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BUSY BOLTERS Are you one?  The Shop Area
continues to pull in the most views on the Stovebolt. In August alone there were over 22,000 views in those 13 forums.
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8 members (Leo, greenie-reddy, Deegs53, Cosmo, Otto Skorzeny, TooMany2count, DennisM, 1 invisible),
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Jul 21st, 2025 | | | | Joined: Dec 2010 Posts: 47 Wrench Fetcher | | Wrench Fetcher Joined: Dec 2010 Posts: 47 | I am going to learn to do body work and have bought a fender to use as my laboratory. I have a pretty tooled up garage. I am light on body tools.
I have air tools, hammers and dollies, MIG, Spray gun, and just ordered a DA.
What other tools should I start to invest in? ultimately I plan to restore my 52, if I live long enough :-)
Denis
Thanks Denis
Used to drive Subs, prefer old rides
1952 chevy 3100, 5 window
| | | | | Joined: May 2005 Posts: 1,624 Shop Shark | | Shop Shark Joined: May 2005 Posts: 1,624 | You might think about a TIG welder. Many metal beaters prefer it to MIG for several reasons. The weld is much softer and easier to hammer flat, also warpage due to heat is reduced. It also gives you the ability to weld aluminum. Down side is the learning curve is steep. Another machine I use alot is a plasma cutter.
Six volt guy living in a twelve volt world
| | | | | Joined: Jul 2011 Posts: 785 'Bolter | | 'Bolter Joined: Jul 2011 Posts: 785 | What do you have for hammer and dollies? | | | | | Joined: Mar 2010 Posts: 78 Shop Shark | | Shop Shark Joined: Mar 2010 Posts: 78 | Torch set, shrinker / stretcher, shot bag, All 3 tin snips, scribe, layout die, and lots of patients.
1951 chevy 3100 short bed frame off resto.
| | | | | Joined: Jun 2011 Posts: 1,901 Shop Shark | | Shop Shark Joined: Jun 2011 Posts: 1,901 | And besides all of those things ( half of which I don't have) you may need to make your own from time to time. After fighting the bottom contour getting flattened while I was 'cutting' with a soft pad I realized I needed a solid form for the initial cut which I used all of 5 minutes in the end. It took me a day to figure out how to go about getting there. I finally bought a contour finder and got the old ( I'm talking a toggle on/off switch old) jig saw out and after cutting out a rough form from a scrap chunk of a friends hardwood deck and running those through a stationary router to true them up some I still needed to fine tune the final line so I came up with a cheap and versatile cylinder sander to mount on the drill press. An old bearing, a lug nut,a chunk of 1 1/2" pvc pipe and a soft plug later... a body tool is born
Give me ambiguity
or give me something else
| | | | | Joined: Dec 2010 Posts: 47 Wrench Fetcher | | Wrench Fetcher Joined: Dec 2010 Posts: 47 |
Thanks Denis
Used to drive Subs, prefer old rides
1952 chevy 3100, 5 window
| | | | | Joined: Dec 2012 Posts: 97 Wrench Fetcher | | Wrench Fetcher Joined: Dec 2012 Posts: 97 | Stanley Surform tools come in real handy for cutting down excess mud. http://www.qualitydist.net/stsuto.htmlYou also want an air file(long and flat), a manual long flat sander too. | | | | | Joined: Dec 2012 Posts: 27 New Guy | | New Guy Joined: Dec 2012 Posts: 27 | check with auto body supply
i like the martin { spelling?} brand got a few that i bought in 1977 still my favorites
just sand it a little more
47 1st series pu 4x4
| | | | | Joined: Dec 2012 Posts: 27 New Guy | | New Guy Joined: Dec 2012 Posts: 27 |
just sand it a little more
47 1st series pu 4x4
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