Aluminium panel beating

[Jacktegla]

hi
I have a Land Rover series 2 with a VERY dented rear tub, and have been told that it’s hard to work with aluminium, especially on land rovers.

Has anyone got any tips on panel beating it

And I have been told by multiple people that this is an odd mixture of aluminium and something else. so is very hard to weld is there any truth in this. ( not that I can weld aluminium )

This is a picture of it, the other side is the side that is dented badly.


Any help appreciated.

 

[p0689109]

You have to keep gently heating it as it work hardens.

 

[Seadog]

I have been told by multiple people that this is an odd mixture of aluminium and something else

It's an alloy called 'Birmabright.' It has magnesium in it.

 

[Paul.]

For all practical purposes Birmabright is just a 5251 aluminium / magnesium alloy, also known as NS4 in the uk, nothing special, if need be it can be easily tig welded using 5356 filler rods, also welds very nicely with oxy acetylene

 

[rtbcomp]

Get a bar of soap and heat the ally until it's hot enough to melt the soap, it will then be annealed. Do a bit of careful beating, the ally will work harden so re-anneal and continue like this.

 

[Paul.]

Several different workshop methods to soften ally, the soap trick quite a common one, rub a bar of soap on then heat the job till the soap goes black, or if you have oxy acetylene, run a yellow acetylene only flame over the sheet to deposit soot, then use a neutral to carburising flame to heat the material till the soot disappears, this is a good method to ensure even heating.

Some of the old boys I worked with used to just spit on the hot metal, when it hits the surface and rolls around its hot enough, probably a bit antisocial nowadays though,

Or you could buy a tempilstick, 400c to 450c would do, whatever method you use be careful not to melt the ally which will happen at about 600c, always allow to cool naturally,

It will work harden fairly quickly so a repeat treatment will likely be required if its a biggish repair.

 

[500e]

We rubbed a match end over it if it carbonized it was hot enough, it also moves about more than steel the less beating you do the less shrinking to get the panel flat so look & think before you hit

 

[vwmark]

You want to borrow my panel beating hammers?

The offside corner doesn't look to good.

 

[pressbrake1]

When I first started out I apprenticed under my father as a coachbuilder building complete cars.
I ll tell you a trade secret, ally is far easier to work than steel and much much easier to control weld shrinkage.

 

[Jacktegla]

Ok

Here' my try of aluminium panel beating over the weekend

Sorry about them not being in order sure you can work it out though, still a bit of work to be done though

 

[p0689109]

Looks canny attempt. Did you use blow torch or oxy/acet?

 

[Jacktegla]

Looks canny attempt. Did you use blow torch or oxy/acet?

Plumbers Blow torch and when I got really annoyed with it, one of these

 

[p0689109]

Down boy, down boy. Could do a lot of damage with them!!