Dont worry i consider myself a dummy..........this post is for making aluminium blisters the easy/cheap way for cowl steering, hoods,covers.......whatever you can use them for...... step 1: i grabbed a peice of paper, drew out a half a teardrop and cut it out. trace it on a peice of aluminium, flip and trace again, walla! you have a teardrop!!!!! next, color the peice in with the sharpie(for anealing) it works really well trust me! Anealing:softening the alum. so its really malable(easy to beat on) now turn your torch on hold it back and slowly burn the sharpie off the peice you colored in......and let it cool when the piece cools off, re draw the teardrop(you can see the outline still), then if you have a shotbag, start beating the **** out of the teardrop, starting in the center. if you dont have a shot bag, get a wood stump, (preferably hard wood) and carve a teardrop in it, i found an old piece of hard plastic stock and carved it in there to show you that its an easy, cheap way of doing it! after a few hard blows to it the piece your working with will sometimes be a ***** and bend in a u shape, just grab a rubber hammer flip it over on a steel table and hit the top of the bend, a few light hits will get it flat again(rubber hammers shrink metal beleive it or not) once you have the general shape, and smoothER, i cut it out of the big peice, cause the blister has a natural curve to it from taking the blows. so i get my body hammer and go around it several times until it sits flat on the table it still needs some treatment so throw it back on a bag and softly hit it.....hit the little spots out here are 2 stages of a blister one is rough.... other is the one im workin on, i use a 3m scotch pad to clean up little imperfect bumps,files work well too. once you have it semi smooth, grab some 150 (or so)grit sandpaper and hand sand it..... after that throw some polish on your bench polisher and shine her up! Its by NO means perfect but what is? im only 19 years old and tought myself this stuff so the "sheetmetal police" dont laugh!! now grab that little guy and use it on something! there great for cowl steering, brake master covers,clearance issues on hoods, or cups! So if this dumb tech halps even 1 person ill feel good for today! thanks for bearing down to read this. now go try them, it only took me about 30 minutes to figure it out, its something you can smile about really fast(cheap entertainment i guess) -Jordan
Awesome tech brother! I've been meaning to give it a shot, I was actually looking through an old Street Rodder today that did it. The last shot is priceless hahaha
This blister looks better than the blood one on my index finger, finger started out about the same as the sheet of metal and looks similar to your end results. I recomend for the "Dummies" side of the tech not to hammer your finger to the bottom of an axle while knockin out king pins.
LOL I did this on Sat too. Only I did it putting them back in... Good post! ?? Does the shot bag have to be leather? I mean, when you buy shot, it is in a bag. Will it work, or do you have to make a leather bag?
Thanks Jordan. I was actually planning on having one made by a shop but now im thinking I can do it myself. I'll use the money that I saved and spend it on some tools.
Good tech, it fun beating on metal like that, and each part you make is really yours. I've done similar parts for aircraft using a heavy nylon bag filled with dry sand, just be sure the bag will take the abuse or you'll end up with a big mess.
Nice!!! I am definitely going to need this thread when I go to make the blisters on the hood sides for that Hemi. Your like Mr. Wizard only less fingers.
summit racing has the bag, or the bag filled, it works really well, ive made some cool stuf with it, the first thing i made was for my girlfriend for valentines day!!
The bag can be anything. The bag your shot comes in will probably last about 2 minutes before it spills shot all over the place, but it WILL work. Leather just takes the abuse better. Glenn
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