Im in the process of bending my bonnet

Im doing the 1 inch return at the bottom, but dont have a bit of 2 * 1" wood to fold the lip round

daft question- could i use some 25 mm * 25mm rhs??

or will the alli/hammer 'bounce' off??

mate at work reckons it wont work; the softness of the wood absorbs the hammer blow, allowing the alli to bend properly..

any opinions??

Thats how I did it!
I also self tapped the RHS to the ally sheet & to the chassis, that way I almost 'stretch' the ally over to minimise the gap


[Edited on 30/11/05 by PaulBuz]

same here, my hammer did not know about the bounce effect

You'll need to clamp some RHS both sides of the ally along the fold line. Also bend the fold gradually along the length, otherwise you'll stretch the metal and end up with a curve along the fold line. All the better if you can bend the whole line in one go, difficult to do with hand tools though.

I cut two bits of rhs a bit longer than the bonnet , then drilled them at the ends to allow me to put a bolt through each one to hold them together.I then slid them over the bonnet and tightened the bolts at the end to secure them on the bend line. To make the bend I added a couple of G clamps for extra clamping and tapped the metal over with a nylon mallet moving the G clamps as i went.
This method works well and makes it easy to adjust before bending.
Paul.

Paulf
How about adding a couple heave duty hinges and another piece of steel to make a brake? Works for me. I made a short version for bending brackets. It will do up to 3/16" thick by 2" wide. I guess the inch references gives me away as being in the US.