How to auto body hand tools

The sanding component moves so quickly that any amount of debris trapped between it and the rest of the tool could become a problem. Check all the parts to confirm they are clean and in working order. Not every shop is going to be concerned with cleaning cars, so yours may not have polishers amongst its collection of tools. However, for those that do, it is of the utmost importance that yours is working properly.

Pipe flaring tools are made up of two distinct parts. You have a set of bars with holes in them. All of the holes are of different diameters, so you can insert pipes of different sizes and shape them as necessary. Some models also come with a pipe cutting element to them. The big thing you have to do to maintain these tools is simply check the cutter blades periodically if they have them. Otherwise, this is such a rudimentary tool that all you really need to do is simply keep it clean.

Unless someone joins your team with lots of experience or proof that they know how these tools function, a quick training session will help ensure your tools last for years to come to say nothing of the safety benefits of doing this.

As we mentioned at the beginning, all automotive technician jobs involve a certain amount of using certain hand tools. Our certified mobile mechanics perform over services, including diagnostics, brakes, oil changes, scheduled mileage maintenances, and will come to you with all necessary parts and tools.

Our certified mobile mechanics make house calls in over 2, U. Parts Caddies. Pick Up Bed Handlers. Plastic Repair. Shop Supplies. Specialty Tools. Suspension Tools.

Vehicle Movers. Work Lights. View All Viewing Page 1 2 3 4 5. In some cases, such as in tight-access situations against the backs of fenders, they are also used as hammers.

Most dollies are made of cast iron, and present several different and useful contours for working surfaces. When hammering metal that is supported by a dolly, there is the critically important distinction between on-dolly and off-dolly techniques. Work on-dolly means that the dolly directly supports the metal that you are hammering and is placed exactly under and in contact with the area that is being hammered. This means that you are hitting the metal between the hammer and the dolly.

The inevitable result is to stretch that metal. Sometimes this might be your object, or part of it, but sometimes it produces the unwanted result of stretching.

Hammering off-dolly is much more common, and usually more useful. In this technique, the dolly is not held directly under the metal that is hammered, but offset from it.

An example would be holding a dolly under one or the other side of a ridge that is being hammered down. The result is to level the ridge to the panel. There may be some unwanted upsetting of the metal that is hammered this way but this can be corrected easily, later. Hammering off-dolly makes good use of the rebounding action of the dolly, after it is impacted by the metal that is being struck against it with a hammer.

After the hammer blow is struck, the dolly rebounds against the metal and acts to push it out, toward the hammering force. For this to work, the dolly must be pressed against the back of what you are hammering. You can easily imagine that driving a configuration like a ridge down at its center, while holding a dolly, alternately, under each side of the ridge, tends to level the panel, and remove the ridge. Various specialty dollies are available in many different shapes and, in some cases, are clad in relatively soft materials, like rubber, to give them resilience, or dampening.

Shot and sand bags are very useful for hammer forming three-dimensional shapes. These bags can be filled with steel or lead shot, as well as sand or other materials. They are used to back up metal in a somewhat yielding manner. As you hammer metal on a shot bag, it dishes out. This provides relatively smooth forming and controlled stretching in the same operation.

Shaped plastic mallets, used with shot bag backing, is a particularly effective hand-forming combination. Every autobody practitioner has some favorite backing surface for hammering metal. These can range from anvils to blocks of various woods, and even plastic materials.

One of my favorite backup surfaces is between one and three thicknesses layers of heavy, corrugated cardboard. The fastest way to move a lot of sheetmetal in a broad area is with devices that bend and bead it. Bending and beading apply more to fabrication than to repair. Prying, another form of mechanical bending, is used mostly in repair work. The mainstays of equipment for bending body metal are brakes and slip rolls. Brakes are used to make straight-line bends, in sheet stock, to very precise angles.

They also can be used to radius flat material by applying numerous, successive, small bends to it. Finger brakes, or box and pan brakes, are useful for making bends in local areas, with standing metal on one or both sides of those bends.

Slip rolls are used to impart permanent curvature in one plane to panel materials. Bead rollers are specialty tools that are capable of rolling shallow beads or other shapes into flat or slightly curved sheetmetal. This foot sheetmetal brake is beyond the needs of most situations. It can be used for making bends in small items, too, and operates with an ease and precision that are wonderful.

The counter balances make it very easy to control. This finger or box-and-pan brake provides for bending around three-dimensional features of metal.

It is shown here making a bend that would be impossible with a flat brake. Hand-operated bead rollers, like this one, form beads and ribs into sheet-metal. Numerous forming and folding dies are available for bead rollers. Some of the more interesting combinations use a soft top die and a hard bottom one.

Picks and pries are used locally to move metal, particularly in poor access areas, where hammers and dollies cannot reach it. All of the tools that are used for bending, beading, and prying represent non-impact methods of moving and modifying metal.

Eventually someone realized that the action of striking metal with a hammer on a dolly could be mechanized, thereby greatly increasing the amount of force and frequency of its application. This realization led to some pretty violent devices for forming metal. The most famous of the early versions of these were the Pettingell and Yoder power hammers. Over the years, power hammers evolved into much more compact, quiet, and effective machines. Fore-most in the modern crop of such devices is the Pullmax, a machine used widely in prototype and advanced metal restoration shops.

Pries and their close cousins, spoons, are used in many operations. The more robust items shown here, spoons, do prying duty or provide hammering backups. The lighter items are used only for prying. The homemade edge bender top is an item I fabricated from an old car spring. They are relatively quiet and easy to use. The tricky part of the proposition is to know when, where, for how long, and at what pressure settings to use them.

Before you add a Pullmax or other power hammer to your want list, you should know that these are very expensive machines that are in the province of professional, not amateur, use. So far, most of our attention has been directed toward hitting metal down with a hammer, or using a dolly to hit or rebound it out. There are also times when it is desirable to pull metal.

These situations are some-times encountered in repair work. In the most elaborate processes, pulling plates are soldered, brazed, or welded to areas that require massive pulling force to return them to something close to their original positions. Then mechanical or hydraulic force is used to pull them out by the plates.

Obviously, the best way to learn about this skill is to do it -- working with sheets of metal to understand how they move and bend in various ways. But short of practical experience, it can be helpful for professional mechanics and auto hobbyists alike to familiarize themselves with some of the basics before diving in.

Below we will walk through some of the first most important things to know when you are getting started in working with metal shaping and forming, as well as some tools you should have on hand, too.

When it comes to metal shaping and forming for automotive purposes, there are a few general categories of work: sheet metal large and small pieces , pipe or tube bending, and metal shrinking and stretching.

Depending on what kind of job you are doing, you may require different tools at the ready, so we will explain which ones you should have on hand at the shop or at home.

Sometimes a piece of a vehicle can get damaged in an accident, can rust due to extreme weather conditions, or erode due to years of use.

In these cases, when a large portion of the car requires fixing, you will need to use bigger pieces of sheet metal to take care of the issue. What to shape - There are several parts of automobiles that might require using a large piece of sheet metal. Among others, the most typical parts of the car that will require this are fenders, door panels, and hoods. Vise-grip locking tool : for clamping and holding everything in place.