Anyone good at sheet metal repair ?

Major Screw up:

Well, I know with any equipment and such, the array of things that can happen, one should always realize things could always be a lot worse, its a given, but this gave me a migraine and a belly ache, darned favorite piece of power equipment, kept inside, maintained, and guess what did it, some gol-derned short piece of wire chain with a clasp on one end and an S hook on the the other, heard it flapping and like I am accustomed to doing, lifted the back end up a little, and the darned thing caught and pulled it in. Well I'm over it, I'll have to find a used tine cover, sandblast, paint, and see if I can have the exact decals made up, was totally original, made right here over the hill, made it 35 years and looked close to new, can't win this week LOL ! Well I won't rest til its right again, I guess one can't get too fussy with things, but it still bites a little, grrrr LOL !

Well I know I can't blame myself, could never have seen the chain, but had I just pulled that lever quick enough... #$@! LOL !

So tell me about something similar that got screwed up, (therapy LOL !) you know that nice car or some darned thing.

I completely redid a g pulling tractor, had it all ready to take to a pull on Father"s Day with my pops and she started puking water.. Cracked head and tore all back down.. All u can do is fix it and keep smiling..

drill the rivets that hold the hinge on, straighten the cover and replace the hinge and bend up a guard out of sheet metal. I did this to one of mine back a few years ago. Works well

You're right, I was proud of myself after it happened, calmly just shut it off, went and had a cold spring water, wiped the brow off and after a bit just went to the tool box to see what nylon/rubber mallet I was going to use so I could get it back up the hill.

I will try what Marv said, probably keep an eye for a used one too, on ebay, there were a few, I got 'er straightened enough to use again, runs so nice, love listening to it through the ear plugs, steady and reliable.

I think the extra work and time is what got me more, i had someone put a nice baseball size dent in a nice car many years back, parked away from all the other cars in a spot farthest away from the store, was not busy, 8am, someone nailed it and left never knew who or what did it, depressing as heck, but I was over it quickly, lesson in life, theres a much larger picture than all this mechanical junk we get so darned attached too LOL !

I think its spot welded, but I can get past those too. The upper cover with the decals on it, I can likely straighten and not be able to tell, just that darned hinge, worth doing, I was going to mention it above, darned chain LOL! I'll bet I could make that bottom piece but I'll have to have someone spot weld it back, have not mastered welding sheet metal yet.

Of all the things, I'm usually the one that has the bizarre occurrences happen, I'd have never thought of this one, I still cannot figure out how it hooked, the chain was loose and came right out when I grabbed it, and you can lift the back end, the cover never hit while running I do it all the time when turning, really odd and a "one of" screw up.

a little time spent with a hammer and dolley will work wonders. drill the spot welds out of the piano hinge to remove it. fastenal has piano hinge in 5 foot strips, its probably .095 hinge. if you dont have a mig welder, see if your local auto body shop will weld the hinge on for you.

I have several (4) old air cooled VWs. I used to show them before I got busy on the farm - I replace all of the sheet metal and rebuild engines. Pretty good stress reliever.

I have one that I bought in high school. It is one of those special "one year only" types. I keep saying it is next for a rebuild. Just hasn't happened.

Well, it was sitting in the shed beside another. There was a skunk in front of the shed. I grabbed the 357 and shot the skunk, bullet went through said skunk (in the doorway), bounced off of the cement, and put a huge crease in the door below the driver's window of said special car. It had lost enough power that it didn't go through the metal. That would have been better. It made a gouge you can put a roll of duct tape in. I was so sick I just moved the car so that it was against the wall and didn't have to see it. Ugh.

Your tiller doesn't look bad. I would fix the shroud and put a new rear flap and piano hinge on it. You will find that any replacement is paper thin. Is there a bone yard for old tillers?

Hi Notjustair !

I also restore old VWs ! - I have over 13 of them.. A sickness I guess !!

What state are you in? - I'm just outside Dayton, Ohio. I'm guessing that "one year only" VW is a 1967? - I have two of them... An American and an Euro model.. American is first year for 12 volt and the Euro was left 6 volt by VW until 1968.

Thanks... Mike

Yes, an import 67. I've paired down to that one, a 69 that I used to drive daily, a 77 champaign edition converible, and a 69 Karmann Ghia auto stick. Who knows how many parts are on shelves here. I always chuckle when I take a VW part and modify it to work on one of the tractors. There isn't anything on the farm that's not safe from German engineering!

I agree with the others- the hood could probably be straightened out pretty easily. Another alternative on the back flapper is your local sheet metal shop- they could match the metal guage pretty closely, cut it to size on their shears, and put the little kick-up on the back with their sheet metal brake. All you'd have to do is cut the U-shaped hole at the top.

I ran into a little difficulty with my little Mantis-type cultivating tiller this weekend- got too close to one of the tomato cages, plucked one of the base wires out of the ground and wound it twice around the tiller shaft. Too stiff of wire to pull out with pliers, so ended up dis-assembling the tiller head to get it off. No harm, no foul.

Nice collection !!

What state are you in?

Thanks.. Mike

Take that flapper off and toss it. My old, retired Troy-Bilt Horse never had one. You should be able to straighten out the hood by holding a 2x4 on the backside and hitting the frontside with a large, rubber mallet.

NUP never happens here, I heard things like that in Canada every day

I admit - that looks sickening, but you can fix it. Any tell tale scars after you're done will be "battle stories". If you were closer, I'd give you a piece of piano hinge. The rest you can straighten, in fact, you may be able to straighten the hinge too, after getting it all apart. I'd pop rivet the new or repaired hinge on to avoid burning the paint. I like my old TroyBilt, too. It looks just like yours, well, except for that big dent, ha.

It does look bad at first glance, was worse watching happen, could not do a darned thing, hung that chain up as a reminder, how the heck did that get in the garden? Sort of put me in a bad mood for a little while at one point I will admit, but thats expected, I'll make 'er right somehow, because it will annoy the heck out of me, why I don't know LOL, well I guess everyone has there thing, some of mine is power equipment and keeping it nice shape, she works fine with that rumpled flapper, I just finished with 'er, and planted corn, 64 day, 73 day and 90 day, I just could not do anything in there due to the rain, I'll get something out of it I am sure, I'll be darned if the first row of 90 I did plant in my upper garden did not germinate yet, figured I'd hand pollinate it, used a planter, uniform depth, per the seed bag, nice berm of soil, up high, with a gutter, to collect rain from 2 downspouts, everything else is doing ok, lost a few cucumbers, darned rain. All this would not be possible without this tiller, was one of my best finds.

(quoted from post at 11:18:10 06/20/13) I think its spot welded, but I can get past those too. The upper cover with the decals on it, I can likely straighten and not be able to tell, just that darned hinge, worth doing, I was going to mention it above, darned chain LOL! I'll bet I could make that bottom piece but I'll have to have someone spot weld it back, have not mastered welding sheet metal yet.

Of all the things, I'm usually the one that has the bizarre occurrences happen, I'd have never thought of this one, I still cannot figure out how it hooked, the chain was loose and came right out when I grabbed it, and you can lift the back end, the cover never hit while running I do it all the time when turning, really odd and a "one of" screw up.

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I ran across a video a few days ago about building a home made spot welder from an old microwave.