Am I the only one who finds it awesome that the president of this company just did 3000$ worth of repairs, while making a video to show it to the world? Kudos to you mr Kirkham for being a master of your craft
That is incredible!! The beauty of aluminum and the craftsmanship required. I think the Polish Craftsmen at the factory would give you a big thumbs up!!
That’s fucking unbelievable! If you look at the very first part of the clip and you skip to the very end...It’s mind boggling. It’s like there’s just no way it’s the same fender, but I guess when you have a fleet of multi-million dollar cars in the background, there’s a reason multi-millionaires bring their broken toys to this gentleman. Much respect.
Couldn't stop watching I was glued you are the KING of aluminum repair. Refreshing when someone so skilled shares his craft. Thanks Highest Regards, Anthony
My family started in the auto body business in 1926, in Chester County, PA. They retired in 2006, opting to allow the business to "die silently", rather than allow someone to purchase the name, and not be able to carry on the tradition of craftsmanship they were known for - for nearly 81 years. My uncle once complained that "his staff is slacking, we used almost two gallons of body filler this year", that year was 1981, when Ford began using lighter alloys in the construction of some of their vehicles (Escort, and the new Ranger Pickups). That metal did not lend itself to being "worked", and crystallized at the very moment a torch got near it (for shrinking). Geez, did this video bring back great memories! Mr. Kirkham, you are a true craftsman!
Nice video! ... not mentioned is that a gloved hand is much better than a bare hand for feeling dents. I have never worked with automotive aluminum, but we always used a gloved hand for estimates and repairs on steel auto panels. Of course, aluminum is so "dirty", gloves are required! Also, it was a good example that you were wearing ear protection during hammering, which can cause hearing damage.
I'm rebuilding a '75 land rover and wanted the polished aluminium look. It has a few off road battle scars that I was told these dents could not repaired and needed to be filled. Compared to the dent you have repaired, these are tiny by comparison. Of course you, as a master craftsmen, have made it look easy. After annealing, the secret seems to be "slowly and gently" I'm going to try it on a "scrap" fender for practice first. If my numbers come up in the Lotto, I'll be placing an order for a 427 street; your cars are awesome!. Thank you for posting this video.
This is the most incredible video I have seen. My goodness, you are incredibly talented. Remember me, one day I plan to buy one of these Shelby's. I've been following your business for some time now. All the best, you deserve it!!!
Thanks for the kind note. I was fortunate to learn the art from a gentleman in his twilight years who worked for Rolls Royce before WWII. The repair was about 30 hours total. However...There was an enormous amount of time planishing all the little dings out before filing. Also, many hours were spent sanding all the little file marks and coarser sanding marks out of the body with successive grits to eliminate any hint of the coarser grits.
One of the more satisfyingly entertaining and informative videos on TH-cam I’ve ever seen. Mr. Kirkham, I hope to own one of your Cobras someday before I leave this planet.
David, I love your commentary. One major thing I can not remember seeing anyone else make a point of. You do what I do on high-end solid surface countertops (high density 2x Corian) Earthstone by Wilson Art. I go all the way up to 400 grit or more on the whole surface and make it all into a mirror with the 11. 5 inch Gem random-orbit sander. Then I take it back down to 220 scotch pad satin. When done up close it looks like a nice satin finish that owner/user can use a 3M pad to scuff out any nicks as needed for maintenance. But if someone walks into the final installation and sees it from say 20 ft away (low angle of viewpoint) it looks like a polished mirror finish that you can use to shave or put on your eye makeup as you choose. Always go at least two preferably 4 finer steps in sanding polishing and then go back to the goal finish level. I have had antique boats I have restored get points taken off for putting epoxy on instead of varnish. I then put together a binder showing the steps to get to that finish. Same thing as a luthier on my cellos I make it is not boat varnish or epoxy it is regular traditional violin varnish. But every two coats I take it down with a semi-stiff felt pad and rottenstone till the whole instrument satin then I polish it to a mirror and then cut it back with 220 or 320 and put another two or three coats of varnish on. I repeat and repeat until I get the proper thickness of varnish. On the boats and counters and instruments, the mirror is multiple layers of mirror finish reflections that are quite dramatic to look into. So my big high five to you.
