On Dec 17, 10:42 pm, "Robin S." wrote:
On Dec 17, 6:39 am, Jim Wilkins wrote:

On Dec 9, 9:47 am, "Ed Huntress" wrote:

... Making precision
replacement panels, especially ones that can fit together reasonably into a
complete car, like the ones described in that NYT article, is something else
again. As you mentioned, getting the springback right, and all the flanges
and so on is not the same thing as whacking out the basic shape....
Ed Huntress

I've only installed one of these, the radiator support (entire front
cross panel) for a Ranger.
It fit OK but not perfectly and had some wrinkling. I got the
impression that Veng's supplier had used an original for a model and
ignored springback.

You wouldn't be able to assemble the panels if the draw die had the
same geometry as the finished panel. In hard dies it's *impossible* to
ignore springback.....
(it takes *days* just to weld up 10mm of a
die surface -
Robin

It takes seconds to reshape the flange with a dolly and rubber hammer.
I had to pull the joints together with clamps and sheet metal screws
before welding. The radiator and other mounts have oversized holes and
the brackets were easy to bend with duckbill pliers.

I've done a lot more body work than this one piece, usually small-area
rust repair, and I make a patch that matches the curves, MIG it in
with a butt joint and hammer the area to shape. I haven't had much
luck with Bondo in rust-prone areas but except for fender flares they
usually are down low or within the wheel well and the curves don't
have to be perfect.

The junction of the wheel well and the strut tower was quite a project
to duplicate and it had to be waterproof.

Jim Wilkins