My neighbor gave these to me, were in his barn when he bought his place years ago. Auto body? Lead? The curved one interests me, the file is solid (not perforated).
Cheese graters for roughing bondo on the right and vixen file for lead and very light metal dressing on the left.
I use to have one but somehow it disappeared. You can adjust the curve by turning the center and locking it in with the jam nuts.
The Vixen will curve when ya turn the turnbuckle in the middle for doin detail work on lead. The lower drawer of my tool box if full of different 1's, lead paddles, plus about 50lbs of old lead
The vixen file on the left that appears curved is flat in its normal state. The center of the file holder has left and right hand threads to adjust the files shape from flat to concave or convex to match the shape of the parent metal.
Looks like there is a turn buckle style handle for making the file curved for concave areas or straight.
I think the one in the centre of the photo has a fixed, curved blade. We used to use those on return sweeps. That was the area usually on a rear quarter where the 'c' pillar blended into the belt line.
Hello, Hot rod body work was a lucrative job, as our friends just hated doing body work on cars. The same goes for repairing dings, fin cuts, and delamination in surfboards. All of the tools on the right of the photo are also used in shaping raw blank foam for surfboards and repairs. In my two tries at shaping a surfboard, I used four of those scrapers or Surform planer/shapers. “A surform tool (also surface-forming tool features perforated sheet metal and resembles a food grater. A surform tool consists of a steel strip with holes punched out and the rim of each hole sharpened to form a cutting edge. The strip is mounted in a carriage or handle. Surform tools were called "cheese graters" decades before they entered the market as kitchen utensils used to grate cheese. Surform planes have been described as a cross between a rasp and a plane.” “Although similar to many food graters made of perforated sheet metal, surforms differ in having sharpened rims. Also, a surform typically is used to shape material, rather than grate it.” The first plain shaped, mid-size long board was ok, but it did not ride well. The Surform shapers followed the preliminary edge templates that I made, but still the finished board just did not do well in the water. Undaunted, I knew I could shape a modern era board (late 60's) and got another shorter blank to experiment. Another similar template was made with different edges and top surface. The Surform tools allow me to follow the template to the fine lines. But, as the board looked finished after hand sanding, the finer points were necessary to sharpen up the design to look better. Slightly, curved up nose, harder edge lower rails, swallow tail were the new shapes. From a 7 foot blank, it got down to a 5 foot finished shape blank. It was light, looked really good, but too small for my body size. So, I gave it to this little “gremmie” who was an up and coming surfer from the neighborhood. He had it glassed and brought it to me to see the finished product. It looked outstanding. The little kid took it out and just ripped the waves with that finished board. Yippee! Jnaki The following year, I experimented with a small Harley Sportster gas tank that I picked up at a swap meet. I wanted to reshape the design to not make it look like a rigid triangle, but smoother flowing shape to the back and a slight drop over the frame. I added some fiberglass and body filler to get the preliminary shape started. Using the Surform tools, I began to shape the added glass/filler to create a “larger in looks”, but still keeping the original gas holding size. The tank started to look smoother and had its own design. STOCK It looked like this, but this is not the actual gas tank. By the time I got finished using the Surform tools, the garage was a mess, I was itching from the combination fiberglass and filler shaping and sanding. The product looked great on my Harley, but the process was not to my liking. I gave the tank to a friend who owned a Harley customizing shop. He thought it looked really good. Of course, paint made it look better. I realized that auto body work, surfboard repairs and working in the glassing end of surfboards was not going to be in my future. Itching after creating/shaping a surfboard and the finished sanding process, had its hazards. But, making surfboards from scratch, also, was not going to be a lifetime career, either. It was the hours of shaping and grinding that took its toll, in both endeavors. So, hot rod/motorcycle body work/repair was not in my future, as well. But, most of the Surform tools stayed with me for other less invasive (wood) projects later on in life. Last week, they finally found a new home with another extended family member.
I have a few versions of these and don’t really find them that useful. They are meant for guick forming body filler and are very aggressive. When body filler is hardening there is a short window of time where it Isn’t quite hardened 100%. It is about as hard as a brick of cheese at this point if you hit it with one of these files it gets the shape quite quickly. However it is nearly as quick to use 40 grit paper at this point the only trade off is it clogs the paper quickly but if you give the paper a quick blow with compressed air you can keep going . And the surface finished with the paper is much nicer than the filed finish. It is a very rough in type tool. If you time the first knock down of body filler properly and use 40 grit paper you can save yourself quite a bit of time and effort.
Oh yeah one other thing that is why I have always heard these tools being referred to as the cheese grater!
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