Interesting tool

It sounds like a modern version of a old curved bastard file my Old Man used to slap on high spots and drag towards him, working around the high spot. Hard to describe, and he had been taught it pre war as an apprentice as a method for shrinking down small stretched bumps. Me? I'd just hit it with a hammer and dolly then fill.....

(or it could be snake oil and a just a mild rotary burr, in that case just file the bump off)



John.
 
Reading the blurb, it generates localised heat through friction, so could be
compared to a heat gun/torch but from out left field.
A mate who is an aircraft sheetmetal guy told me about the file trick, I am
curious for him to teach me how to do it.
 
We used to call these files "slappers" or "flippers" often the body shop men made their own from heavy rasps or coarse tooth files which were heated and curved. The idea was to hit the metal and the teeth would dig in and allow the metal to be pulled. To be honest I could never reall get the hang of it.
 
I used/made the flippers when I was a trainee panel beater, there was also a shrinking hammer (not literally) which was used in the same way, some times we used to make a hot spot with the blow torch and then beat the panel towards the hot spot, this was not only to use less filler, but it would strengthen the panel by removing some of the flex caused by the crash. On smaller dents one the panel had been shrunk down a body file could be used and some times this could be done as a metal finish. If the were slight discrepancies on a high end high value car lead would be used as the filler and body filed down rather than using plastic filler.
On large panels like a roof with numerous small dents it was possible to bring the dents up by heating with a small flame aimed directly at the centre of the dent and immediately using the body file over the top, I did 30 dents in a Triumph Aclaim roof this way and no filler was used at all in the repair. I'm really not sure just how that machine would shrink the panel and at least with hand tools there is a lot more control.

John
 
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