MP&C Shop Projects

[M.Brane]

I remember many years ago walking into the Ford dealer to get one of those for my Ranchero. Before I was done describing what I needed the parts guy had one in his hand.

 

[MP&C]

Is your friend short by chance.......my gf does the same slamming thing on my cars and it INFURIATES ME

He's about 6' tall.

 

[MP&C]

Had an insurance job in the shop, a collaboration with a local collision shop. One of those fancy, old-time looking hearse had a backing up run in with a yellow pole. The mirrors on this thing are on top of fender mounted spare tires, and let's just say they leave a lot to be desired. There is also a backup camera installed in the rear tag frame. So one end of the bumper wrapped slightly around the yellow pole and just barely hit the rear fender. My job was to straighten the rear bumper, which is made from flat polished stainless.



(file photo)





This close up shows how much the end moved.





Not having a tree in the yard the right diameter, I opted for some 3" diameter wooden hand rail and some flat strap to make a leverage tool.











This worked well to remove most of the damage, but the end where the vertical rod is welded still wanted to curl outwards. So our tool was modified to hold the rod end, the other hand rail moved over snug, and this held things sufficient to unwrap the end. The relief cut was added using a rounded router bit..





There was a slight crease by the outer mounting bolt, so a suitable punch was made from a scrap 2x4





A profile template was cut out of an old shipping box and used to monitor our progress...





The damaged end was wet sanded up to 2500 grit and polished out on the buffing wheel to remove any trace of the yellow paint and subsequent scratches.





At the collision shop, waiting for the hearse to come out of the paint shop...

 

[zimman]

Nice work. I've spent a lot of time at PAX River. Camped on base a few years ago too.
Zim

 

[Bowtie4life]

Awesome work Robert. You can't even tell that it was ever bent.

 

[larry4406]

The guy can even raise the dead!

Great work Robert!

How would you go about manually bending a 1x3/16” flat steel bar into a hoop with 22.5” inside diameter without a roller? Bbq project for a friend.

 

[MP&C]

Real big tree or wrap it around a tire. Does it have to be 3/16? 1/8 would make it so much easier. Other than that, find someone with a slip roll.

 

[PugetDude]

Other than that, find someone with a slip roll.

I know a guy...

 

[PugetDude]

How would you go about manually bending a 1x3/16” flat steel bar into a hoop with 22.5” inside diameter without a roller? Bbq project for a friend.

Larry, you can bump a curve that size pretty easy. That is how I did the fenders for the rolling tool bench- 1/8" x4" flat bar. I just clamped a piece of angle to the bench frame and bent it by hand. Take your time, and use a radius template to ensure you don't overbend it. I would do it in two halves , calculate the diameter thru the neutral axis and trim each piece to half that length. Allow an extra 4" on each end for the flats that get trimmed off.
Good luck. Post your progress. Sorry for the thread hijack, Robert. We now return to our regularly scheduled excellence.

 

[MP&C]

@larry4406 the “leverage” tool that I used to take out the incorrect bends was also used to add the correct ones back in. It’s nowhere near as consistent as a slip roll, but you’re welcome to try it out if you think it would do the trick

Sorry for the thread hijack, Robert….

More insight is a good thing