Newbie - Kosta

[kdchingas]

Hello all,

My name is Kosta Chingas, and I am currently living in Stuttgart, Germany. I am an expat here, and my home base is in Birmingham, Alabama, where I have my 1969 Torino GT.

The Torino needs a lot of body work, and I have reviewed lots of different sites about body finishing, and most show a shocking amount of bondo needed to smooth out the surface! I don't want to do that to my car.

Just some of my background, professionally I have always worked for car companies - previously with Ford, and now with Daimler in body-in-white engineering. Unfortunately there is no custom work for mass production of OEM car bodies - as all is done via stamping and high volume assembly methods.

I know that it is possible to do better than loading an old body up with bondo and smoothing it all!

The ironic thing about me, is that I am scared to death about working metal by hand - thinking that I will make a big mistake and have to start over. I am actually an engine guy at heart, having built many ford V8's over the years - couple of 289's, a Boss 302, a 351W heavily modified, and a 428 SCJ in process, but as far as body is concerned, like I said I am scared to death. If I had the confidence, I would try to rebody the entire car - but right now I am at zero.

I should take that back, I have a little bit more confidence now that I've seen some internet information about working metal - and then I've come across this forum, which is really wonderful.

I'm looking forward to learning from you wonderful people here!

Thanks!

Kosta C

[Peter Tommasini]

HI Kosta welcome to the forum
Peter

[Doug M]

Hi Kosta welcome.

Your fear If based like mine on creating garbage at the end may have a solution in starting from Garbage. You turn garbage into something fun (the metal shaping process), Helpful (like the headlight points in the correct direction), and beautiful (hey, it looks better than the garbage that was there before). Not on your Torino but I'm sure you have a friend that has a dented front fender you can straighten (you can always get a new ((used)) front fender at the auto recycling center).

People do amazing things with a small hammer and a little pressure in the thought out direction.

[kdchingas]

Originally Posted by Doug M

Hi Kosta welcome.

Your fear If based like mine on creating garbage at the end may have a solution in starting from Garbage. You turn garbage into something fun (the metal shaping process), Helpful (like the headlight points in the correct direction), and beautiful (hey, it looks better than the garbage that was there before). Not on your Torino but I'm sure you have a friend that has a dented front fender you can straighten (you can always get a new ((used)) front fender at the auto recycling center).

People do amazing things with a small hammer and a little pressure in the thought out direction.

Yes! That's exactly what I'm fearful of. But at the end of the day it comes to a few basic things - stretching, shrinking, cutting and bending. It's really interesting to me now, because before I never really payed much attention to handworking metal before, until recently. In a stamping process like I'm used to you are actually doing the exact same things, only with expensive automated equipment. What I started doing last night was putting paper on all sorts of shapes around my apartment to see where a surface would need to stretch or shrink to get some experience in the geometrical aspects. Then, I will plan my first project around the basic forming processes after I get to know where metal would need to stretch vs shrink. I guess if I apply that with what I already know about sheetmetal, I might start out ok.

Then, hammer away on a bag and a stump and see what I can do! Only problem is I'm about 4000 miles away from my shop, so it makes things a little difficult....

[Doug M]

I've heard of people with a box of hammers at the airline examination gate.

When I was in Germany I found "THE" hardware store in Frankfurt and was really impressed with the traditional tools available. Sure the price was higher than garage sale items in the USA But these were THE PREMIUM tools for the task. You might find THE hardware store near where you are and find the hammer you will love forever. That "big box store" in Germany was impressive but modern tools were more the norm there and like all "big box stores" the quality is lacking (The 7euro auto body tool set is not what you're looking for (for the long run) but may dent some tin and teach a bit of shaping).

[kdchingas]

Originally Posted by Doug M

I've heard of people with a box of hammers at the airline examination gate.

When I was in Germany I found "THE" hardware store in Frankfurt and was really impressed with the traditional tools available. Sure the price was higher than garage sale items in the USA But these were THE PREMIUM tools for the task. You might find THE hardware store near where you are and find the hammer you will love forever. That "big box store" in Germany was impressive but modern tools were more the norm there and like all "big box stores" the quality is lacking (The 7euro auto body tool set is not what you're looking for (for the long run) but may dent some tin and teach a bit of shaping).

Hey Doug. I'm going to look around here - maybe I can find some good tools. Its so funny you mention the airport. Yes I had my favorite mallet confiscated by TSA years ago in Atlanta - had to do some rework at an assembly plant!

[HEATNBEAT]

Hi Kosta and welcome !