Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Maintenance & Servicing Roadster Front Valance. August 2017

Impressive stuff as ever Dave.

Great work and write up Dave as always.

Button - if by T-16 you mean 1.63mm thickness, you will struggle to get a uniform bend. 1.5mm is the maximum I can bend into a curve. Even then it can easily dog-leg into an irregular bend which then has to be filed.
For the threshold I think 1.2mm would work well enough. It could be padded behind with camping mat if necessary.

You also need a strong former over which to bend. I've used my large jack handle and for this job I happened to have two really stiff cardboard tubes, which were perfect.
Once I used the clothes post in the garden.............
A drain pipe would also work. When my bench vice and timber offcuts don't do the job, I sometimes slot the piece between two of the timbers which cover the pit, and use wedges in the adjacent slot to hold tight.

I've tried heat in the past but I could never get it hot enough with my blowlamp to make any difference.

Good luck with it - I may do something similar eventually.

This is the last one I bashed out in the garage. Made from 2mm sheet and really strong. Had to make a wooden former first.

is this valance you want to sell, any idea of the price post for send it to Clavering (CB11 4PW)

Next stop - compound curves, either steel or ally.

Go on. You know you can do it.

No it is an alloy. Used in the aircraft industry. Lots of scraps in Seattle, with Boeing Surplus. 6061-T16. The scrap I am trying to bend is 1mm thick. I have both a Propane and Acetylene/Oxy torches. Maybe I need to use these to soften them up enough to bend. I will give this a try and report back.

I have a recollection from the dim and distant past of using a bar of ordinary household soap to aid annealing (grade T6?) with a torch. Rub the soap along the bend line or area to be softened and heat. When the soap goes brown or black the annealing temp has been reached.

PM sent........

It will be 6061-T6
6061 is the alloy designation, and T6 is the temper. In this case full hard.
T0 is fully annealed and T4 is the half hard condition.
You will absolutely struggle to hand bend 6061 T6 without a proper metal brake

To anneal it in the home/shop environment, you can either use bar soap as Rog says, or I use a normal permanent marker, the ink/solvent vaporizes off of the metal at the annealing temperature.
A third technique is when using a propane or similar torch to heat the material, that the flame colour will start to turn from blue to ever so slightly pink as the material nears the correct temperature
A further alternative technique when using oxy/acetylene is to use an acetylene flame with no oxygen to coat the part in soot. Then using a soft oxygen and acetylene flame slowly heat the part until all the soot has burnt off. This will then be at the correct temperature

Once the correct temperature has been reached, you can quench the part in cold water to to fully anneal to T0 condition or allow to air cool to reach T4(ish) (It's not quite that simple, but it's a pretty good rule of thumb)

Bending or manipulating should be done as soon as possible because the alloy will tend to age harden over the next few days

One of these days when I'm not quite so busy, I'll try and organise an open morning where I'll demonstrate some of the fabrication techniques I use

Simon @ SiFab.co.uk