oldspeedboats Forum

RESTORATION & HISTORY => Hulls - Other => Topic started by: Tatra Man on June 30, 2012, 03:03:45 PM

Title: Using heat to shrink alloy
Post by: Tatra Man on June 30, 2012, 03:03:45 PM

Does anyone have any experience and/or advice on this? I ask because today I had a bit of a play with a badly mauled side panel on Albatross 2002. here's how it went:-


This looked suspicious:-

(https://forum.oldboats.online/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fv247%2FTatra_603T2%2FAlbatross%2520Alpine%2Fphotobucket-2386-1341056745220.jpg&hash=c3ffc253932cf3994a86e21159c84d963b4811a3)

. . . and from the inside by the back seat you can see why:-

(https://forum.oldboats.online/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fv247%2FTatra_603T2%2FAlbatross%2520Alpine%2Fphotobucket-2032-1341056807033.jpg&hash=bf5ccffbff5ac232a620b2a68413e2c8a7c85859)

Even worse without the paint - revealing a slit and the back of some filler:-

(https://forum.oldboats.online/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fv247%2FTatra_603T2%2FAlbatross%2520Alpine%2Fphotobucket-1922-1341056695039.jpg&hash=31b972a6aa6063206118d19b9a0632c8314861dc)

One good thump later out came this:-

(https://forum.oldboats.online/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fv247%2FTatra_603T2%2FAlbatross%2520Alpine%2Fphotobucket-1420-1341056111657.jpg&hash=99f6709018a8ce319692c4d398a076123a65e447)

. . . leaving this!:-

(https://forum.oldboats.online/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fv247%2FTatra_603T2%2FAlbatross%2520Alpine%2Fphotobucket-1507-1341056602866.jpg&hash=42b8d3508fd47ae751bada54fc7de2062f22c771)

Out with the panel hammers and dollies:-

(https://forum.oldboats.online/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fv247%2FTatra_603T2%2FAlbatross%2520Alpine%2Fphotobucket-2019-1341056534857.jpg&hash=87cf88ae1d4633ffd8bc8d84722c3aece9b09a14)

(https://forum.oldboats.online/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fv247%2FTatra_603T2%2FAlbatross%2520Alpine%2Fphotobucket-2321-1341056463596.jpg&hash=c53282988119a721461d348e0f76e908861441bc)

. . . . but still a stretched panel:-

(https://forum.oldboats.online/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fv247%2FTatra_603T2%2FAlbatross%2520Alpine%2Fphotobucket-4396-1341056402714.jpg&hash=7c95ae6b3344b70ffd7b5702a62959d3b53f5e9c)

Hmmmm . . . . . . . I'd heard that shrinking hammers were pretty useless but I'd also heard of using heat to shrink metal. I read up a bit on the principles and dug out a dual-temperature heat gun on the basis that I didn't have much to lose and, a couple of hours later, ended up with this:-

(https://forum.oldboats.online/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fv247%2FTatra_603T2%2FAlbatross%2520Alpine%2Fphotobucket-6017-1341056347622.jpg&hash=45ae6e0058a62142eb8911eaa40cf910b1c8a549)

I don't think that's too bad for a first time effort! ;D

Title: Re: Using heat to shrink alloy
Post by: BN on July 01, 2012, 03:50:22 PM

Now you are getting too clever. The damage looked like a classic Albatross injury of a jetty wound. Aloy is great, but it is a little fragile on hard edges. Keep going a lot to do yet  ;D