This fender came in a while ago to the shop I work at. It is off a 1954 Doretti Swallow. It was rolled up pretty good. The guy wants to know if we can fix it... When the damage happend, the aluminum work hardened, so to soften it up and make it easier to work, I annealed it. On aluminum, to anneal you take an acetylene torch, burning pure acetylene, and put a nice even coat of soot over the piece. Next, bring up a nice neutral flame, and burn off the soot. I dont quench or even use compressed air to cool it, but some people say it doesn't hurt anything. After I softened it up, I looked the panel over, and decided which direction most of the force had come from in the impact. I proceded to grab the wire edge with a pair of visegrips, and pull back towards the direction of force, while pressing down on the high creases. Doing that twice, annealing inbetween, got me here. Not good by any means, but a lot better. I repeated the vice grip method two more times, but with the fender flipped over, and pushing down on the dished area to flatten it out. A little hammer and dollie was done on the bottom edge to fix some of the tight creases. I dont have any more progress pics from here on out, I got too into it and forgot to take any pictures. Next i took the fender and laid it, upside down, into a shot bag. I then took a toe dollie, and with the slightly crowned side, beat it into the fender untill I had a decent shape into it. I dont have any fancy planishing hammers or e-wheels at my disposal, so next I found a nice flat, smooth section of concrete floor, and, again upside down, hammering from the inside of the fender, used it as a huge dollie, lightly hitting the highs first, then very lightly going over the entire area, planishing it out. This is how it ended up. Pictures of metal work always look better than in person, but this is pretty good for the 3 hours I put into it. It is by no means perfet, but a very light skim coat will take care of it nicely.
WOW! Umm, that made it look too easy, Great job. Thanks for posting, I learned the annealed 'trick'. Now to remember that for future use. CDNflatlander......not a body tech
Well, I'm glad someone learned something... that was what I was going for. Remember, only works on aluminum, well other metals too, but not steel.
Hey, Heating metal that has been folded, badly crushed or stretched, will help you to restore it to its old shape, but.......their are some who wouldn't call this annealing, but I would. When we heat aluminum we soften those grains in the metal with heat, when we heat badly crushed steel to a cherry red colour, and forge don't we also move those grains of metal? Swankey Devils C.C.
I've never heard that. Some people Oxy/Acetylene weld aluminum. Burning off the soot from the acetylene is the only way I've ever hear to guage annealing alluminum. Heating steel and working it hot does make forming it easier, but it is not technically annealing, because it does not remain easy to work after it has cooled, which is what annealing does.
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