Thanks David, Your aluminum dent repair video is one of the coolest body works videos I've ever seen. I'm currently polishing an aluminum horse trailer that has a few big dents in it; looking forward to implementing much of what I learned in your video. Thanks again for sharing this valuable information! Scott Fleming Fleming's Auto Detail
Awesome work. I do aluminum dent repair for an airplane company here in the pacific northwest. Let me just say that, that was an amazing job...unbelievable!
David, your skills are inspirational and show what can be achieved with patience and application. The acetylene soot annealing was a new one on me. World-class repair by a world-class artisan. Thank you very much for sharing this.
If you want to test how good any kind of demo video is, watch it with the sound turned off and if the video actually happens to be good you'll get (understand) what's being shown purely through vision, particularly as "a picture paints a thousand words". It's what I've done with this demo videdo, and I've got it (learned), so 10/10 for this production... and, many thanks.
thank you for sharing your knowledge with the little guy. we need more cool people like you in this world. hopefully you'll make more videos in the future. God bless you!
I was looking for something else but I just had to see this. I've never done body work before and I'm sure it takes a ton of time to perfect the art and you've done a fantastic job.
That's some cold blooded aluminum work ⚒ right there. We are getting into more aluminum body work at my body shop right now and this video was very informational appreciate your time.
That's really cool technology! "It's a craftsmanship that requires sensibility, high technology, and many years of experience that can't be done with machines." Please bring your car back to life with great technology.
just what i was looking for. i need to get a dent out of my car and it's not nearly as bad as that one was lol but that was perfect. thanks for posting !! i'm def gonna try that out. i never thought to hold something on the other side as you hit the dent from the inside lol
Thank you for posting this, I'm rebuilding my 1960 88 inch and it's impossible to find video's on this. I'm pretty sure my finished job won't be a scratch on yours but I have a rough idea what I'm doing now. Cheers.
@creo43, Thanks for the kind note. I was fortunate to learn the art from a gentleman in his twilight years who worked for Rolls Royce before WWII. The repair was about 30 hours total. However...
David you blow my mind!!! I’d love to get back down there and shoot a follow up show. What’s it been like 6 years? More? Like my wife to see your operation as well. Amazing repair!!! Mind=blown.
Hi. Yes we came by. Sort of. We were there looking at the Big Boy and saw the new place! Closed as it was the weekend but love to take you up on the offer.
If I hadn't watched and seen it with my own eyes, I would have said it's impossible to get it back to that original shape with just simple hand tools. Wow!
Beautifully done. Personally, I'd rather have a Kirkham than an original Shelby car - better made. Also, it seems like a great organization. Nice work, and keep 'em comin'!
Thx dk from another dk! I see it requires a methodology and patience, and gives me inspiration to repair the alum bodywork on my Aston Martin. What I'm wondering is: doesn't all that shaping stretch the metal?
Yes, the metal does stretch. It also shrinks a bit when you straighten it. If you are very careful you can lose the stretch as you blend it back into the non-damaged part of the body.
@TheAlphadial, Thank you so much for your kind words. I was fortunate to learn the art from a gentleman in his twilight years who worked for Rolls Royce before WWII. The repair was about 30 hours total. However...
I learned a lot from this. Was wondering why you didn't anneal the work again once or twice to make the work easier and also to prevent cracking. Seems that much hammering/working the aluminum would have made it real hard and brittle. Thanks.
@rickrichard01, technically speaking, "tempering" is heating up a metal to a certain temperature to make it softer. In other words, on heat treatable alloys (that are quenched from a high temperature to achieve their hardness), tempering is used to draw some of the hardness back out of the alloy so it is not so brittle. What I think you are asking is if the metal gets hard again as I hammer it back into shape. Yes it does. That hardening process is called work hardening.
Thank for the kind words. We try to keep up with the responses, but we don't always succeed :) My mother always said, "Service is the rent we pay for the air we breathe."
I heated up the panel to anneal the aluminum. Annealing makes it softer and easier to work with. It also helps to prevent cracking from work hardening.
