How To Shrink Sheet Metal With Heat

Before you start working the precious metal on your hot rod try heating and hammering some scrap.

How to shrink sheet metal with heat.

Start by heating a small area around the size of a dollar coin in a tight circular motion working into the centre to give the metal a cherry. Heating up metal and throwing cold water on it may shrink it a tiny bit but it makes distortion and hard steel. If you ve done it right this action will cause the metal to pucker on the edge and give you a little ripple or ridge. Once red hot quickly work the area with hammer and dolly to gather the metal into the centre of the cherry then deliver a swift blow to the centre of the heat shrink to push the metal back into itself.

Propane can do the same thing although it is a much more crude method. Then take your teardrop mallet and make one hard blow on the metal driving down and towards the outside of the bowl. In this very short video i will show you how to repair shrink sheet metal and stiffen body panels the easy wa. Get used to this idea and your abilities will grow.

Because of this you need to check the surface temperature with heat crayons. This takes away some of the stretch. Do not over heat the steel. The bulge can then be tapped down flat with a hammer and dolly to thicken the metal in that spot.

Welding suppliers carry a wide. Why not just heat it and gently hammer the swell down. A common recommended fix is to use oxy acetylene heat to create a localized hot spot that bulges the metal above the mean surface of the panel. You do not want to heat a new area of metal before the preceding area has cooled so be patient.

Heat to blue only and shrink that much. Start by placing the sheet metal over the bowl so it covers the bowl and lays as flat as you can hold it.