straightening metal front grilles

[comfortablynumb]

Hi all,
Just picked up 3 mk1 cortina front grilles. They're pretty good, but have some small dings to the crossbars.
I'm scared of work hardening and cracking the metal if I just use the hanner and dolly technique.
Anybody got any tips?



Sorry about useless pics!

[rude]

Don't know about anybody else but I've had reasonable success using a recently sawn tree trunk that is slightly con-caved from wood chopping and a normal pin hammer. The wood acts as a soft surface in the middle which is harder towards the outer edge and that you can beat onto and then dressed the tin accordingly. You can also cut slots into the wood to suit or hold the panel as well.
I've also tried making dollies out of hardwood shaped to whatever profile I need but it takes way too long and is a bit cack-handed to use.
It's all a bit primitive and there must be better ways but I tend to use just what's laying about.

[Deleted]

Has above wood can be made into formers - I also have a couple of beech bolster type chisel / drifts that are made for chasing in / forming lead work on property roofs and these work very well if chasing out a dent from behind - place the grill against a ply surface initially then use a sandbag has the profile starts to form - use wet & dry on a block to work any minor imperfection's on the front face working your way through the grades to 1500 / 2000 then polish - you need to take care has you state not overwork the alloy - but you should be fine looking at the damage in the pics and I have certainly repaired worse before today - see link below for the beech chase wedges (they call them)


www.lb-restoration.co.uk/cgi-bin/store/commerce.cgi?cart_id=1492200284.14280&product=RESTORATION&pid=400

[Darkspeed]

Annealing the alloy a little will help in avoiding cracking it - rub a bit of soap on it then heat until the the soap goes very dark brown - black and then stop and let it cool. remember that its quite a bit softer now so will be easy to mark so make sure whatever you use to hit it with to remove the dents/reform it is not rough or sharp.

[vulgalour]

Is the soap just used as a visual indicator for the amount of heat applied, or is there some other purpose behind it?

[Darkspeed]

Well both, the purpose is that the soap . BAR TYPE .not the pump in a jar stuff goes dark brown black at the temp Ali anneals.

[comfortablynumb]

Thanks Guys, will give it a go, cheers

[skkylinedave]

Wooden handle of a hammer works as well for annealing temperature, it will leave a mark when it's right.

I'm not convinced you will need to annual it.

I would get some bits if wood, pine kindling or similar soft wood shaped to suit and give it a few light taps to start with, see if if moves. even better if you can get someone else to hold a block of wood on the goid side to absorb some of the force and support the parts you do not want to move.

[skkylinedave]

Maybe try googling the problem, I'm betting thete us a YouTube video which will explain better.

[comfortablynumb]

I did google it but couldn't find much, maybe my google-fu is weak

[rude]

It's old skool repairs... Not compatible with internet...