The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop correcting bends in outer cowl panels

The rear side of the outer cowl panels have 2 bends to create the offset flange that welds to the front of the door frame, 1953 half ton. My reproduction outer cowl panels have rounded bends there that are probably 80 to 85 degrees, while the originals that I must butt up to have nice sharp 90 degree bends in them. What is a good way for an average hacker like me to change these bends slightly in order to mate up with the original stuff. So far the only thing I can think of is to clamp it to a piece of channel iron that has a sharp 90 on one side and lightly hammer it, but I'm afraid that I'll fill it with wrinkles. I assume that a brake press with proper dies might be best, but, of course I don't have one of those. Help!!

You can massage that flange a bit with hammer and dolly. You'll want to do it a little at a time, to prevent wrinkles or changing the curvature of the cowl panel.

I did that a little on mine with a railroad dolly (has a right angle corner) and cross pein body hammer. A toe or heel dolly would likely work as well. I think a dolly would be a bit better than a piece of channel or angle, but use what fits.

The other alternative is to run a weld bead along the outside to sharpen up that bend, but that has it's drawbacks, such as possibility of burn thru, then a lot of grinding to get the profile correct.