the kit i bought was part built and came with the ali sheeting not sure of thickness but having major probs bending it for the side panels so as to rivet it from under chassis and inside the cockpit, any ideas much appreciated!!

I assume you mean exterior panels rather than interior ones. In which case I may not be all that helpful since mine are fibreglass, but i have had to make a few panels, most notably my prop shaft tunnel cover (can post a pic if you like). Basically to bend it I figured out where I needed to bend it, clamped it in a vice with a length of wood along where I wanted the bend to be. I then hit it repeatedly with a big rubber hammer until I had bent it to a nice right angle. Sounds crude i know but it turned out OK.

Your panels are likely to be a fair bit bigger than mine was so you could maybe clamp it in position against the chassis and then hammer the edges over whilst in position. That way you would also make them a perfect fit as long as they didn't slip.

No doubt you'll soon get a reply from someone who has actually done this, they may be able to be a bit more helpful!

Pete

Edit: Just had a look in Ron Champion's book and he did it virtually how I said - clamp the metal between 2 lengths of wood (1 either side) using g-clamps, leaving the bit you want to bend sticking out the top. Then hammer it until it's bent at 90 degrees

[Edited on 17/7/04 by scoobyis2cool]

What's hanging you up Chris?

If it's too hard to bend, you need to anneal it to make it softer.

If it's because it's gathering at the corners, drill a small hole near the corner to stop any crack, snip out most of the gather then use a hard hammer to "trap" the gather into itself to thicken it and shrink the ali as you finish the bend.

If you're having trouble folding the edge tightly, the easiest way is like scooby says. Use some 2x4s and some clamps to hold the ali very tight against the chassis rail at the bend. Then use a plastic faced hammer (hard rubber works almost as well, but don't use metal - it will mark and stretch the ali) to fold the ali over. Move it only a bit at a time to avoid stretching and rippling it.

The trick is to have the 2x4 clamped just shy of the bend line. Start the bend along the length. Once it's slightly broken, you start hitting near the crease and work toward the edge. This ensures the ali folds over tight against the chassis rail, and is why you need that slight clearance between the crease and the 2x4s.

At the top, when you've got the first 90 you move the 2x4s to the top and do the second bend. You may want to save this bend for last, once you do it it'll be pretty difficult to get the ali back off the chassis.

IMO, this is the second most satisfying part of the build, after the welding of the chassis.

HTH, and good luck!

Mike

well i went at it hammer and tounges today thanx to your help chaps, annealing did the trick thats one side done!!

Is that really light at the end of the tunnel i can see? or did i leave the blow torch on ?

quote:

---

Originally posted by chris_smithIs that really light at the end of the tunnel i can see? or did i leave the blow torch on ?

---

soap and blowtorch annealing method

Steve, can you explain that a bit more for us

Ned.

no



well fed up with the zillions of times I have already



its gonna have to be a page on my site someday.........

atb steve


ps

I suspect searching my posts using 'soap' as a keyword will come up with about 398 hits....