Lead loading. (1 Viewer)

Tiderus

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May 2, 2008
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A few years ago While at a seminar I mentioned that I had lead loaded my jensen. One of my colleagues was estatic as he had tried to get his repaired the same way. And wanted me to travel over 500 miles round trip to do his as nobody does it nowerdays. This was the standard way to fill body work when I was a young, Dad's old A55 was full of lead to fill bad presswork. But like other skills, it seems to have almost dissapeared with the introduction of body fillers. If cleaned and applied right they dont rust again or lift out. The other benifit is that the lead can be worked pretty well straight away, and the thickness of the filling is not a problem cracking as with polyester fillers. I never managed to get a flawless surface finnish, but a wipe over with filler or stopper got the required result. All you need is a shaped block of hard wood, permernantly kept soaking in half a pint of clean engine oil, acid free flux from your body shop, lead and a blowlamp. Forget the taller fat, and mole skins. On the vertical panels, don't forget to work from the bottom up, or the lead will beat you to the floor. It would be nice to see more people working this way again, or am I being oldfashioned, Rgd's Graham.
 

hilldweller

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Dec 5, 2008
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It would be nice to see more people working this way again, or am I being oldfashioned, Rgd's Graham.

It might just be legal now though lead electronic solder is banned on new products.

I'm old enough to have come across it. Give me modern filler any day.
 

Kon tiki

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Oct 11, 2007
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I seem to remember when I worked at Fords in the late 60's they used to use a lot of lead to fill in some parts of the bodywork. The production of the Anglia was finishing at around that time & they were making the Corsair. I think it was used on some of the joints that were spot welded, they had pallet loads of it.

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SmellyFeet

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Aug 4, 2009
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In a previous life as an engineer, guessing around 15-20 years ago I saw Rolls Royce bodys being produce at a Rover factory. They were using lead to fill the most minor of imperfections in the panels. Unbelievable.
 

TDH

Jun 22, 2009
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Powys/Shropshire border
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Reminds me of my Dad, an old-school plumber, who instructed me over the 'phone how to wipe a lead joint, one freezing winter's afternoon. He told me I'd need a moleskin, some solder, flux, a blow lamp and a hankie. He duly went through the stuff with me, with the desired result. I used all the things he'd told me except the hankie. When I asked him what that was for he told me it was because whenever he did the job and it was cold, his nose would run!

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pappajohn

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Aug 26, 2007
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Reminds me of my Dad, an old-school plumber, who instructed me over the 'phone how to wipe a lead joint, one freezing winter's afternoon. He told me I'd need a moleskin, some solder, flux, a blow lamp and a hankie. He duly went through the stuff with me, with the desired result. I used all the things he'd told me except the hankie. When I asked him what that was for he told me it was because whenever he did the job and it was cold, his nose would run!

i occasionally work with a plumber who can do lead joints....fascinating to watch...impossible to do. :Sad:

i also remember, just, lead panel filling.

 
Dec 23, 2007
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started when I was 11 with my parents-forgot to stop!been real one since 1980!
As a telecomm apprentice in the 60s I learnt to lead plumb joints. We had to get it right first time especially as the insulation on the conductors was paper. These cable usually had a fair few hundred conductors. Once I had become reasonably proficient they inroduced a epoxy plumbing system!!:Doh:
 

hailman

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Nov 4, 2009
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Lots, on and off, way back to VW splitty`s!
I did some work in Switzerland this year, in a body shop. There was no filler used or even kept in the shop, it was all done with lead. Most of the work was on modern cars undergoing insurance repairs and all was done by young people (young to me!) overseen by the 65 year old owner. Panels were repaired rather than replaced if at all possible, this keeps original factory seams and welds intact on non bolted panels.

Fantastic to watch and the results were superb, real old fashioned craftsmanship in action. Most modern bodyshops are `panel fitters` not panel beaters.

I have been in car body repair for over 30 years and I just caught the end of the `lead loading` era when I first started, never got the hang of it.:Doh:

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