Sheet metal

Hi All,

What sort of sheet metal is or would be the best to use on an 60's truck?
I see may car based magazines talking about 16? gauge sheets. Im not sure what that is as i have always worked with Aluminium on buses

G-Day Big Al

We have a place here in Bendigo that sells panel steel
its the ants pants when you want too shape new bits much easier to work than normal sheet
Masfield 0354422687
bit of a hike to come and get any but if you cant find any they may be able to help

/me

Hi Big Al

I'm a bit of a newbie with panel beating and metal shaping and in fact I haven't started yet, but I was advised to use Zincanneal sheet at 1.2mm thickness. This is about 18 gauge, and is the same thickness as the existing body panels on both my 1958 Morris JB van and the 1949 Dennis F1 fire engine. At this thickness it is able to be TIG or MIG welded slowly and carefully. 16 gauge is about 1.3mm thickness. I've bought a 2400 x 1200 sheet and I'm almost ready to start!

Again as per Bugly I am not a panel beater but use a lot of sheet the zincseall and zincannel are available in various thickness these are a preprimed product. Think you will find 16# (1.6mm) a bit heavy to shape. We often have panel shop ratting the scrap bin in return for amber refrigerated product and they are usually taking .75 and .95 hope that helps
Geoffb

If Pete's 'panel steel' is a of a deep drawing grade and can be got in single sheets it is worth travelling for as it is made to take shaping and forming. Otherwise sheet flashed or preprimed with zinc, not to be confused with zincanneal which is a high tensile roofing product. I have used 16g on my AEC cab, but that is for large flat panels, steps and structural sections.

All off those products are available in sheet form of various sizes but I would find a local fabrication shop and ask for scraps of these products and a slab is far more appreciated than what the dealers pay (Sorry Chocs) but all must make a living.
Just as a clarification these preprimed products are zincsael zinc anneal electrogal not to be confused with zincalume which is the roofing product (spelling might be wrong)

I think Geoff has it explained, Zincanneal is a product that is used in a lot of motor bodies because it has extra rust protection. We use it on our headboards, if we use black steel, which we sometimes have to because it is hard to get zincanneal in 3mm, we have to blast it, otherwise rust forms under the paint quite often.

Zincalume (if thats how you spell it), is a roofing product, and like colourbond, is almost impossible to weld, and is meant for roofing flashings etc where it is screwed or rivited.

I use old panels from cars, bonnets doors boots etc are great to use.
If you get parts that are around the same era you will find they are the same thickness.
Its cheaper and as long as the metal isn't streched it works fine.
Big bit is to keep away from the bottoms or areas that rust.

Shown this when I did my Panel Beaters Apprenticeship and have doneit this way since.

Sorry for the short sentences, blackberry writes off the screen

Zincawhat- yea just confused myself

Hi Big Al
My 87 year old Inter panels are close to 12G so easy to weld but B#@$h to shape. I am using 1.6mm to replace panels. Panel steel is good to work and weld. A lot of blokes use what is called "sign white" which is primed on one side & white other & about .9mm touchy to weld. I have used the bonnet off a XE Falcon which worked out great as pretty flat & old enough to be workable, modern panel steel is a dfferent tensile strength & has different properties which don't always match older panels. This is only based on my personal experiences so stand to be corrected.

Graham