I see your plan in action now
BUICK 1964 Skylark Coupe Project
- Thread starter joesregalproject
- Start date
More small progress today. Finished grinding off the lip (with new safety glasses!) on the wheel opening. No major surprises. With the lip off I was able to roughly (and I mean roughly) mock the new panel in place.
Fitment looks rough, and it is, but with some more trimming and a lot of clamping, I should be able to get it where I want. You can see the bottom rear section sticks out a lot, and I'm not too concerned because I'm likely going to use the other patch panel for that section.
I also picked up a used Harbor Freight pressure pot blaster off of Craigslist. My compressor only has enough air to run it intermittently or to do small areas, but I'm contemplating renting a big unit for a weekend when I get to that point.
Fitment looks rough, and it is, but with some more trimming and a lot of clamping, I should be able to get it where I want. You can see the bottom rear section sticks out a lot, and I'm not too concerned because I'm likely going to use the other patch panel for that section.
I also picked up a used Harbor Freight pressure pot blaster off of Craigslist. My compressor only has enough air to run it intermittently or to do small areas, but I'm contemplating renting a big unit for a weekend when I get to that point.
I have that same unit, is it empty? I think I loaded mine with aluminum something or other from HF, works great.
There's a little bit of some unknown type of media in it, play sand maybe. I've tried glass bead, aluminum oxide and coal slag in my little siphon blaster. I've had good results with the fine coal slag, plus it's very cheap and supposedly inert so the dust isn't going to give you silicosis. The downside is that it is probably the messiest of the three.
More trimming and tweaking today. Panel is now fitting really nice. Fitment is good enough to lap it as-is, I'm gonna try to butt it though. Had to cut the last 10" or so off. Might attempt to make it work on it's own or use the other panel for that area. Either way, I'm gonna need to add more of a curve to it as it's way too flat. Not sure if it'd be best to cut reliefs in the lip and bend or some other way...? Open to suggestions.
A shrinker/stretcher is what you need to add the required curvature there Joe. Do you have access to one? Harbour Fright down there probably has their version of one, I have ours up here and it’s not terrible. Eastwood’s is a little better. Pretty specialized piece of equipment though.
You could possibly get away with pie cutting the lip, but you run the risk of introducing kink lines at the ends of the cuts. You’ll have to be very careful with that.
I was just looking on the HF website Donovan. Looks like they've got a shrinker/stretcher set for $150. I like that idea a lot more than cutting reliefs in the lip.
I'll probably wind up taking a ride to HF later this week to check them out in person.
Good to hear Joe!
If you do pick one up, I strongly advise playing around with a couple of test pieces to get the hang of it first. It’s easy to over shrink or over stretch if you’re not careful. The number of times you do it, the pressure you apply on the handle, and the placement of the piece in the jaws will all have an effect on what it does to the metal and where. Don’t expect much to happen with a straight, flat piece of metal, you’ll see the biggest effect on a piece that’s bent close to 90 degrees. That’s what they’re designed for, making them perfect for wheel arch lips and the like.
There’s also plenty of videos on SpewTube if you’re into that kind of thing. It’s a pretty cool tool once you get the hang of it!
Sound advice I plan on adhering to. I've got plenty of scrap around to practice with.
