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Corrugated repair with filler

A bit of an odd request for help with this one...

I have a caravan which has a damaged alloy panel, the damage area rather than being flat, is corrugated with horizontal lines about 1mm deep every 6mm. I have filled the damage with car body filler and now I am trying to recreate the corrugated profile by scraping it using the undamaged corrugations as a guide.

I attempted to make a suitably profiled scraper, but my level of accuracy using a file simply wasn't up to the job. The scraper needs to be about 12" long, to be able to span the entire damaged area and around 3mm thick. Idea was to let the filler set then scrape it down to profile.

I have a nice big piece of the corrugated panel as a sample.

My original idea was to cast a rubbing block out of the body filler on the spare section of alloy, greasing the panel to enable it to be released, then using the cast block with some wet and dry to recreate the profile.

Another idea was to wrap some round bar with wet & dry and try to use that to recreate the corrugations one by one.

So far I have got the damage in a very rough profile by applying filler over the damage, covering it with cling film then using a 6mm rod as roller to span across to the undamaged area and roll the surplus filler up the panel. Once the filler has set, the cling film just pulled off.

I'm not sure of what I am asking here, other than for help with suggestions.

Reply to
Harry Bloomfield
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So as I see it we have a flat surface with these 1 mm wide grooves in it. M y idea would be to get the whole lot filled and then get the surface flat u sing wet and dry and a hard flat block, we now need to make the grooves so I would try cutting them with a router with a 1 mm dia cutter running in a jig held against the panel, the jig could be located by two 1 mm pins one a t each end and the router guided by 2 rails. Without more detail I cant help much more. Peter

Reply to
annecolman50

You want a suggestion of what to do with a damaged caravan?

That's tempting Harry, very very tempting, but I shall resist.

Cliff Coggin.

Reply to
Cliff Coggin

No, the peaks of the corrugation are at around 6mm intervals and around

1mm in depth. The side of the van is vertical, so fixing anything to it is a nightmare.
Reply to
Harry Bloomfield

on 09/03/2013, Cliff Coggin supposed :

I have heard all of the Top Gear jokes lol

Reply to
Harry Bloomfield

I'd soot the tool bit and see where it rubbed off. Laundry marker ink may work better for you as it needs some contact pressure to rub off.

The old timers made templates by pressing thin lead sheet into spaces they wanted to copy. Then they blued the tool blank and traced the template onto it with a pin.

I molded one space closely enough to shape a matching bit by forcing Fimo polymer clay into the groove, then baking the clay hard.

jsw

Reply to
Jim Wilkins

Reply to
brucethepump

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