Club 80-90 Forums

When I tried to add a curve without this tool -


Now with a super duper shrinker/stretcher I can do this …



And even this


(It curves in two directions at once!!)


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Trimmed to fit


A productive day for me, and I’m very pleased with the shrinker/stretcher - very easy to use, very controllable, seems well made, and very quick delivery. Easy to change the jaws and coped well with 1.2mm steel, as it was supposed to. Sold by, and labelled, Metz Tools. No indication of where it’s made but the box it was packed in was marked Felixstowe Docks, so unlikely to be local.

I would be happy to recommend it.


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I can second the recommendation of a shrinker stretcher. I also have the Metz unit,, almost certainly made in china, but for the price and how often it gets used it was well worth the investment,
I have even used it to straighten up "new" panels before now.

It's coming along nicely, keep at it

Great to see you're still at it Roger.
coming along nicely.

Hey Bob! Surprised you can see me, I’m moving so fast! I’ll have it done in record time, should be ready by the first Monday…

Finished here on Monday, when I ran out of petrol to refill the generator.


Today, proceeded…


Before it was cleaned up, just to show the quality or otherwise of the welding…

And a bit of blowthrough, showing the welder is turned up enough (no. 4 on mine)

However when looking closely at this

Bit of a warp… Filler?


Trial fit of arch to help with positioning lower part of the rear.


Not too bad at the rear, but the front? Needs some work.

Might have to make my own one of this light grey bit. This one is a bit crap.

Coming along nicely

Thanks, it feels good!

I was in Doune on Friday, and on seeing a white pop top in the car park, was able to check out the way the rear quarter lines up with the arch. So if that was a member, much appreciated!

It’s a bit difficult to check on mine, as one side is dismantled, and the other is hard up against the other wall of the lockup. The van in Doune showed signs of originality (rust ) whereas another van I checked out recently (in Cambusbarron) was in much better nick, but likely had had some panel replacement done, and had some funny angles going on.

I was then able to fettle my lower rear corner panel accordingly. No pics I’m afraid…

Fixed the warp - initially tried a baulk of wood up the inside

but that didn’t work well enough.

So tapomatic no.1 was used successfully. A bit rough but the warp is fixed.


Then did some fettling on the rear corner and the repair section above it. Looking better.


Just needs the top edge trimmed down, and the return corner of the panel matched up.

Further gentle use of the hammers, getting a better fit for the arch.

Here’s how I’ve got around the lack of spendies for lots of big c mole-grips for holding the arch.


Better fit achieved at the front, still a little way to go…

More fettling in preparation for welding.

Trimmed 2mm from top edge to match up with lower crease


Reshaped front fold


Reshaped rear fold



Then took it off and drilled through for cleco pins to fix to the lower corner. All this stuff takes a lot of time…

Spending time adjusting fit, drilling for puddle welding, applying weld-thru, and other minor but important tasks.