midnightsteele Posted October 5, 2014 Posted October 5, 2014 (edited) I have a slight alignment problem on my 65 Chevy truck. You will notice in the two pictures the differences in the angles on the front of the fenders. Although the fender on the drivers side is correct, the one on the passengers side is pretty much a final product. I know "what" I need to do, I just don't know "how". The lower left needs to be heated and bent inwards to the grill section to match the other side. How do I do this without damaging anything else? I can take more pictures if needed. Passengers side is the first picture and drivers side is the second... and as always thank you. Edited October 5, 2014 by midnightsteele
1930fordpickup Posted October 5, 2014 Posted October 5, 2014 Hot water is one way . Just not boiling. Heat up some water and dip the body part you want to bend . Let it warm up and than try to bend it . I will take some trail and error , but you will get it. Some guys have said to use a blow dryer to heat the body up.
Snake45 Posted October 5, 2014 Posted October 5, 2014 I've had some luck with hot tap water. Put the place you need to bend under hot running tap water for 30 seconds or more and then try to bend it. You might need to do this several times. Bend it MORE than you need, because as it cools, it will want to "relax" back to its previous configuration. If your tap doesn't get hot enough, you'll need to heat up some water hotter. NOT boiling! Boiling is hot enough to warp and shrink the plastic. I think you're looking for a temperature somewhere in the 180* range if you have a thermometer.
Snake45 Posted October 5, 2014 Posted October 5, 2014 Could you file or sand it into shape? Probably not, but another option in SOME cases like this is to cut the part completely and re-glue it in a better position. Sometimes you can't do that and get it quite perfect, but you can get it to where a little putty and so forth will get you where you want to be. Just a thought....
midnightsteele Posted October 5, 2014 Author Posted October 5, 2014 Well before I attempted to bend the plastic, I knew I would have to trim a little so it would match up to the filler panel behind where the bumper will go under the grill. I wanted to try the hot tap water tip first and work my way up in case that didn't work. During the trimming process....... I will be gluing it back in place after the trim, let it sit until tomorrow and in the meantime do another section if the build. Grrrrrrrrrrrr
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