I've used several of the shrinking discs in the past to smooth
high crown compound curves such as found on fenders. Here's an
AD rear fender that was quite uneven to start with:
http://www.pbase.com/dennygraham/image/122303947Here it is with only a minimal amount of filler and high build
primer applied:
http://www.pbase.com/dennygraham/image/114605009The shrinking disc is used to uniformly heat up a
large area by friction, which is then water quenched
to shrink it. Since this does not generate a lot of
heat like a torch does, it requires that you repeat
it many times to take the high spots down. But it does
work.
To shrink a large area down that has many dings using the
off dolly hammer technique requires a 'LOT' of practice. One
phase of the hammer and dolly technique is using a
body file to dress a few thousands off the high
spots. This always bothered me because it's easy to
thin down the material in the area the you are
working unless you are very patient with the
hammer and dolly end of it.
The shrinking disc does not require that you remove any material
so the panel is still of uniform thickness when you finish working it.
Denny Graham
Knee deep in snow north of Sandwich, IL