That's an impressively rapid response. Actually, your whole operation seems most impressive, especially when you do things like finishing a cancer patient's car as a surprise for him.
Thank you for your kind words. Our bodies Poland are made from 1.5mm aluminum. The alloy is an old Soviet aircraft alloy that has no corresponding equivalent in the US. It is much harder than 3003. For our Coupes we are making the body from 3003. For highly formed panels, we use 3003 H0 and 3003 H14 for panels that don't need much shape. I have never seen anyone (including Ferrari) make panels from 0.016-0.020 WOW! That is thin! Original Cobras were made from 0.050" 1100-0 aluminum.
I suspect that the alloy is very close to our 5052 alloy which is an aluminum magnesium alloy. The aluminium bodied Land Rovers were made of the British equivalent of 5052. It is somewhat harder than 3003 or, certainly 1100. Your "soot" annealing procedure is right out of the Land Rover service manual. Thanks for the video.
Yes, you have to be extremely careful to not stretch the metal. It is only at the very end of the straightening that I am hammering "on dolly." I try to do as much "off dolly" work as possible to avoid stretching the panel.
What kind of car is it? What material? How large is the dent? Where is it? There are a lot of variables in fixing a dent. There are great body shops who can make dents disappear and there are some lousy ones. Blending paint is very difficult--especially if it is a pearl. Generally, but not always, you pay for what you get with body shops. Happy to help :)
amazing,,,alum is fun to work with cause every time you hit it and heat it the molecules scatter making it soft and easier to form after about a month the alum goes back to its intended hardness all by its self remarkable really.. great job thank you for showing your work.
Thank you and Jose for your comments. Hardening aluminum is a bit tricky to understand. Generally speaking, there are two categories of aluminum--those that are heat treatable and those that are not. The aluminum we use for our bodies is not heat treatable. With the heat treatable alloys, Jose is correct--the aluminum needs to be brought up to a certain temperature and then quenched. After quenching, the aluminum is then aged to harden it. Aging can be accelerated by heating it up (to a temperature below the quenching temperature). Aluminum is a magical metal.
@@KirkhamMotorsports1 I am a repairman in Brazil, where aluminum bodies are still rare, but the question is, how do you know if an aluminum has been treated for heat or not?
Just Absolutely Incredible!!! Beautiful work!!!!!! Do you have to do anything to make the Aluminum hard again? I see you had to heat it to soften at first.
@KirkhamMotorsports1 There was an enormous amount of time planishing all the little dings out before filing. Also, many hours were spent sanding all the little file marks and coarser sanding marks out of the body with successive grits to eliminate any hint of the coarser grits. The customer wanted a really nice job so we spent quite a bit of time blending the brushing into the original body to get everything to look right.
David, I was looking for a way to fix my canoe and stumbled across this video. I wasn't too confident in your repair for the first few minuets but after the video I am very confident in your method. I have a question and a suggestion, first the question, how do I re-treat the aluminum so that it is not soft and my suggestion is that you show the finished product in the beginning of the video so viewers don't walk away when you start beating that fender with a sledge hammer. lol
Great suggestion!!! I wouldn't worry about retreating your aluminum. If I had to guess your canoe is made from 5052 aluminum and it work hardens really quickly when you work with it.
We have a really great full-time photographer here in house. It is a matter of time. We are sold out very far in advance, and I don't have as much time as I wish I did to make videos. We will put out more of them as we can. Thank you for the offer!
Question, is there a problem with growing the aluminum when you hammering on it against a dolly? Can the finished panel end up larger than the other side. Excellent work by the way.
Am I the only one who finds it awesome that the president of this company just did 3000$ worth of repairs, while making a video to show it to the world?
Kudos to you mr Kirkham for being a master of your craft
I do bodywork & paint for a living & some people call me a craftsman but after seeing your work you're the God of all craftsmans
That is incredible!! The beauty of aluminum and the craftsmanship required. I think the Polish Craftsmen at the factory would give you a big thumbs up!!
Thanks!
Trabalho magnifico ❤
Probably the single most instructive TH-cam item I've ever watched. Need to fix some small dents in my Lancia but was nervous about applying the heat.
