"Ed Huntress" wrote in message
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"RogerN" wrote in message
m...
snip

I guess you weren't trying to make waves in a stormy sea? You can always
sell your failures as modern art!

RogerN

What failures? They were successful experiments. g

I was working 3003 aluminum, and it's tricky to shrink it with hand tools.
It can be done; you just need to develop some expertise.

Like a lot of metalworking pursuits, you have a few choices. If you want
to build replica bodies or something, you'll need all the tools or a
lifetime of learning and practice. (You'll still need a lot of both, even
with all the tools.) Or you can confine yourself to making simple patch
panels without much crown, and do it all with hand tools (and the flanger
that a couple of folks have mentioned) -- and patience.

I had no interest in making a lifetime hobby out of it, so I just tried
the hand methods. I made my own wooden hammers and sand bag; I hollowed
out a stump with my disc sander; and I made my own slappers. My total
investment, including the dollies and metal hammers that I bought, was
less than $150.

It was fun to play with it and to get an idea of what's involved. And I
could see how some people get a lot of pleasure out of it. Doing it well
is a real art.

If you look at the Tinman's pages, you'll see some of the art at its
highest level.

--
Ed Huntress

I'm not wanting to spend the time and money to do auto body professionally
or anything like that. The part I would like to form is almost flat, I need
to patch a hole in the side of a door, not much shaping to it. One idea I
have for rust repair, not sure if it's any good, is to make a male mold by
building up a panel with bondo and shaping. Then use that bondo patch to
make a mold to lay up fiber glass repair panels. Trim the sheet metal back,
knock out the temporary bondo plug used for the mold, and glue the
fiberglass patch to the metal. The idea being that the fiberglass wouldn't
rust in a place where the metal did.

RogerN