If you have a bead roller, and you try to add a wide or deep bead to a thin piece of metal; or multiple beads to the same piece, you will find the metal starts to deform. You may get perfect beads in the piece you are working on, but it suddenly looks like a metal potato chip. That is because the bead roller does not necessarily stretch the metal as it presses beads into it. If you have an English wheel you can fix this problem before you begin. This problem is especially bad when rolling beads that don’t go all the way to the edge, or rolling different length beads in the same panel. Follow along as we show you a simple way to keep your panel straight when bead rolling.
Tools & Equipment
Selecting the Right Air Compressor
An air compressors is a tool, specifically it is a tool to run other tools, unless you just need a volume of air compressed for a SCUBA tank or to inflate a tire. What sort and how big of a compressor you need is going to depend a lot on what sort of tools you need to run with it. A body shop running DA sanders and a paint booth all day long needs a much more robust compressor than an engine shop running impact guns and occasionally a media blast booth.
Sheet Metal Tools
A plasma cutter is a life saver for irregular shapes or thicker metal. Sure they are much more expensive than mechanical cutting tools, but for really complicated shapes and cut-outs nothing is faster and easier than a plasma cutter.
C-10 / C-20 Trailing Arm, Coil Spring Perch Rebuild
The rusty trailing arms on my 1963 C-20 were about as bad as they come, so much so I could reach my hand through some of the rust holes. About a year ago I stenciled out 3/16″ plate and welded them on both sides of the arms in order to regain structural rigidity so I could drive it safely. As you’ll see in later pictures I have yet to weld in one of the plates but it is already cut and will be welded in soon.
Sound Deadening Paint Sprays and Mats – Benefits & Application Tips
Cars have come a long way since WWII, but they haven’t really gotten any more enjoyable, which is why we all still like to play with our old cars. Plenty of people will argue about whether a new Honda Accord could beat a first generation Mustang in a race (it probably would, no matter whether a drag strip or a road course), but no one is going to argue about how much quieter it is inside the modern car. Sure that’s both good and bad; we want to hear the 289 roar, but that freeway drone gets old after an hour or two.
Generator Buyers Guide
Things to Consider When Shopping for a Generator We all like to get away from it all once in a while. Whether that is to a cabin, a remote off-road campsite, the racetrack, or just the parking lot of your favorite team’s stadium chances are there aren’t any electrical outlets […]
How to Port and Polish Cylinder Heads
Porting cylinder heads for better performance is as much an art as it is a science. Strange as it may seem, just making the intake and exhaust passages bigger will not always improve performance, and may actually hurt it. The expert port polishers are still guys with a lifetime of […]
How to Select a MIG Welder
So you are ready to get serious about your metal work, and you want to add a wire feed welder to your shop’s arsenal. Good for you, a welder is one of the most useful pieces of shop equipment. Below, we take a look at the features and specifications you […]
How to Select the Right Paint Gun
If you are the type of guy who likes to do everything himself, eventually you will have to go shopping for a proper paint gun. The paint job may be the last step of the job, but it’s likely the first part everyone sees . So getting the paint right […]