I had less time in this repair than the insurance company and 2 local collision shops estimated for using bondo > BTW I LOVE this car and have dibs on it should it ever go up for sale

Nice work! ... never know it's there now!

Much better than goop!

Nice that you can do your own work.

Solid work - that looks great!

Was that a shrinking disc on the grinder?

Nice! That's the way it should be.

yep. Rubber mallet, followed by a little hammer and dolly, followed by h shrinking disk. One of John Kelly's own

Nice job as always scotty

Genius.

And Speed Yellow 993 - just about my favourite 911 ever!

Excellent work! I wonder how much lighter the DP car would be if I took out all the bondo.
Mark D.

Show off

Scotty I dnk John K still in the metal fab biz? Last I heard he was doing the B&B thing down the WA coast?

Very Nice Job

True art!
There is no substitute for experience.

Yep, very nicely done.

Scotty,

So splain the shrink disc to me please (or vendor). I always used a low heat torch setting and dollys in the past. Does it draw the metal up tight after it expands? No Tiger Hair or Bondo needed?

I'm all about shrinkage for necessity, ummm, limited to vehicle body work that is.

Fuching amazing.

Metal work done by an artist.

Nice work.

You're an artist!!!

Simply put, spot heating and shrinking is just that. It does a great job but only works a small area. the shrinking disc heats a larger area and while heating it you can use the disc to manipulate the metal and " move " it where you need it. Then you quickly cool the area with a wet rag just like you would using a torch. that draws everything up tighter and locks it in place.

It's nice to know there are still some craftsmen out there.

That is why he has my car One of the best, no doubt.

Shrinking. Its like magic!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8cruauERmI

Worth a bump

Dont be shy about hiring Scotty.

Hell if I lived closer I'd work with him for free just to gain the knowledge.

List of skills:
-I can order pizza
-Crack open beer
-Sweep floors
-Make sweet ipod playlists
-I know a lot of women in the Richmond area.....not really a skill but a benefit.

Edit- Actually that IS a skill.

Are those shrinking disks still for sale or is he out of the trade now?

rich

Scotty,

Have you got a disc size and material if he's no longer in business?

Also the degree of angle on the edge would help as well.

Dave

Ahh it's nice to see someone else knows how to do metal finish, it's becoming a lost art

So does this disk give more of a metal on metal as to heat the highs and not remove any material? That is what I am getting from the video.

I would love to learn more of this stuff

As said before, this kind of metalworking skill is becoming a lost art. Carry on, sir!

-S

Nice job Scotty - Make sure you pass that knowledge on to someone. Exactly when did body fillers become the standard? Have you guys gone to waterborne base coats yet?

I haven't heard from Jon in a while now. I assume he is still doing cars, but I do know the hotel gig was eating up alot of his time.

As far as the disk, there are several people that sell them. A guy I took a class from makes a really nice one he sells on e-bay and is in your neck of the woods Rich.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/COMBO-Shrinking-Di...=item19cb569e51

A lot of shops are converting here, but it is not mandatory. We keep watching the northern Va D.C. area. Once they go mandatory, we will be next Fortunately I couldn't afford a downdraft booth when I was looking so I ended up with a crossflow, which from what I'm told eliminates the need for all the fans when converting to waterborn. For the first time in my life, being broke worked out for the best

There are a couple of online groups that share information about metalshaping:

http://www.metalmeet.com/
http://www.allmetalshaping.com/

Metalmeet puts on an event in the little village of Oblong Ill. every October. I attended my first meet in '06. Learned a lot about the craft! Highly recommended if you want to learn to do this stuff!

Wow! I can't believe how straight you got it !!! I still like bondo...it's like fake boobs, just feels different and may go bad In time...

When you care enough to give the very best....

.......You made the car look good! (nice job)

what a stud

The work of an artist. Though this 993 is worthy, I positively lusted for the 930 you had in shop awhile back.

Beautiful job.

nice work... I hope to have a shop out back some day....

I got my disk from John. I didn't have or use a 7 inch sander or grinder at the time. I don't have any grip in my left hand to hold on to one. So to use the disk I went to my Hf and bought a cheap 9k grinder. They didn't have a 7 inch 9k rubber pad so I got a 5k one. You should have seen me holding on to that grinder with just my right hand as the backing pad started coming apart. It threw pieces 40 yards out in all directions until it got to nothing and I could release the switch and loosen my grip on the monster.

My disk doesn't have a formed edge, it's pretty sharp. What I like about the disk is if you bump a area up too far the disk will take it back down. On a demo John beats the crap out of a piece of metal twice and puts it back good both times.

I have one of John's early disks with the safety edge and it's one of my favorite tools.

Well worth the money. Not sure if he still makes them.

Had to laugh at Charliew's comments . Bought a rubber backing disk from Harbor Freight to act as a backup, and it did the same thing.

Harbor Freight, where Quality is erratic and the pieces fly far.

Ken

Beauty!!

I have one of John's disks with the formed edge and haven't figured out how to not destroy the metal with it. Unless you're working a high crown piece like in the video, it's hard to hit the work with anything but the edge of the disk, witch gets all torn up and starts tearing into the work. I've filed and sanded down the burrs repeatedly but it seems to keep happening. I've kind of given up on it.

Nathan,

No problems with mine.

How fast is your disk spinning? If it spins too fast, it may be microwelding. Do you have a variable speed grinder or did you buy one of those 9000 rpm one- speed-fits-all grinders. Eastwood reccomends a 1000-3000 rpm Dewalt for their disk.


Scotty, great work! Takes talent to do the metalwork like that.

Ken

I'm using a milwaukee variable speed 0-1750 grinder/polisher. Maybe it's too slow, it gets bits of the mild steel clinging to it, which tear into the work.

I gave it another try just now. I had this notion before of being able to raise the low spots with it. It says you can do that, but you can only use the edge and it gets the "shards" built up quickly. Working down a high spot on some thicker metal, it worked some, but I find it quite destructive.

I don't want to hijack the thread. The fender looks great. Reminds me of a magazine article, this guy repaired an old pickup fender with a tig welder, an english wheel, hammer and dolly. -really inspired me to see that, no bondo solution.

Not intending to one up Scotty:

Here is a couple of crappy cell phone pics of my sons new car. His GF pulled out infront of a car from a blind spot and got bagged.

I repaired it without breaking the paint. The plastic bumper cover needs paint work but the fender is good to go.

Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment

The end result

Click to view attachment

I am by no means a body guy....
But my bmw had that same area dented...DAPO pushed in the section right around the blinker.

I used a heat gun and about 1/4 of masking tape on my hammer and dollies...
Took me about three hours of being gentle to pursuade it to pop out with no paint damage.

Its not perfect, but it hold the light now.

RIch