I noticed a couple of sheet metal/panel replacement threads, and remembered someone recently asking if a shrinker/stretcher is a good tool to have

In a nutshell YES, a shrinker/ stretcher is a good tool to have if you are doing a rustorations etc..

On my 911 I cut part of the door jambs off to allow access for rust repair, Then I needed to recreate part of the door jamb to support the glass quarters I was hanging on the car..

this pic show the top and bottom part of the door jamb, I have to recreate the bottom half of the door jamb...

First I think 22 gauge is more than sufficient, so I bent a piece, a 90 deg 3/8 X 1"

Then I used the shrinker/stretcher to form this piece to match the door jamb

Here Ive welded the piece in

Shoot some zinc primer to hold it

door and quarter panel rehung

wow! that looks nice where can you get one? and about how much do they run?

http://vansantent.com/

Eastwood also sells them and even McMaster-Carr

Tim,
Nice work, now can you make me a entire truck?

Paul

Paul sorry to hear about the loss of your truck.. that sucks big time..

And if and when you get it back it is "soiled"

Im just a sheet metal chump though..Ghia specialties? He is the artiste here

Hi Tim,

Nice job! And thanks for the kind words about my hackery! Thoses shrinker and stretcher tools are pretty handy. It's amazing what can be done with them. I cut out the throat on my shrinker so I could reach into a panel a little bit further, and set the jaws up to hold a strip of sand paper (a Kent White trick) so that they do not mar the sheet metal so much. The trick with using these tools, and most metal working, is that you need to manipulate the metal by hand during the process by bending or tweaking to get it to go where you want it to. The tools alone will not so the job.

I find myself doing more tuck shrinking and simple hammer stretching nowadays though. You can buy those at www.covell.biz from one of the nicest guys in the metalshaping world....Ron Covell. For anyone thinking of buying these tools with a limited budget...the shrinker is far more handy than the stretcher. You can stretch metal pretty easily with a a small faced hammer over a flat sheet of steel plate. Shrinking is a little more difficult without the tool. Here is an album with samples of tuck shrinking using a steel hammer and a steel work surface:

http://allshops.org/cgi-bin/community/comm...d=9980191607382

"tiny shrink" at the bottom of the album is on a flange similar to what Tim is working on.

John www.ghiaspecialties.com

I noticed the beer in one pic and in another it was gone! hehe

Nice work!

I might suggest one mod to the shrinker you will love!! This is a FRONT air brake off of a truck, with the shinker on top. You will have to make a mounting plate to bolt the shrinker to, then bolt the plate to the air brake. Lengthen the arm on the shrinker and fab up a mount for the piston on the air brake to bolt onto the shrinker arm. (I used the clip that came on the brake, already threaded, just had to cut apart and move the arms out some.)!

In an effort to keep things compacted (as you can tell I have little werking room) I put an upright arn on each side of my E-wheel with a vise on one side, the shrinker on the other and when I get time to werk on the monstrosity again I will put a removable arm on the backside for my Beverly shear and any other future items.

QUOTE

I noticed the beer in one pic

hehehe product placement LOL

Scott:

Ive seen shrinker/stretchers with rams etc that power them, I prefer to run them by hand, I like to have the "feel" of how the metal is responding to my inputs. I think that will be lost if the tool is pneumatically aided

In all it took me about an hour to form,fit, weld in, finish, and prime that one door jamb. This is of course after I laid out my plan of attack..

oh yea, wish I had an english wheel.. you fabbed that frame yourself?

QUOTE (TimT @ May 8 2005, 05:14 PM)

oh yea, wish I had an english wheel.. you fabbed that frame yourself?

Yup. 3/8 diamond plate with 4" spacers running through the inside and a 4" x 4" box frame under it. Been werking onit for 2 years and still not happy enough with it to paint it