Ray Field wrote:
Metal worms have eaten a few holes in my '68 Austin front floors. Original
pans have half round stiffening ribs pressed into them.
Is there any simple method of reproducing these ribs in sheet metal 0.034 to
0.040 inch thick using hand tools, arbor press, heavy vice or other simple
workshop tools.
Ribs are semi circular cross section 3/8 inch radius, longest rib about 9
inches, other ribs same size are at right angle but separated by 3/4 inch
from cross rib. Will be making up patches about 9 inches square.
Any ideas or methodology will be appreciated (not car crusher or Jewish
lightning please).
Ray


If you have enough throat depth on your arbor press to reach the
center of the sheet, then an arbor press could do it. What you'd need
is a set of dies, one with a half-round bump on it, and one with a
half-round depression slightly larger than the bump, to account for
the material thickness. But, putting these ribs in a little at a time
might warp the sheet pretty badly.

Well, if you are only going to patch 9" squares at a time, you could
pount them flat after the rib is made.

Jon