Hey guys, I'm wanting to put a mild curve in a 4' piece of trim to fit the contour of the trunk on my '47 Ford going from the rear glass towards the bumper. Has anyone had any success in bending stainless trim, I read somewhere years ago that it could be done by filling the backside with lead then bending and removing the lead afterwards. All thoughts and ideas welcome. Thanks in advance, Michael
The guy who taught me how to do body work and weld told me that during the depression they had to fix all the stainless trim and that is how they did it . Heat up the lead pour it in let cool and the tap it across the dent repeat till good .This might work for you if you relieve the flange a little in the bend .
These are much smaller and exactly the opposite of what you are asking (because they are on the inside of the deck lid ), but I bent these SS slats over the rear drag slicks. Takes strong hands, strong will, strong bourbon.
Im a goldsmith and when I was working as an apprentice my boss had customers that would bring in stainless to be repaired because he had the small tools and knowledge to remove dents and mild twist and he taught me how, I was 16 and now I'm 59 and still repair trim but never needed to bend it and I was planning to put small relief cuts in the flanges to help ease the bending while using the lead to prevent kinking the metal. Thanks for letting me know that the lead can help. BigO
^^^Thanks BigO If you don't have the trim piece already, call McMillans and send them a paper template showing the curvature and they will pre-bend it for you.
The idea of filling the trim piece with lead seems like a good idea. Using a sand bag to tap the lead will help keep the trims form. Seems like flat trim would be more difficult to bend/stretch than a peaked piece.
You can buy solid trim on the restoration supply and bend as needed. But you would have to shape the ends. Also chrome it or polish it.
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