That’s fucking unbelievable! If you look at the very first part of the clip and you skip to the very end...It’s mind boggling. It’s like there’s just no way it’s the same fender, but I guess when you have a fleet of multi-million dollar cars in the background, there’s a reason multi-millionaires bring their broken toys to this gentleman. Much respect.
Couldn't stop watching I was glued you are the KING of aluminum repair. Refreshing when someone so skilled shares his craft. Thanks Highest Regards,
Anthony
stunning. watched it loads of times now. I still get amazed by it.
Incredible craftsmanship. If i didnt watch the whole repair, i wouldnt have belived it could be done. Unreal work 👏👏👏
My family started in the auto body business in 1926, in Chester County, PA. They retired in 2006, opting to allow the business to "die silently", rather than allow someone to purchase the name, and not be able to carry on the tradition of craftsmanship they were known for - for nearly 81 years. My uncle once complained that "his staff is slacking, we used almost two gallons of body filler this year", that year was 1981, when Ford began using lighter alloys in the construction of some of their vehicles (Escort, and the new Ranger Pickups). That metal did not lend itself to being "worked", and crystallized at the very moment a torch got near it (for shrinking).
Geez, did this video bring back great memories! Mr. Kirkham, you are a true craftsman!
I was a body man for 27 years and used to do lead work with the torch this was very similar to that enjoyed your video.
Thanks!
Nice video! ... not mentioned is that a gloved hand is much better than a bare hand for feeling dents. I have never worked with automotive aluminum, but we always used a gloved hand for estimates and repairs on steel auto panels. Of course, aluminum is so "dirty", gloves are required! Also, it was a good example that you were wearing ear protection during hammering, which can cause hearing damage.
Glad you liked it :) You can do about anything if you try hard enough.
I'm rebuilding a '75 land rover and wanted the polished aluminium look. It has a few off road battle scars that I was told these dents could not repaired and needed to be filled. Compared to the dent you have repaired, these are tiny by comparison.
Of course you, as a master craftsmen, have made it look easy.
After annealing, the secret seems to be "slowly and gently" I'm going to try it on a "scrap" fender for practice first.
If my numbers come up in the Lotto, I'll be placing an order for a 427 street; your cars are awesome!.
Thank you for posting this video.
Patience is the key. Just go slowly and you will be amazed at what you can accomplish.
Grant Stewart i have a 1972 series 3. i am doing the same thing -- going for the airplane/airstream aluminum and rivet look. wonderful video!
That is beautiful. Thank you for sharing. My favorite part is when your in the office high back chair hammering away!
This is the most incredible video I have seen. My goodness, you are incredibly talented. Remember me, one day I plan to buy one of these Shelby's. I've been following your business for some time now. All the best, you deserve it!!!
Wow always kind of figured kirkam as more of a patron than a craftsman, wow big talent there! Respect
Thanks for the kind note. I was fortunate to learn the art from a gentleman in his twilight years who worked for Rolls Royce before WWII. The repair was about 30 hours total. However...There was an enormous amount of time planishing all the little dings out before filing. Also, many hours were spent sanding all the little file marks and coarser sanding marks out of the body with successive grits to eliminate any hint of the coarser grits.
One of the more satisfyingly entertaining and informative videos on TH-cam I’ve ever seen. Mr. Kirkham, I hope to own one of your Cobras someday before I leave this planet.
David, I love your commentary. One major thing I can not remember seeing anyone else make a point of. You do what I do on high-end solid surface countertops (high density 2x Corian) Earthstone by Wilson Art. I go all the way up to 400 grit or more on the whole surface and make it all into a mirror with the 11. 5 inch Gem random-orbit sander. Then I take it back down to 220 scotch pad satin. When done up close it looks like a nice satin finish that owner/user can use a 3M pad to scuff out any nicks as needed for maintenance. But if someone walks into the final installation and sees it from say 20 ft away (low angle of viewpoint) it looks like a polished mirror finish that you can use to shave or put on your eye makeup as you choose. Always go at least two preferably 4 finer steps in sanding polishing and then go back to the goal finish level. I have had antique boats I have restored get points taken off for putting epoxy on instead of varnish. I then put together a binder showing the steps to get to that finish. Same thing as a luthier on my cellos I make it is not boat varnish or epoxy it is regular traditional violin varnish. But every two coats I take it down with a semi-stiff felt pad and rottenstone till the whole instrument satin then I polish it to a mirror and then cut it back with 220 or 320 and put another two or three coats of varnish on. I repeat and repeat until I get the proper thickness of varnish. On the boats and counters and instruments, the mirror is multiple layers of mirror finish reflections that are quite dramatic to look into. So my big high five to you.
