Heart Of Dixie Metal Meet '05
I spent most of the weekend at the metal meet. I learned a lot. The metal meet was hosted by Kerry Pinkerton of Imperial Wheeling Machines at his shop in nearby Harvest, Alabama. I would like to thank Kerry, Bennett Chapman, John Jordan, and several others whose names I can't recall for all their help.

The Martin sales guy (James Chapman) did a fabulous job teaching how to bump out dents. Note to self: Get book The Key to Bumping Metal. His explanation of the techniques was astounding.

Thanks also to Dan? of Huntsville for the stump.

One guy showed up with an old Studebakers Truck, or what was left of it. He is doing a rebuild. Looked good so far. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me that those days.

Henrob Jim was working on the fenders of his '57 Ford pickup.

If you have some time and interest, check out Kerry's Chrysler Imperial restoration site.

I will post a couple of photos of the bowl I made soon.

Quick Review:
I attended Friday morning. Got started on the metal bow. Kris helped get me started. David Miller from the autobody class showed up. I had to leave around 11:00 to pick up the kids.

Saturday morning, back to the meet. More work on the bowl. I did most of the stretching using a hammer and beater bag. I also tried my hand a shrinking using tucking forks and hammer. I did some smoothing using one of the e-wheels. It was pretty sweet.

I also tried out the machine that does shrinking. It was very nice. The process is much more rapid and I felt like I had more control of the shrinking process because you could practially see it happen. I probably should not have used the machine though because I am certain I will never have one of those ($$$$). It made shrinking using a tucking fork seem to take forever.

I will try my hand at making stretching/shrinking in the near future. First I will have to make some tucking forks.

I went back again for a few hours this afternoon. Watched some guys play with a Henrob torch. The trip today involved the Miata. It was a perfect day for driving a convertible.

And finally back home to work in the sprinkler system. I believe this project is all done except for burying it.