Front Fender

I continue to work on the front fender to get the large crumple out of it.  I had a bit of help, my dad stopped by to have a look and gave me some tips on how to get the whole thing straightened out.  Initially, the front piece had a 4 inch bend in it.  I have managed to get that down to about an inch.

One of the things my dad gave me when he shut down his shop is this handy profile tool.  I used it to take the profile off of the good right wing.

Using that as my guide, I worked on the bent fender to get it straight.  I was successful in getting one edge matching the correct profile.

The trouble is the side of the front panel that was really bent is still out by a fair bit.

Its getting closer but not quite there yet.  It needs to be within a sixteenth of an inch across the face of it so I don't have to use any filler.  As I have been working this I annealed it once so far.  To anneal it I rubbed engine oil on one side of the panel then heated the back side until the oil started to smoke.  It softened the birmabright enough that it was easier to work.  Trouble is I was using a square hammer and the metal was so soft at that point that I marred it with the edge of the hammer.

Second tip from Pop was to use the correct hammer.  You can see there is a couple tiny tears in the metal.  Once I have it more or less straight I will be drilling the end of the crack out and filling it with Alumiweld brazing rod.