Thanks! I have always wondered about wood finishes.
Thanks David, Your aluminum dent repair video is one of the coolest body works videos I've ever seen. I'm currently polishing an aluminum horse trailer that has a few big dents in it; looking forward to implementing much of what I learned in your video. Thanks again for sharing this valuable information!
Scott Fleming
Fleming's Auto Detail
Beautiful repair David, your a very patient man. Your cars are the best and I can see why!
I appreciate your efforts :)
Awesome work. I do aluminum dent repair for an airplane company here in the pacific northwest. Let me just say that, that was an amazing job...unbelievable!
I do sheet metal minor/major repair/mods on aircraft myself. This took a lot of patience and thinking ahead! Awesome job! 👍👍👍
Thanks!
David, your skills are inspirational and show what can be achieved with patience and application. The acetylene soot annealing was a new one on me. World-class repair by a world-class artisan. Thank you very much for sharing this.
Thanks!
@@KirkhamMotorsports1 amzing work you do Top Quality workmanship respect back to you David Kirkham i follow you 💯 from 🇨🇦 #YSW
Thank you! We try to make them as often as we can, but sadly I haven't been able to make any lately. We are too backed up with orders right now.
If you want to test how good any kind of demo video is, watch it with the sound turned off and if the video actually happens to be good you'll get (understand) what's being shown purely through vision, particularly as "a picture paints a thousand words". It's what I've done with this demo videdo, and I've got it (learned), so 10/10 for this production... and, many thanks.
+Roger Sanders Thanks for the kind words :)
thank you for sharing your knowledge with the little guy. we need more cool people like you in this world. hopefully you'll make more videos in the future. God bless you!
I was looking for something else but I just had to see this. I've never done body work before and I'm sure it takes a ton of time to perfect the art and you've done a fantastic job.
That's some cold blooded aluminum work ⚒ right there. We are getting into more aluminum body work at my body shop right now and this video was very informational appreciate your time.
Very talented work. Awesome job.
If I ever hit the lottery, I would love to own one of these cars.
fantastic video! still very relevant almost 8 yrs. later
That is some serious labor of love. That dent made me want to cry.
Bloody fantastic There is a man with a lot of skill
Very nice work!!!!!! I work with aluminum a lot and I can appreciate good craftsman ! Your cars are not to shabby either!
Amazing repair! Nicely explained while the work was carried out also.....Thanks!
Very impressive skills you have there. Thanks for showing how you do it, it was interesting to watch.
glad I clicked on this. Big respect for the skill and patience!
Wow That was a great video
Thanks!
That's really cool technology! "It's a craftsmanship that requires sensibility, high technology, and many years of experience that can't be done with machines." Please bring your car back to life with great technology.
A pleasure to watch a craftsman at work.
This is quite simply a work of art and beautiful to watch.
Amazing work, Aluminum is not an easy metal to work with, well done!
Wow. Beautiful! That turned out way better than the bondo I would have used. Well done!
Does the annealed condition affect the strength of the area? Amazing skill, thanks for the vid!
just what i was looking for. i need to get a dent out of my car and it's not nearly as bad as that one was lol but that was perfect. thanks for posting !! i'm def gonna try that out. i never thought to hold something on the other side as you hit the dent from the inside lol
They ire simply. This is a work of art and truly beautiful to watch.
This is truly craftsmanship. Great job! The only other car that I can think of that requires this sort of skill is the DeLorean.
Wow. That was a fantastic job, glad I watched that. No more fear of owning an A8
David this was amassing presentation.........best regards, Artur, Dallas TX
Thank you for posting this, I'm rebuilding my 1960 88 inch and it's impossible to find video's on this. I'm pretty sure my finished job won't be a scratch on yours but I have a rough idea what I'm doing now. Cheers.
