Joggle Bends, Sheet Metal Brakes and other headaches..

No I haven't been sitting in the warmth of the Living Room with my feet up watching 'Homeland' for the past couple of weeks...well, at least, not all the time! I've been struggling with 'Joggle Bends' - no that's not a euphemism.. Actually the garage is away from the house without any heating. It's about freezing outside so I'm wearing two wool jumpers with thermals under my overalls - mobility is a bit of an issue under multiple layers!

Anyway, when I cut the Trunk Floor out all those months back I had to trash a strip of metal that essentially stiffened the transmission/gearbox mounts. This innocent looking piece of metal mated perfectly to the trunk floor beneath it with Joggle Bends along either edge - a Joggle Bend is basically a step in the metal.

Here's the strip before I replaced the floor back in January this year..

I thought fabricating a new strip would be easy but I realise now that often the jobs that appear the simplest can infact be quite a P.I.T.A!

I basically had to make a Sheet Metal Brake or Bender to do the job. 'Off The Shelf' Metal Brakes, at least affordable ones (£50 odd), are only good for single bends and won't do Joggle Bends so the Brake I made out of scraps of MDF, Timber and Angle Iron can do them...hoorah! But the 'machine' needed plenty of fine-tuning to get it to work properly. Here's what it looks like...I can make the Joggle Bends by taking out the base plate you can see in the pic.. I won't go on about it!

But if anyone does actually ever read this and wants to know how I made it, post a comment! Anyone, Bueller, Bueller, Bueller...

I could only make about 30cm lengths of the plate at a time to any accuracy. I needed around 60cm total length so that's obviously two lengths which I'll weld together..duh.

Here are the results of the exercise - pretty much a perfect fit (to my great surprise!)

1. Where it needs to fit..

2. Lining the bits up..

3. Close up of the Joggle Bend..

So just as I'm about to start cutting and sanding the pieces so they fit perfectly together before I weld them, my disc sander blows a fuse...arghh. So that's been sent back to the factory for repair. When it's returned, I'll weld all this lot together and finish the job.

Phew!!