Panel beater for aluminium?

[Des]

Just throwing out a query as to whether anyone can recommend a body guy with aluminium experience, around the North London / Herts area, I've replaced a whole front end, and it's sitting in place nicely, but this new front, while not too bad for corrosion, has numerous little dents, the odd ripple etc. My plan was to temporarily secure it with self tappers, get on with the rest of the car, get the thing through an MOT, then mount the front properly at my leisure, (In reality probably stay resembling a half arsed rat-look for a decade or two), problem I've found is that the door gaps will end up too tight to open until the front is mounted properly and permanently, so short cut not going to work. The tricky thing with aluminium is that it work hardens, then needs annealing, requires a level of skill to not melt / burn holes, and careful hammering to avoid stretching. Would be nice to get the panel into good shape before the point of no return final fitting, while access is better, rather than the bash, bash, filler / sanding / filler / sanding / filler / sanding oh look it's the surface of the moon process on the cards at the mo.

I've had a quote a few years ago from a Kings Langley based firm, the place was full of top end old stuff worth more than my house, he quoted 10K, said the front was oversize, would need cutting into many pieces to shrink it to fit, strangely, when I removed the old front and dropped on the replacement it fitted just the same, to within a gnats cock tolerance.

I'm guessing quoting 10K is a polite alternative to telling me to shove my old tat right up my arse and not lower the tone of his workshop.

[Bozwell]

there is a simple way to anneal aluminium without getting it too hot. get a bar of soap and mark the ally with it. heat the ally until the soap mark turns black. done

 

to knock out dents use wood as the dolly and make sure the body hammer is polished and blemish free. wood will stop the ally streching. to stretch ally use a metal dolly.

 

a polished hammer will leave a polished finish. any marks on the hammer head will be printed into the ally.

 

 

practice on a bit of scrap first

[seth]

I know someone in Ealing, West London who knows what he's doing with this kind of thing. Here's a DB4 GT he was repairing one time I popped by. It had gone backwards into a tyre wall I think.

 

 

What car is it?

[AXrescuer]

Is it an Airfix 1/32nd scale Aston Martin DB5

[Des]

Good soap tip Boswell, Had heard that oil will start to smoke at about the right temperature, but soap will be far less messy, hadn't heard of using a wood dolly either. It's an old Bristol Seth, Ealing is fairly close, wouldn't mind your guys details, could make sense for me to get off my backside and do some work so I can pay someone to sort out the tricky bits, the cars been off road for 4 decades, one of them down to me.

[dieselnutjob]

Brooklands welding

Welwyn Garden City

01707 323483

He does a lot of aluminium stuff

tell him the guy with the 604 and 607 sent you

[ashmicro]

there is a simple way to anneal aluminium without getting it too hot. get a bar of soap and mark the ally with it. heat the ally until the soap mark turns black. done

 

to knock out dents use wood as the dolly and make sure the body hammer is polished and blemish free. wood will stop the ally streching. to stretch ally use a metal dolly.

 

a polished hammer will leave a polished finish. any marks on the hammer head will be printed into the ally.

 

 

practice on a bit of scrap first

Noted. Very useful info. Thank You!

[Des]

Thanks for that Mr. Dieselnutjob Sir.

[AXrescuer]

Brooklands welding

Welwyn Garden City

01707 323483

He does a lot of aluminium stuff

tell him the guy with the 604 and 607 sent you

I can personally recommend his services too. He's based in Little Ridge, WGC, not that far from where I live.

[dieselnutjob]

small world isn't it?

i'm planning to take a day off and take the 604 to bits outside his shop and see how much he can weld in a day

drivers footwell has a small hole and both A pillars are not really connected to the sills anymore, but the front wings have to come off to get in there

the 604 still has some MOT and it's so much easier to do it now before the MOT expires