@marzolian, I'm glad you liked the video. Thank you so very much for the suggestion! I will keep that in mind for future videos.
True artistry. Nice work and great patience. Your explanations are very easy to follow.
Amazing workmanship & talent. Excellent!
@creo43, Thanks for the kind note. I was fortunate to learn the art from a gentleman in his twilight years who worked for Rolls Royce before WWII. The repair was about 30 hours total. However...
Wow, this is not your first rodeo. That looks great. I would have thought panel replacement. Thanks for a great video.
I would have believed it if I didn't see it excellent repair Professor.
Thanks! I hope to do more videos soon :)
David you blow my mind!!! I’d love to get back down there and shoot a follow up show. What’s it been like 6 years? More? Like my wife to see your operation as well. Amazing repair!!! Mind=blown.
It has been a long time! We have moved across town to a much bigger building. You are always welcome to stop in!
Hi. Yes we came by. Sort of. We were there looking at the Big Boy and saw the new place! Closed as it was the weekend but love to take you up on the offer.
I love watching a magician explain his craft.
Thank you!
Great vid man. Top shelf repair. Thanks for taking the time to show us how you do it.
That is amazing work. Hats off to Kahn Academy for inspiring you to share!
True craftsman - That is how you do body work - lot art form !!!! - EXCELLENT - Major Kudos
I was skeptical it was possible, but wow, that's really beautiful. Great work.
Great workmanship shown....and patience. Might have to sell my Fibreglass cobra and get a Kirkham.....They look great!
That is awesome work and your patience and passion/skills for this are optimum, keep the good work up
If I hadn't watched and seen it with my own eyes, I would have said it's impossible to get it back to that original shape with just simple hand tools. Wow!
Remarkable work, lots of patience and passion.
I absolutely love what I do. I love coming to work! Thanks :)
That is some unbelievably top notch work.
that is beautiful work. most body shops don't have the skill and patiences to achieve this
Beautifully done. Personally, I'd rather have a Kirkham than an original Shelby car - better made. Also, it seems like a great organization. Nice work, and keep 'em comin'!
Thx dk from another dk! I see it requires a methodology and patience, and gives me inspiration to repair the alum bodywork on my Aston Martin. What I'm wondering is: doesn't all that shaping stretch the metal?
Yes, the metal does stretch. It also shrinks a bit when you straighten it. If you are very careful you can lose the stretch as you blend it back into the non-damaged part of the body.
Practice really does make perfect, next level skill my man.
@TheAlphadial, Thank you so much for your kind words. I was fortunate to learn the art from a gentleman in his twilight years who worked for Rolls Royce before WWII. The repair was about 30 hours total. However...
that prossess is truely a work of art .
Excellent work. Very talented.
That's some serious craftsmanship.
Very nice. Was wondering however, you began by annealing the metal, was it tempered again after the shape was achieved?
I learned a lot from this. Was wondering why you didn't anneal the work again once or twice to make the work easier and also to prevent cracking. Seems that much hammering/working the aluminum would have made it real hard and brittle. Thanks.
Excellent job! Looking real good.
@rickrichard01, technically speaking, "tempering" is heating up a metal to a certain temperature to make it softer. In other words, on heat treatable alloys (that are quenched from a high temperature to achieve their hardness), tempering is used to draw some of the hardness back out of the alloy so it is not so brittle.
What I think you are asking is if the metal gets hard again as I hammer it back into shape. Yes it does. That hardening process is called work hardening.
Wow! Nice work…amazing results!
Thank for the kind words. We try to keep up with the responses, but we don't always succeed :) My mother always said, "Service is the rent we pay for the air we breathe."
my mind is blown... amazing job man!!
I heated up the panel to anneal the aluminum. Annealing makes it softer and easier to work with. It also helps to prevent cracking from work hardening.
That is amazing work on that panel, I wish I was even close to being that good!
That's an impressively rapid response. Actually, your whole operation seems most impressive, especially when you do things like finishing a cancer patient's car as a surprise for him.
