Here's some highlights of the metalshaping activities at OJ's sop gathering from two years ago....


Went to a metalshaping/body lead meet today hosted by OJ Higgins at his shop, Clarke County Speed in Berryville VA. I did the metalshaping demos, but didn't get pics of that. Supposed to get some pictures emailed/cd mailed from another guy there, so I'll add some of those later.

First pics here are of Tom Mancuso, who used to have a body shop in Long Island and learned leading from some of the masters back in the day..

Two flanged panels were tuck shrinked to form a radius. This was to simulate the leading edge of hood halves being welded together and leaded.

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Tom using tinning butter on one half and plumbers flux (liquid) with solder on the other, to demonstrate the differences.... The liquid flux tends to get down into cracks better, for a better flow of the body lead.

Adding the lead, pushing it into the joint...

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Rather than use a wooden paddle and tallow, Tom prefers a vintage soldering iron that uses external heat (the torch in his other hand) It seems to do a better job of managing the heat and "puddle". Even though he claimed he hasn't leaded anything in ten years, it was like old hat to him.


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After our "hood" had a chance to cool, he demonstrated leveling the area with the vixen file.


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Our completed sample


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I think Tom enjoyed another crack at flowing some lead....

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Got some pictures during the break of some of the vintage tin outside....


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Back inside for more work on metal, Dave gives a demo using the shrinking disc.


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