Automotive Sheet Metal Forming & Fabrication

Sheet metal forming and fabrication is an essential automotive art. Creating door skins, fenders, hoods, and a myriad of other components from sheet metal is a crucial skill for restoring many muscle cars, building custom parts for hot rods, and fabricating parts for classic or competition cars. While many specialized and expensive tools are used to form sheet metal into functional and completed parts, simple metal working hammers, dollies, anvils, and shot bags can be used to create complex curves and crowns. This book shows the inclined enthusiast how to design and fabricate with inexpensive and simple tools as well as how to use more specialized tools, such as an English wheel. Automotive Sheet Metal Forming & Fabrication provides the know-how for people who are working, or want to work, along the nearly endless learning curve of this craft. It provides instruction for most of the common processes and operations in sheet metal fabrication work. The book also covers some of the more exotic tools, equipment, and techniques, but the emphasis is largely on the reliable basics. Matt Joseph, author of best-selling book Automotive Bodywork & Rust Repair, also discusses how to determine elastic limits as well as how to shrink and expand metal, heating and annealing, and many other metal working techniques.