Thank you for your kind words. Our bodies Poland are made from 1.5mm aluminum. The alloy is an old Soviet aircraft alloy that has no corresponding equivalent in the US. It is much harder than 3003. For our Coupes we are making the body from 3003. For highly formed panels, we use 3003 H0 and 3003 H14 for panels that don't need much shape. I have never seen anyone (including Ferrari) make panels from 0.016-0.020 WOW! That is thin! Original Cobras were made from 0.050" 1100-0 aluminum.
I suspect that the alloy is very close to our 5052 alloy which is an aluminum magnesium alloy. The aluminium bodied Land Rovers were made of the British equivalent of 5052. It is somewhat harder than 3003 or, certainly 1100. Your "soot" annealing procedure is right out of the Land Rover service manual. Thanks for the video.
MUY BUENAS TARDES, QUE MAGNIFICO TRABAJO, ASI SE TRABAJABA ANTES, HOY ES PURO CAMBIO DE PIEZAS COMPLETAS, MUCHAS FELICIDADES, SALUDOS DESDE MEXICO.
That’s incredible! Lot of work.
Good to see that proper craftsmanship is still in price and sometimes there is no CNC to replace it :)
Yes, you have to be extremely careful to not stretch the metal. It is only at the very end of the straightening that I am hammering "on dolly." I try to do as much "off dolly" work as possible to avoid stretching the panel.
What kind of car is it? What material? How large is the dent? Where is it? There are a lot of variables in fixing a dent. There are great body shops who can make dents disappear and there are some lousy ones. Blending paint is very difficult--especially if it is a pearl. Generally, but not always, you pay for what you get with body shops. Happy to help :)
amazing,,,alum is fun to work with cause every time you hit it and heat it the molecules scatter making it soft and easier to form after about a month the alum goes back to its intended hardness all by its self remarkable really..
great job thank you for showing your work.
I think you have to quench the alum to get the aging effect that makes it harder.... also depends on the alloy
Thank you and Jose for your comments. Hardening aluminum is a bit tricky to understand. Generally speaking, there are two categories of aluminum--those that are heat treatable and those that are not. The aluminum we use for our bodies is not heat treatable. With the heat treatable alloys, Jose is correct--the aluminum needs to be brought up to a certain temperature and then quenched. After quenching, the aluminum is then aged to harden it. Aging can be accelerated by heating it up (to a temperature below the quenching temperature). Aluminum is a magical metal.
@@KirkhamMotorsports1 I am a repairman in Brazil, where aluminum bodies are still rare, but the question is, how do you know if an aluminum has been treated for heat or not?
Just Absolutely Incredible!!! Beautiful work!!!!!! Do you have to do anything to make the Aluminum hard again? I see you had to heat it to soften at first.
Honestreview When you straighten it you work harden the aluminum again.
That must of took a long time to repair, but the finish looks incredible!
Fantastic result , how long did that take in all ?
@KirkhamMotorsports1 There was an enormous amount of time planishing all the little dings out before filing. Also, many hours were spent sanding all the little file marks and coarser sanding marks out of the body with successive grits to eliminate any hint of the coarser grits. The customer wanted a really nice job so we spent quite a bit of time blending the brushing into the original body to get everything to look right.
David, I was looking for a way to fix my canoe and stumbled across this video. I wasn't too confident in your repair for the first few minuets but after the video I am very confident in your method. I have a question and a suggestion, first the question, how do I re-treat the aluminum so that it is not soft and my suggestion is that you show the finished product in the beginning of the video so viewers don't walk away when you start beating that fender with a sledge hammer. lol
Great suggestion!!! I wouldn't worry about retreating your aluminum. If I had to guess your canoe is made from 5052 aluminum and it work hardens really quickly when you work with it.
That is some great work.
How much time was required to do the total repair?
We have a really great full-time photographer here in house. It is a matter of time. We are sold out very far in advance, and I don't have as much time as I wish I did to make videos. We will put out more of them as we can. Thank you for the offer!
Question, is there a problem with growing the aluminum when you hammering on it against a dolly? Can the finished panel end up larger than the other side. Excellent work by the way.