I mentioned earlier that you had to have certain equipment to do bodywork. A good place to work was mentioned, as well as a good air compressor. But there are many little things that someone who hasn't been around body shops might not be aware of. This is by no means meant to be an all inclusive look at body working tools, or even car restoration for that matter. But I accidentally misplaced my cutting chisle for awhile and realized how important it really was. That made me think this might be a good time to do a little blurb on some of the tools being used to restore this car.
This is my air chisle with a cutting tool installed. You change the type of tool you want to use by twisting the spring. This bit will punch a hole in sheet metal, and then open it up like a can opener. The air tool itself acts like a mini version of a jack hammer, pushing the chisle through the metal.
This is the strip of metal the cutting tool above spits out. You can cut the outline of a panel off in a couple of minutes.
Once you get the outline cut out, you change to a flat chisle and clean up all the spot welds around the edges.
Sometimes there isn't room to get the air chisle where you need to cut. That is when this high speed cut off wheel comes in handy. This thing turns at 18,000 rpm.
It's fast, and has a kerf of less that 1/8".
For clamping things in place until they can be welded, nothing beats vise grips. Here are three variations I use. Of course there is also the original regular vise grips, and I use those also.
But you can see from the large throat on these that they are perfect for reaching around obstructions to clamp things in place.
Next to my dog, and of course my loving wife Sandy, I love nothing more than my MIG welder. Well maybe my cordless Makita electric drill, and then there is my horse, and my airplane, and....... Well my Lincoln SP-135 Plus MIG welder is way up high on the list.
For a full run down on MIG welding, go to this link.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_metal_arc_welding
The short version of MIG welding is that it passes electricity through the metal. You complete the circuit by clamping a grounding wire to one of the two pieces of metal being welded. What makes MIG welding so desirable is that as it is welding, it shrouds the area with an inert gas which prevents oxygen in the air from causing the weld to be brittle. The downside to MIG welding is it requires both surfaces being welded to be clean of rust, dirt, and paint. That is why you have to grind down to clean metal before welding.
This is my dent puller. You punch a hole in the dent where you want to pull. Then screw it into the hole. Using the slide hammer you gently pull or tap the dent out.
It is more of an art than science. First timers will usually slam the hammer back too hard and pull the screw out of the hole. The trick is knowing where to punch the holes.
The airfile is used to sand down body filler. The sandpaper is held on with clamps. You can see the rear clamp just below the handle. The shoe where the sandpaper is, moves fore & aft very quickly, sanding the surface.
You never move the airfile longways. You actually move it at about a 45 degree angle, and always start at the edge of the body filler.
When the airfile has done it's work, it is time for fine tuning the filler area with a rubber block. This is one of the most basic body working tools, but very critical to a nice looking repair. If you ever see an area on a car where it looks like little minor ripples or a waviness, that is a repaired area where they didn't block it out with a rubber block. The oscillating action of the airfile causes a rhythmic action that gets sanded into the body filler. By going over the area with a rubber block, using long steady pressure strokes, the waviness is sanded out. For really large areas of body filler they make longer versions.
The good old hammer & dolly.
The dolly is just a heavy chunk of metal used behind the metal when hammering out imperfections.
A good body hammer will be light and have a balanced feel. The large face is required to smooth out bumps. Some have a waffle pattern cut into the face for shrinking metal. That is a secret art of metalworking reserved for the old timers. I could tell you, but then I would be booted from the fraternity of Ancient Fixers At Metalworking.
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