I am working on a 1959 Nash Metropolitan with EXTENSIVE rust. I need to buy some 18 gauge sheetmetal to fix the floor pans, rockers etc.. There seems to be an infinite variety of sheetmental types and grades. Where do you buy your sheetmetal, what SPECIFICALLY should I get and how much is the stuff?
Depending on what I'm working on patch panels or floors ,,I buy a 4' x 8' cold roll steel,, cheaper that way. HRP
What he said...plus the price a year ago was 45 for 4x8 18ga cr. I'd bet it has gone up a lot with the $4 gas-$5 diesel prices still affecting what steel is in stock at many places, and was stocked when the prices were up. Look in your yellow pages; I think under "steel, sheet & tube" ??
You are right,,a year ago it was around 50 bucks,,I bought a sheet of 20 gauge the week before Christmas,,,76 bucks. And what F&J said,,look in the yellow pages under steel. HRP
Frigo Design out of Buffalo (I think) will sell you a TON for a decent price.....but you gotta pay for shipping. I got in on a group buy a couple of years ago and bought 500lbs. At the time it cost around $100 for a quarter of the ton, shipping included. $400 sounds like a alot, but you can build a whole damn car with that much metal! Paid $43 a sheet for 5 sheets of 19ga at the same time. I haven't bought steel for a while now.............. Tim D.
Go to your local A/C shop that do home in stalls. its has a galvanied layer on top but you just strip it off with acid. i'm sher they be willing to give you some s****s of what they have lying around. thats the cheap way to go. you never know what they'll give ya
In NJ I found two places I use. Metal Supermarket, 908 757 0404 In Plainfield (Central Jersey) and Fazzio Inc, 856 881 3185 in Gl***boro (So Jersey). Both are reasonable while Fazzio's has a much larger selection of Steel, Aluminum, stainless and other fabrication items. Depends were you live as to which one you might want to buy from. Call for current pricing.
Just bought some here locally last week. 18 gauge was $62 for a 4x10 sheet and 16 gauge was $70 for the same size sheet.
Look in the paper for the free stoves , fridges and washers !! Good free or cheap metal there . I go out to the s**** yard and you can get some cheep metal there too ! Take the roof off a car at the salvage yard . That is the cheapest metal you can get and a lot cheaper than new !
I part out a lot of old cars and I always have old hoods and trunklids laying around, so I use those. A roof skin off of a parts car has a ton of open sheetmetal, and a lot of times there are curves and shapes in the pieces that you can use, easier than making them. No modern stuff, early 70's and back. I don't cut up any good panels, but a trunklid with the bottom lip rotted off can provide an expanse of nice clean sheetmetal and is basically free. Also, for whatever reason, I find it's easier to weld on the used sheetmetal pieces than it is on cold rolled steel. I don't know if it has some kind of slag or oil on it from the mill process, or if it's just made differently, but it just doesn't feel right. The used stuff also has the benefit of having old paint on it which is nice if you weld it into an area where you can't get at the back side, protects it somewhat.
bronc4019 - how much, how soon and where are you in NJ. I'm in CNJ and I can help you out with sheetmetal. drop me a PM and I'll get back to you ASAP
try you local heating and air company - lots of s**** pieces real cheap - 14 ga. - lots of it is galvy but works well for floor pans and splas aprons - Ja**
I bought about 15,000 lbs of several different gages of sheet metal about 6 months ago for some of the guys on the west coast. It cost about $43 per sheet, for 18 gage CR. Tim mentioned Frigo Design in NY. Here is an Ebay listing of their 18 gage. Some of the MetalMeet guys have used their stuff before. http://search.stores.ebay.com/FRIGO...ESIGNQQfsooZ1QQfsopZ1QQsaselZ32473936QQsofpZ0
I use the local sheetmetal shop the installs duckwork for a/c installers and fabs up sheet metal for commerial job site , they aways have full and partial s****e sheets and left over pieces that you can go through and usually get a good price on,,,,,,
Don't know if they still do but years ago most autobody and paint supply stores used to stock 4'x4' sheets and could get bigger sheets if you needed it.
I use both of them too. Fazzio also has a locaion in Farmingdale, but they don't cut there, they just stock it so there's less options. Samson is also really good, but pricey. Lately they've all been through the roof.
The Jalopy Journal
