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Shaping a windscreen frame
peter_m7uk - 7/1/22 at 11:23 PM

My windscreen frame needs some adjustment, but the bottom is particularly difficult! It's an aluminium H-section, 22mm x 16mm and is very sturdy. My aim is to tweak the bend in it, try on the car, tweak some more and so on until the fit is good.

Maybe Eddie Hall could do it by hand, but I need some sort of tool. I had a go with a pipe bender, but I found that when I applied enough force to bend it, I was knackering and distorting the surface of the ali. So I could do it ..but it would look a real mess when finished.

I imagine using a blowtorch to apply some heat might help, but I don't think that would avoid messing up the surface. It's probably possible to make some homemade tool, but that sounds like a significant job in itself. Anyone got any ideas for something I could buy to do the job, or some clever technique?

Cheers,
Pete

PS I wanted to add a pic of the H-section, but can't see how to add pics?

ianhurley20 - 8/1/22 at 09:16 AM

There are quite a few posts on You Tube showing how to do it - but - the issue is the aluminium will harden by itself so you need to anneal it before bending. To add to the issue the annealing lasts around an hour or so. To anneal rub hand soap over the surface of the metal and then with a blowtorch heat the alluminiumuntil the soap turns black moving along the piece of metal until the area you want to bend is done. Allow to cool and then you have soft aluminium for a while. Bending itself will start the hardening process so be prepared to repeat if needed.

40inches - 8/1/22 at 11:37 AM

I bent one by marking the lower frame at 25mm intervals and bent it slowly by clamping it horizontally in a vice and tapping it with a hammer,moving it in the vice one mark at a time, it was a slow process, but it worked
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snapper - 9/1/22 at 05:09 PM

Haynes book and I think the original showed how to make the tool to bend the U section around a plywood buck

peter_m7uk - 12/2/22 at 10:31 PM

quote:
Originally posted by 40inches
I bent one by marking the lower frame at 25mm intervals and bent it slowly by clamping it horizontally in a vice and tapping it with a hammer,moving it in the vice one mark at a time, it was a slow process, but it worked
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Hi 40inches,

Great, thanks for letting me know about a way that works! I'm wondering exactly what your process was, though, as I have a frame that was supplied pre-bent for a different car. My idea was just to modify it. As you can see in my attached pic, if I clamp it up to bend the right hand end a bit more, say, I'm already clamping a curve so I can't go too tight. I used wood to soften the vice jaws, but the problem then is that, when you hit the ali, you just deform the wood rather more than bending the ali! (I did heat with a blowtorch until the soap went black, by the way)

How did you deal with clamping ali in the vice without knackering the surface? And how did you deal with working a shape that already has a curve in it?

Cheers!

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Sanzomat - 13/2/22 at 08:46 AM

Windscreen frame utube
This is a video a friend in my local club made of bending his. Warts and all! Basically the same principal as a pipe bender