I believe Sargent's book is still available from the Eastwood Company, (800) 343-9353, or www.eastwoodco.com.
Q.I subscribe to STREET RODDER and Classic Trucks, and each time I start to read them, I find myself going to your column first. Keep up the great work!
I have a problem that I hope you can help with. I'm helping a friend with the decklid on his 1964 Falcon; he sandblasted it and it has warped. Now, looking at the exterior of the skin, you can see the outline of the inner frame-it looks like the sheetmetal has stretched wherever there is an opening frame
I have begun shrinking the sheetmetal areas between the framework, but I'm not sure I'm going in the right direction. What's your theory on the reaction of metal after sandblasting a hood, decklid, or roof? And how can I fix this problem?RichVia the Internet
A.Sorry to hear about your friend's decklid! Sandblasting can easily warp sheetmetal unless it is done very carefully by an experienced person. The individual grains of media actually impact the sheetmetal hard enough to make it bulge out. I'm sure you can imagine how a shotgun blast will bulge metal where the individual pellets strike it; sandblasting does basically the same thing, even though each little particle is tiny!
An experienced sandblaster will never hold the gun straight on when blasting a sheetmetal panel. The proper technique is to hold the gun at a low angle so the media bounces off the surface, like skipping a rock across a pond. Also, the air pressure should be limited to the minimum amount required to do the job. More pressure increases the likelihood of warping.
Although sheetmetal can be shrunk with heat, shrinking a large area is a very delicate job, and it takes a highly skilled sheetmetal technician to repair a large low-crown panel like a decklid. For shrinking large areas a little bit, a shrinking disk (previously mentioned several times in "Professor Hammer") is probably a better tool to use than an oxyacetylene torch.
Even if the decklid can be straightened, it takes a huge amount of time to do a good job. With labor rates what they are today, it might be more feasible to find a good replacement panel!
Glad to hear you enjoy my columns in STREET RODDER and Classic Trucks-we'll keep 'em coming!
Now you can e-mail your questions to Professor Hammer at covell@cruzio.com or send mail to Professor Hammer c/o STREET RODDER, 774 S. Placentia Ave., Placentia, CA 92870. We'll print your name and city unless you request otherwise. Ron Covell has made several metalworking videos, and offers an ongoing series of workshops across the nation covering all aspects of metalworking. Check them out online at www.covell.biz, or call (800) 747-4631, or (831) 768-0705 for a current schedule of workshops, or for a free catalog of videos, books, and fine-quality metalworking tools. You can also send a request by mail to Covell Creative Metalworking, 106 Airport Blvd., #105, Freedom, CA 95019.