Tech! Floor patches without special tools! Added more!

Good tech post Jay!! I love seeing the low tech, low tool methods. Helps me listen to that little voice in the back of my head (I usually ignore) that says "you really don't need that tool (or machine) do you"
Jeff

 

Nice Work

/Stefan

 

Just a thought what if you used a piece of wood over the bead and hammer on the wood like a chisel ? Maybe it would control the hammer marks a little? Not that you have to be that fussy....But you could really get into some detail if you wanted....Great post!!!

 

Jay,
I'm in Jax. Where did you get the sheeting? Brennan? Doyle?
I could use a piece for some patch panels. PM me if you like.

Thanks

 

great read, THANKS! Slim

 

As I recall (and I don't think this is an urban myth) many of the military jeep repop sheetmetal parts came from the Phillipines, and were made in dirt-floor shops using very few tools.....

.

 

Now this gives me some hope

 

Jay. WOW!
I'm sick of Motor ciy, Overhauling, Orange county, East coast, West coast, south coast, north coast , Howe and Howe and all the other drama **** they put on TV anymore. This is what it's all about. You get you a TV show, I'll keep the ratings up.
Thanks

 

nicely done.

 

all tech week to the top 2

 

Great job & great idea. Low buck & home brewed, I love it. For some of my repairs I use the old roof skins off large older vehicles, Suburbans, etc. Real steel and heavy enough to hold up. Keep showing your repairs.

 

yes he said in the beginning he likes to use 20 guage for floors.

 

Amazing job Tinman!!! Congrats on the win...... Well deserved!!!

 

Nice job!

 

Nice work and congrats on winning Tech Week this time around. That is something that 90 percent of us guys can make use of at home in the garage at some time or other and I just might give it a go this weekend to see how a piece turns out.

As for finding the sheet metal or other metal for that part I'd do like Jay did and check around the local places that fabricate things out of similar metal. It seems that almost any town of any size has at least one shop that manufactures things out of metal be it hvac equipment, horse trailers or truck beds. Quite often a guy can buy their drops or s**** metal by the pound or by the piece.

 

LOL..
He also said later after **Strait-Edge** post that he edited it and added the 20 gauge remark..

Awesome Tech anyway..
I'm about to tackle my rear floor and trunk section with no tools...

 

Thanks for Pickking this to win,, I was really happy that Tech week fell at a time when I was doing something worthy of teching! Thought I had a chance of winning but the longer things got delayed the more I thought it was not gonna happen!

Anyway, here's how to work the seam,,, I'll let the pics tell the story.

 

good tech, thanks for sharing

 

Great tech! Doing what you need with what you have is what ingenuity is all about. Congrats on the win, it's well deserved.

 

Big Hats off to you Sir... very informative- use what you have but use your brain first !
great thinking out of the box..well deserved win !!
-41-

 

I see a falcon smiling....

 

I love this tech, glad I went back to see who the winner was.

One question though. I'll try it and experiment a bit, but when I do this type of stuff I like to use old roof skins and hoods and **** like that, and I'm thinking the 50's era sheetmetal I'm using will be considerably thicker than 20 gauge. Will the bead rolling trick still work on the heavier sheetmetal? I suppose I'll have to give it a try, but I'm curious to know if anyone has tried it on heavier stuff yet.

That's the best trick I've learned in a while. Once it warms up a bit I'll be back on my '40 Chrysler, which needs floors and skirts, so I'll be using two of the tech articles I read as a guide to build both of those things.

 

the biggest advantage I've seen to using old sheetmetal is when welding it. Even if it isn't a heavier gauge it seems to weld so much better than the new ****...

 

Should work ok on thicker stuff, just gonna have to hit it harder and more often. Good therapy though!

 

I've noticed that too. It welds easy, it already has primer or paint on at least one side of it, and it's usually the same gauge as the old cars I'm welding it into. Not to mention I don't have to pay for it.

I'll definitely be using this method to make my floors, and I'll be sure to take pics of the progress. It's a great idea, I never would have thought it would work. Now I need to buy a big dead blow hammer.

 

wow....wish I had thought of this...I'm new to this sheet metal forming stuff. I've been trying to lay the metal in and beat the tar out of it, test fit it, beat it some more....great for stress release.
Thanks for the great idea

 

Tinman,

My question is, after you use the rod and the ruler to make the indentations into the 20 gage sheet, you took them back off it looks like and only had the indentation.

was this step to strenthen the floorboard or was there another reason? Also, at some point did you add bracing to the floorboard to strenthen them?

I have a 1950 chev ambulance wit a rotted out floorboard. This looks like a good way to replace my floorboards too!

Let me know.

Kim (BiG DawG)

 

Yeah the indentations are for strength, like a bead roll only uses no machine. Help to keep it from oil canning when you step on it.

No other braces were added, but it will be getting ch***is conectors at some point.

 

Perfect I need no bead (roller) now.

 

Cool, so now you can come over and help me on my 62 Ranchero!



All the way into the bed, all the floors, the entire cowl...

Its alot of rust.

Yea, i drove it home like that.

Drive shaft tunnel actually broke on the way home. Thats when i decided to yank the carpet.