 
Thanks for the tip. I've dulled too many titanium crap dewalt home depot bits just to get the wheel well braces off.
What side do you have? My rights side was dented pretty bad, as well as the area just inside the radius above the wheel well, where the hinge was. Completely rotted out. I think I can manage with the left side.
I am just gonna use 16 or more likely 18ga for body and 16ga for new wheel wells.
 
Lulu said:
I'm about to tackle the same thing... as soon as I figure out a better way to get these dang spot welds out.
i have read a thread on here about using plumbing drain pipe. The old clay type. Not sure what the radius was, but that is what I am gonna try first.
Seems like you and I are doin about the same thing... I saw your posts regarding seat cross members.
I'm repairing a 74 myself.

Brad
Click to expand...

do you know where that thread is? i've been trying to search for how people use pipe to bend it and can't find it
 
Here are some to start about spot welds. PITA.
https://forum.ih8mud.com/40-55-series-tech/235482-bumps-my-78-s-rear-tub-fenders.html#post3559679
https://forum.ih8mud.com/paint-body/254184-my-78s-rear-quarter-sill-repair.html
Hope they work, never tried to copy thread address on here before. I will look for the thread about clay pipe. But I am 99% sure it was same radius. Allthough, don't tell anyone but I used to own a.....Jeep. Gasp, it may have been on a jeep forum....

GusB's work is awesome. I am not planning on duplicating the ribs as I am installing Metal Tech cage and they have one big mount for B and C pillar that goes over the top of the wheel well. Talked to them yesterday, and a flat sheet would make the mounting easier anyway. Everywhere behind my wheel well supports was rusted through the metal, probably going to replace the vertical and horizontal well well metal with 16ga sheet.
 
Last edited:
Harbor freight has some cheap,limited use tools for bending.But Id just take it to a sheat metal shop and let them do it for you,prob.be cheap if you have already cut the metal. Mike
 
Well, you have to get the quarters separated from the wheel wells some how. Today on my bad side i took the angle grinder and a cutting wheel and cut above and below the spot welds. Removed that strip which was about 2" tall, used a flap disc on the edge of the wheel well, down to clean metal. I cut 4 pieces of 16ga 2"x8" and have tack welded two back in so far, I pretty much copied GusB. I will finish last two pieces tomorrow and start the grinding.
It was mentioned (by Texx I think) if your going to bother replacing some metal, you might as well make sure the metal behind it is not rusted bad. Mine was. So I am glad I did it. I ordered a spot weld cutter as mentioned about today, and will use that on the left side which was in better condition to begin with.
How were you planning on removing your quarters?
 
Can you put up pictures of what you are doing?

honestly i dont' know how i was going to do it. my trucks at my neighbor's body shop right now and so I do all the prep work-- sanding, stripping paint, etc -- and they do all the body work. I'm 17 yrs old and really not that knowledgable about cars or anything relating to this; it's my first car and I have not previously worked on cars. Gotta start somewhere.

so if possible, please put up pictures so i can see what you're talking about, that would be very helpful!

Thanks!!

Eric
 
fairly recent picture of the current condition of my truck

SP_A0741.jpg
 
In the first link I mentioned above, on posts 22-23 there are pictures of exactly were I am at... Well, I'm 37 and this is the first time i have ever cut anything off a car I have owned. But these trucks are easy to work on and I have done nothing that I can't redo, plus with these old trucks, I wanted the experience of doing it, not the finished product.
Your truck is looking good, I wish I had that much room to work.
 
Any chance you have a local school around that teaches sheet metal work? They often love having different projects come in to challenge the students. Phone them up and see what they say...I may do this when I need some sheet bent up for a trailer later this spring....
 
Well, Edin, if you are still at the same place, yesterday I formed the 16ga sheet metal for a patch right in the radius of the quarter panel using my leg. Line up the sheet to figure out where the bend starts and then slowly used my thigh to mend it, then retest, either straighten out or bend some more... seemed to work perfectly. I don't know if you will be able to do that with 14ga (3/16"?) sure as heck couldn't do it with 11ga (1/8"). The 16ga matched my metal perfectly.
 
I found that 14ga is 0.0747 inches, or between 1/16 and 3/32, but i just ordered the 14 ga diamondplate yesterday so hopefully early next week i can cut the quarters and weld it on. I'm gonna just weld it over it and seal it really good, with a few layers of rustproofing underneath, not cutting out the quarters and replacing it...hopefully it'll look/work just as good
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Back
Top Bottom