Any bodymen out there???

So I've found a guy who can soda blast the body on my Jeep for a fraction of what the first guy quoted me. The only catch is that it's gotta be done a week from today.


So I need to get the rust cut out and some new fabricated panels welded in. What kind of steel do I need to buy?

I called a few sheetmetal places and the only ones who might be able to help me asked if I wanted hot rolled or cold rolled steel. I was told that the hot rolled is also called "black iron". The cold rolled steel has an oily finish to it. I have no idea if it makes a difference or not. Can anyone tell me what would be best to use?

If I need something totally different, I can always do that but right now I don't know what to ask for. I thought I just needed "mild steel".....

Thanks for any help!

mruta

 

Hot rolled has less stress in it due to the fact that it is in a heated state when it is squashed into a sheet. cold rolled is just that, it is cold when it is sent through rollers to shape it, this tends to align some of the crystals in the metal and take up the available slip planes in the crystal matrix making for a harder to bend piece of metal. I would think most of what you are going to encounter is going to be hot rolled and would be what you refer to as mild steel. once again, only my $.02 your milage may vary

 

So is one better to use than the other (hot vs. cold)???

 

Hot, having less trapped stresses should warp less when heated. cold when heated will aneal in the area heated and will have a tendancy to change shape when it does. Either will warp if heated enough, the key is to keep your heat down in the patch by using spaced out stitch welds and allowing cooling in between. if it does start to warp on you, most times a little hammer and dolly work will settle it back to where it came from.


get a couple of test pieces and practice, practice, practice.

 

Cold is stronger. Hot is easier to work (bend, form, etc...). Which one is better for what you're doing is dependent on your priorities.

 

i hate hot rolled steel. cold rolled is much easier to handle. this is only because last summer i was the one in the shop who had to clean the metal before it went to the saw and it is really easy to clean oil off of cold rolled but hot rolled stuff seemed to rust if you looked at it funny so that took much more work to get clean.

 

Im doing my floors in cold rolled, 18 gauge steel. Then coating the inside and out with POR-15 and coating it all with roll on truck bed liner.

 

Mike,

Just let them do their blasting without patching. You will never get it done in a week --too much for one person.

We did that to a car years ago. Had it sand blasted including the rust holes. We then DA'd everything smooth and metal prepped (acid etched). We shot it the same day with Zinc Chromate (now banned) to seal and protect it.

Now the body was in a stable sealed state and we went back over the next 30 days to die-grind out rust spots and patched. remove the fresh coating in places where imperfections need work.

just my .02

 

18 gauge cold rolled and what Jon said. Once you have it blasted you'll find more that needs fixing.

 

Good advice Jon. I think I'm going to take it. I really only have two patches to install- one hidden under the fuel tank and one which should mostly be covered by a rocker guard.

Another question- If I shoot the bare tub in an epoxy primer (if possible)after stripping, can I put bondo over it where needed?

 

Someone will correct me if I am wrong. But a friend of mine that has a body shop says to do just that. Matter of fact he had me watch him as he was repairing the rear fender of a classic Mustang. Repeated applications until right. Said that the bondo adheared to the epoxy primer better than bare metal.

 

I just used some sheetmetal from Lowes. I assume it's cold rolled. It worked great.

Here is a great place to find out about paint and bodywork.

http://www.hotrodders.com/forumdisplay.php?f=19

In this thread they discuss that many professionals use bondo over epoxy. There are others that argue that the tech sheets for the bondo all say to apply it over bare metal.

http://www.hotrodders.com/t43911.html

Jim

 

I used sheet metal from a storage cabinet door, gage was near perfect, think it was a Lista, could of been Vidmar. It welded in fine. Made about 10 nice patches and new tub mounts and even some hat channel (friend has a shear and a brake) I sand blasted the whole Jeep in pieces to bare metal, then sprayed self etching primer on all parts. It sticks great (especially after blasting). All body work is to be done over that. Bondo, sandable primer, work it, then finish prime and sand. Not an expert but I have had advice from an experienced back yard body man.
Joe