Fashionable Fever! - 1969 Chevy C10 Build

[mr.mud1]

if you need to make sharper bends on your material,the shrinker/stretcher will do it.i've bent some metal on mine making pieces for my 39 Chrysler project,no problem.what i found helped was not putting the metal into the jaws very deep and it'll curl right around.

[ryans69chevy]

Originally Posted by OneOffStroker

Sorry it took me so long to respond. Been out of town.

I had some old 3" angle iron out back, so I cut it into a pretty simple little contraption that stands on the floor and has an arm that mounts into my bench vise. This was the best mix of portable/stowable as well as using the least amount of raw material to make. Foot pedal is pretty simple, and goes to a small bar with a little 'flag' mounted to it. pedal to arm is just a piece of 1/2" EMT conduit smashed on either end. Like I said, it's all made from whatever scrap worked out best. It takes about 1 minute to swap from shrinker to stretcher using the two bolts underneath and the allen screw that holds in the arm rod.

Appreciate the pictures on your setup. Gives me some ideas if I get tired of holding the piece with one hand and pumping with the other. Right now, I just bolted it to a plywood bench stand that I built when I hung my kitchen cabinets. Works nicely other than bending over to do the work.

[ryans69chevy]

Originally Posted by Palf70Step

Good to see you getting back to the ole dude again. Work is coming out very nice.

Thanks for the words. Spent yesterday evening grinding welds and removing paint. Also went on the hunt for some dixie cups to get the epoxy primer out of my qt can. Can't waste one drop of that expensive stuff. Turns out, those little dixie cups are hard to come by. Went to the local grocery - no dice, went to the local big box store - nothing. I think tonight I'm going to run to the liquor store.... I bet they would have them for making jello shots.

[ryans69chevy]

Originally Posted by mr.mud1

if you need to make sharper bends on your material,the shrinker/stretcher will do it.i've bent some metal on mine making pieces for my 39 Chrysler project,no problem.what i found helped was not putting the metal into the jaws very deep and it'll curl right around.

Yes! That's what I found out after my first piece turned into a trial run, I just messed around with it and found out some tricks with the tools. Still got to master exactly where the bend will happen once I put it in the tools. Ive just been cutting the piece longer than normal, making my bend and cutting it so the bend is where I need it, but if I have to do multiple bends in a run, it would be nice to know exactly where to start bending if that makes sense?

Any words of advice on that?

[ryans69chevy]

Finally tracked some of those dixie cups down at my local diner. First time mixing up epoxy. Mixed up less than an oz. and it was still way more than I needed. I put a lid on it and hoping to use it up tomorrow on some other areas.

As you can see I tried to save a buck and mixed the stuff up in a paper cup instead of using the bigger plastic paint cups I bought with the epoxy. The primer ate right through the paper - stupid mistake.

Hopefully now that I have (i think) everything I need to get this firewall seam done, it will go alot faster.

[ryans69chevy]

Forgot to take a couple pics of the face of the firewall. That metal is also being replaced at the same time and epoxy primer applied.

[ryans69chevy]

More welding, more grinding.

[Kronald_70GMC]

Looking good!