Technical hammer form boot floor help

Hi guys,

The boot floor in my rx3 is rusted out and i am looking at reproducing a new boot floor (not wheel well) with similar patters as the original.



made a hammer form:



did a trial on an old sign i had in the shed, was 1mm from memory, hd galved, came out like this


was very happy, didnt seem to warp much, basically just stood on top of the sheet and went away with my air hammer.

then i purchased my sheet for the boot, 1500x900x1 zinc annealed, clamped it down and had a go and came out like this..



absolute **** and am very dissapointed, how do i fix this?? is it because its zinc annealed and isnt as malleable etc? it just warped and looks very very rough

any help out there?!

 

The first thing I would do is buy or borrow a bead roller. Then get a piece of 18 gauge steel. You'll have a new panel in less than an hour.

 

Would be too hard as its a large panel (1500x900) and a wide 'bead'? thats why i opted for a hammer form

 

What in the world is a boot floor
Proper names for what you are working on would help
And, since when is an RX3 a Hamb appropriate topic ?

 

I would suggest you NOT use an air hammer for that operation. That may have worked for the sign material as it was likely harder/stiffer than the gal/annealed material.

I'd recommend you use a blunt metal 'chislel', sort of like some stone masons use, or make one from
a piece of fine grained hardwood, like hard maple. A 'blade', maybe two inches (50 mm) wide and and handle and flat at the top of that for hammering. The process is called "hammer form", after all

Once you get the hang of it, you can make or modify other tools for specific shapes and contours.

It will be much easier to control the strike zone and force doing it by hand than with the air hammer.
Be sure you have the work piece well secured to the form. Clamp it for sure, but also some small locating dowels or screws to keep it from creeping out of position would be a good addition.

Ray

 

X2. My ***istant and I can fabricate and replace an entire floor pan, from scratch, in the average car, in about 4-hours.

Bead rollers are where it's at. Even a hopped-up Harbor Freight model will do the trick.

 

Metal shaping is HAMB friendly. The trunk (boot) floor is no different than the floor in a '30s, '40s or '60s car, when it comes time to replace it.

Ray

 

I can't be of any help at all other than to recommend a shoe cobbler to repair your boots.

 

RX3? Boot floor? what the ____?
Seventy-something Mazda? Uhhh.

 

Some of you guys must have paid even less attention than I did in English cl***. The RX3 is not the subject of this thread inquiry. The metal forming technique is the subject. But I suspect you already know that..........lighten up. The guy didn't ask for advice about swapping in an R13B.

Ray

 

I agree Ray, but the schoolmarms are on the prowl.

 

Lol lighten up fellas, i came here for metal work help. Thanks for those that gave some helpful info, will ***ess my options

 

I for one don't give a rats *** that the car is off topic, if he would have said duece, the idiots complaining would all have stiffys! I'm really surprised that you are having more trouble with Galvanealed than with generic sign material. Are you sure that that truly is annealed, it looks and acts like generic galvanized sheet steel. (Without the annealing process) The Galvanealed that I've used forms almost as good as AK steel. You shouldn't be having the trouble you are with it. Your process looks correct and the air hammer will work if you keep the pressure turned down so you don't over hammer the steel. I use a pneumatic chipping hammer and it works well. Try laying/clamping something rigid and heavy on both sides of the groove you are creating. I-beam would be my choice. Good Luck on your RX3!

 

Deep, straight and wide depressions with a hand held hammer or hand tool of any kind will be tricky to say the least.
No matter what you back up the panel with it will be difficult to accurately guide the hammer. The distortion will be considerable as well.
A Pullmax type reciprocating nibbler is really the machine for this work.

 

Damn! He's asking about shaping metal. Mocking him for calling it a boot is about as funny as all the comments about the wrong sided steering wheels down under and other locals.
Some of you guys need to go back under the rock you came out from under.

OP- a bead roller will do a much nicer job, but since it is just a boot floor, anything to add rigidity will help keep it strong.

 

Here's a pair of wide, flat bottom dies I made for a Harbor Freight bead roller. works pretty good on 20 ga.

Gary

 

In order to appreciate humor you need to have a sense of it yourself. In some guys it is lacking.

 

Nice try for a recovery ....but no cigar! It was your last line "And, since when is an RX3 HAMB friendly?" that undermined the 'humor'.........

Ray

 

Nice dies. I need to make a set of those, and a double bead set.

 

Why don't you use the old sign? Paint it and no one will know.

 

wasnt big enough to use lol hmm might try again with the hammerform before making dies..

 

I see one piece of wood you called your hammerform. A true one is 2 pieces, sandwiching the metal in between, and this is what prevents distortion of the flat metal, while you hammer in the shapes. Did you use 2 pieces or just hammer into the channels in the single piece?
This can be done without a bead roller, but it is far more time consuming!

 

yep just the single mdf piece. spent long enough on it already so will see how i go doing it a second time and using some better clamps and tooling, dont fancy ****ing around with a bead roller trying to make the sheet fit etc

 

you're gonna need a male form on top and really sandwich the metal hard. A bead roller will make a mess of that panel too, unless you pre stretch every bead.

 

Undermined or not, the humor was still there.
No need to recover.

 

X2

 

There is a another thread currently running...."Tech week emboss your valve cover"..... that contains some good info and tips that may be applicable to your project. Not necessarily the whole process,but some of it, especially chasing of the embossed channels in your floor pan with a 'corking' tool. That is what I was referring to in an earlier post here. In any case, worth a look, IMO.

Ray