There are a lot of options these days for bonding panels together with adhesives. The 3M Company has a wide array of products that can be used for joining metal panels. Their Panel Bonding Adhesive 08115 is easy to use, since the two parts mix automatically as they are dispensed, and it develops an extremely strong bond.
Q. I made a tonneau cover from 0.100-inch aluminum sheet for the bed of my 1950 Ford pickup. It has a 3/4-inch lip bent at 90 degrees on three sides. Unfortunately, it has an oilcan in the center. Has this happened because of the edges being stressed? Can this problem be rectified?
Jerry Meintz
Via the Internet
A. I’m not sure how the flange was formed on your tonneau cover. That’s a job best done on a press brake, and if the dies are in good shape and the machine is set up properly, forming a flange on the edges of a flat piece of metal should not cause the center to oilcan.
Nevertheless, I understand that you now have a problem you’d like to fix. I might have a better idea if I could see the panel, but I’ll go with the information I have at hand.
Oilcans are usually fixed by heat shrinking, but in my opinion, that’s really not a feasible approach on a completely flat panel as large as your pickup bed. I’d suggest doing an experiment by clamping some flat material under the panel, and seeing if that flattens out the oil-canned area. You could start by using some wooden 2x4s, or square tubing—whatever you have available—and hold these temporary braces into place with C-clamps.
I think you’ll get better results by positioning these reinforcements so they go across the panel from side to side rather than front to rear. It’s doubtful that a single reinforcement will fix the problem completely, but you can quickly find out how many reinforcements it might take to remove the oilcan, and you will see how well this improves the situation. I’m hopeful that with only a slight oilcan, perhaps a reasonable number of reinforcements (four to six) may solve the problem completely. If the distortion is severe, it’s possible that this strategy won’t completely fix the damage.
If this test flattens the panel acceptably, you’ll need to make some permanent reinforcements, and the way you do this will make or break the effectiveness of the repair. Metal expands as it is heated, and if you attach something to it that doesn’t expand at exactly the same rate, as the temperature of the part changes, you will almost certainly see some distortion in the panel where the reinforcements are attached. I’d suggest making some channels with a hat-section profile from the same 0.100-inch aluminum your tonneau cover is made from. The way these reinforcements are attached to the skin is crucial. If you try welding them, you are guaranteed to get unacceptable distortion. If you rivet them, the heads of the rivets will telegraph through the paint sooner or later. The best way that I know to invisibly attach these reinforcements is by bonding. There are many alternatives here, but one good option is 3M Panel Bonding Adhesive 08115.
You’ll need to clean all the material scrupulously, and apply the adhesive to the flanges of your hat sections, then lightly clamp them into place, and let them sit undisturbed until the adhesive cures.
I’ve never had to repair damage exactly like what you are faced with, but I think this approach could be a good way to salvage the panel you already have, rather than starting over from scratch. If the distortion is so bad that this bracing doesn’t solve the problem, I think you’d be better off having a new tonneau cover made on a properly set up press brake.
You can email your questions to Professor Hammer – covell@cruzio.com – or mail a letter to Covell Creative Metalworking, 106 Airport Blvd., Suite 105, Freedom CA 95019. You will receive a personal reply. Ron Covell has made many videos on metalworking, and they can now be STREAMED or DOWNLOADED from his website! Check these out at covell.biz, along with his ongoing series of workshops held across the nation, or call for a current schedule of workshops and a free catalog of DVDs. Phone (831) 768-0705. Also, check out Ron’s YouTube channel – www.youtube.com or (831) 768-0705. Also, check out Ron’s YouTube channel: www.youtube.com.
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