[Healeys] Repair Magic

[Curtis Arndt]

Dave and Interested Liters,

Just Google "Metal Shrinking Disc" or check out Youtube, there are plenty
of videos.

Here's just the first one I found.  As the video states, with patience and
a bit of practice you can almost eliminate body filler.  In fact when Ken
used to do his demonstration (20 years ago) he stated that all that was
needed after a quality repair was a high fill primer, no Bondo whatsoever!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8cruauERmI

FYI here is a Hot Rod article on Ken Sakamoto.

http://www.hotrod.com/techarticles/body/hrdp_0805_auto_dent_repair/viewall.html

Cheers,

Curt


On Mon, Jan 27, 2014 at 10:49 AM, Curtis Arndt <cnaarndt at gmail.com> wrote:

> Dave,
>
> Some years ago I was involved with a master metal man whose name I recall
> was Ken Sakamoto?.  Ken used to do a demonstration on a metal shrinking
> disc developed by a friend of his who was a master body man in Los Angeles,
> he specialized in Duesenbergs.  This disc attached to a large angle grinder
> heated by friction the high spots on an already repaired sheet metal panel,
> and then a rag soaked with cold water would shrink the metal back to
> original.  This was a vast improvement over the old school method of using
> a torch to heat the high spots, then shrinking back with cold water.
> The results were nothing less than amazing.
>
> There was still the requirement to do good basic metal repair, but the
> beauty of the disc over the torch method was that the friction of the disc
> just heated the high spots that needed shrinking. It is the "metal memory"
> aspect was shown to me over many of Ken's demonstrations that I observed.
> On the very first demonstration, as a Healey person, I asked Ken... "how
> does this work on aluminum?"  Ken responded that his friend developed this
> process FOR aluminum as a Duesenberg restorer, and it works as good or
> better on aluminum than steel.. in other words, aluminum has a memory too.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Curt