Technical Want a great source for sheet metal?

Habitat for humanity. $10 gets you a steel door with two 3x6 ft sheets of steel, gage depends on door.

 

great idea thanks

 

Isn't there usually foam glued inside the door? How do you clean that out?

 

Great source for galvanized or otherwise coated, unweldable, 30 gauge foam glued import steel..... said the guy that cut a doggie door out of one a few years ago. I can't imagine anywhere on a hot rod, or any car that thin cheap coated metal would be useful.

 

Old refrigerators, deep freeze, or filing cabinets. If theyre tan, yellow, or avacado green.... Thats the good stuff.

 

Foam is just glued on the edge. I dont use it for the body. I made a metal glove comparment from the card board template, fuse box cover, clip brackets, covers, templates and tooling. I can imagine allot of places, other than body, to use it, its just a matter of what ideas you have. Plus there is all kinds of non-automotive that I use it for.

 

Older washing machines or dryers. Large flat sides of 18ga sheet metal. Made a ton of patch panels using that on my roadster. The 'free' section of Craigslist is loaded with 'em!

 

steel shop down the road. Any size or gauge you want.

 

Here is a terminal block cover I made tonight. Stuff like this.

 

I used my wife's burned out dryer for sheetmetal before I took the rest to the dump.

 

I got quite a lot of heavy gauge sheet out of an old oil furnace that was being scrapped. There was even a panel with nice louvers in it, old school stuff.

 

Old box vans have large flat sheets. Some have rivet holes some do not.

 

Old school buses can be a good source of metal and also the flat windshields which can be cut to size.

 

I've been eyeballing the wifes toaster for an aircleaner. Cold out? No choke? Plug in the toaster. Lippy

 

Yep, guilty as charged Judge! I have used many a washer and dryer for floor pans, they have great paint on them so they work out good on floors. Just make sure you get the painted ones and not the older ceramic coated stuff. The ceramic breaks when you try to bend it, and it's impossible to grind to get a place to weld to.

I have a set of Fridge doors that have a brushed stainless overlay on them, I've got several uses planned for those already.

 

You guys are more ambitious than me. I have this big piece of metal that has been here for a while and I'm just too lazy to cut it up; too spoiled by all the machines I had available to use back when I was working.

 

Back side of pick up cabs have a nice big section with ribs stamped into it, could make a nice trunk or floorboard sections.

Im parting out a late model truck, the rear vertical cab corners are going into the random sheetmetal bin, interesting shape to work with.

Random sheetmetal bin is a dryer case, also gets patches cut from it.

 

Might as well show the finished part, cost about 8 cents.