How To Shrink Sheet Metal With Heat

If you ve done it right this action will cause the metal to pucker on the edge and give you a little ripple or ridge.

How to shrink sheet metal with heat.

A common recommended fix is to use oxy acetylene heat to create a localized hot spot that bulges the metal above the mean surface of the panel. Then take your teardrop mallet and make one hard blow on the metal driving down and towards the outside of the bowl. At 550 degrees f you can shrink the aluminum without affecting the temper or hardness. Heating up metal and throwing cold water on it may shrink it a tiny bit but it makes distortion and hard steel.

The bulge can then be tapped down flat with a hammer and dolly to thicken the metal in that spot. Once red hot quickly work the area with hammer and dolly to gather the metal into the centre of the cherry then deliver a swift blow to the centre of the heat shrink to push the metal back into itself. Propane can do the same thing although it is a much more crude method. Why not just heat it and gently hammer the swell down.

This takes away some of the stretch. This works the other doesn t. In this very short video i will show you how to repair shrink sheet metal and stiffen body panels the easy wa. Before you start working the precious metal on your hot rod try heating and hammering some scrap.

Get used to this idea and your abilities will grow. You do not want to heat a new area of metal before the preceding area has cooled so be patient. Because of this you need to check the surface temperature with heat crayons. Do not over heat the steel.

Start by placing the sheet metal over the bowl so it covers the bowl and lays as flat as you can hold it. Heat to blue only and shrink that much.