Repro wrinkles

[abrahamfh]

Does anyone have any experience removing the wrinkles/ripples/waves out of repro sheet metal.

 

[Midlife]

A hammer and dolly does wonders in the right hands.

Seriously, it's not rocket science to use a dolly to smooth out those wrinkles.

 

[mustangstofear]

Dolly what you can, then after you weld it in a coat of body filler and it will all go away. Rich.

 

[abrahamfh]

Are these scratches on all of them. Yikes.

 

[B67FSTB]

I would weld it in first and afterwards I would massage it with a dolly and hammer till the wrinkles are out of it.
The rest with some minor body filler like MUSTANGSTOFEAR already noticed.

 

[napaguy]

Abe,
That actually looks better than a lot of the reproduction stuff I have seen...just weld the thing in and quit worrying about it. If you want a showcar then maybe I would say different

 

[buckeyedemon]

same here. after welding it in, i used a hammer and dolly with light taps to remove those wrinkles.

 

[jtfx6552]

Generally, I haven't been a fan of "American Designer" sheet metal, but the repro apron I got from them had less wrinkles than the whatever brand that one is.

There were some, but not as bad.

 

[abrahamfh]

Generally, I haven't been a fan of "American Designer" sheet metal, but the repro apron I got from them had less wrinkles than the whatever brand that one is.

There were some, but not as bad.

Scott Drake repro

 

[B67FSTB]

To be honest....I am not a Scott Drake fan.Quality is poor I have noticed over the years. :confu :confu

But for sheetmetal , it isn't that important unless you are building a concour corect car.

You just have a bit more work.It sharpen your skills Abe !! :roll :roll

 

[apollard]

Yikes! Talk about wrinkles.

Note to self: When fixing the battery apron, patch in the fix, throw away rest of repro panel.

 

[Ponyman66]

Actually guys, those wrinkles are formed by a poorly designed die for the stamping. It didn't allow for proper movement of the metal when pressed. While not totally avoidable, most are designed to allow for the wrinkles (due to the metal stretching), outside the finished piece area and are then trimmed. If you simply start dollying those wrinkles it will stretch the metal out of shape. It doesn't need dollied out, as much as the area needs to shrunken (shrinked?). This would be REALLY apparent if it's installed and then dollying started. I can almost guarantee the panel would start oil canning!

 

[buckeyedemon]

there's no sign of oil canning on mine.

 

[Ponyman66]

Nice job! That's why I said "almost guarantee"! :roll

The wrinkles in Abe's panel do look to be a little more extensive and across a larger area. I could just be seeing a little more in his pic than is actually there. If dollying the wrinkles out was the desired route to take, IMHO, I'd do it before welding just to allow the metal to stretch out a little easier. It would also be easier to trim back up if necessary. Just a thought.

 

[abrahamfh]

Nice job! That's why I said "almost guarantee"! :roll

The wrinkles in Abe's panel do look to be a little more extensive and across a larger area. I could just be seeing a little more in his pic than is actually there. If dollying the wrinkles out was the desired route to take, IMHO, I'd do it before welding just to allow the metal to stretch out a little easier. It would also be easier to trim back up if necessary. Just a thought.

Thank you for the tips guys. I will try to get as many of those wrinkles out before welding it in.

I'll post up with the results.

 

[abrahamfh]

It seems as though the repro I have now is actually a little better than the initial I chopped up for the patch.

 

[cmayna]

I have nothing to add except.

"good golly miss Dolly"




Abe, don't get too anal about these little wrinkles, unless you are turning your car into a trailer queen. Get that stuff welded in painted and you'll soon forgot about it.

 

[Ponyman66]

Abe, as Craig said, don't worry too much about those wrinkles! I FINALLY got beautiful weather today in order to go work on my coupe. The project of the day was replacing the right front apron. The original had a small amount of wrinkles in it! Hadn't paid attention to it before. The kicker is, my repop (which is a Spectra piece), was almost smooth as a baby's butt...no wrinkles at all!! Weld on brother!!