I found a retired machinist on craigslist that's teaching me the mill and lathe for his hourly rate. I dont want to learn bodywork from some gypsy on there so I figured id throw it out there and see if someone that knows what they're doing is interested. preferably at my shop in burbank/glendale since id like to learn on my own car and working environment, but I could go to you as well. anybody? cl***? cl***? Ferris? thanks guys!
take a few cl***es at a jr. college ive done that when i was in my early 20's, we brought in our own stuff to work on too. just an idea, good luck.
post a pic of your project. what kind of experience do you have now? are you starting from bare scratch not knowing anything? know your way around the shop and how mechanically inclined are you? questions and answers that will help out potential people
well I know how to sand but really aside from that id like to learn from the ground up. I'm not so worried a about welding or rust repair, I'm talking mud work / proper technique/how to address my issues on my car specifically ideally. I've replaced all the mechanicals and its time for paint!
oh its a 51 ford choppedd lots of mud and wa es and painted over surface rust. I've rentrd a bunch of smartflick vids got lots of books but I need someones experience to show me I cant post pics right now but its a ****py looking old ford with cracking bondo, waves, and surface rust coming thru old primer.
Hey, This sounds like a good way to go for the repair of your vehicle. Videos & cl***room instruction will only teach theory, ya gotta get dirty & break a sweat to master the skill! As an aside, there are two very different types of ''bodywork".................there is what is known as traditional or old world bodywork which consists of metalfinishing i.e. no plastic fillers, and little solder (lead ) used as a filler. This method is still in use today in high end cl***ic & sports car & restoration shops. The second method is production work, as praticed in collision repair shops, and most home shops. This method uses short cuts such as the heavy use of plastic filler to sidestep actual straightening of sheetmetal & panel replacement when possible. This method is perhaps to answer why your Ford is in the current shape its' in. When you hire someone you may wanna ask if they can show you some of their skills from both of the above methods. There's a good amount of information here on the HAMB, and I'd suggest you look up HAMBers claymore, john kelly, & overspray's posts on the subject. Good luck. " Life ain't no Disney movie "
Rent Shrinking Magic and Fender Arches from Smartflix.com. Doing metalwork starts with understanding how the metal moves. Understanding how and why metal shrinks and how it shows up in metal is essential to working the metal. Every weld is a shrink point that must be corrected. Fender Arches you watch a pro put together a fender patch from scratch. You see how he works the metal. I found I watched the videos and then went out in the shop and tried some steps, then went back and watched them again. They can be boring, but the devil is in the details. You watch how the pros work the hammer and the metal and work that into your techniques. Before long you are doing MUCH better metal work. Read the metal work forums too. There is a ton of quality info just sitting on the web waiting for you. The problem with finding a local body guy is they may not really know how to work the metal. They know how to make a car look great to go out the door, but the metal work may be horrible. I relied on 40 year experienced autobody guy and the advice he gave me turned out to be totally wrong for getting the metal level. Works great when you are sliming metal with lots of bondo, but not what I was looking to do. Using what I learn I managed to make all the patches for my Model A from scratch and get them in place. The first ones did not go in so good, but by the end was doing some pretty good work.
Thank you for the advice, fellas! I haven't seen those videos, but I did buy a shrinking disk that's in a box someplace. It's good advice, I'd rather make my own patches than buy them if I can help it(but not on this one, I'm already in decent shape there) and understanding how metal works is baffling to me. I'm still looking for someone if anybody is available.
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