Thread: Can I bend 3mm Aluminium sheet at home?

Not easily with 3mm. Do not heat it.

Why are you using 3mm and why chequerplate??? 2mm or even 1.6 mm will be fine for the application and will be bendable. Chequer plate of that surface area will be a bugger to clean and will possibly increase fuel consumption!

EDIT: Note Ifor Williams don't use chequerplate, and I bet it is much thinner than 3 mm, but no reports of them not being strong enough.

DON'T try and bend it yourself, unless you have a big solid (cast iron) workbench, even so we've only bent a small bit for the floor in my buggy, definitely take it to a sheet metal shop, you'll get a much cleaner and crisper bend in it

Cheers
Will

I agree entirely with Isuzurover. 3mm is far too thick for this application, and chequerplate is also quite unsuitable. When building their hardtops, Rover used 1.6mm or thinner - as near as I can measure it the roof of my County is 1.2mm. Even if you don't want to add ribs or use the hood bows, I suggest that 1.6mm would be plenty.

John

Thanks guys....always something to learn

Cheers
Andrew

i cant imagine you will have much luck bending 3mm sheet at home, we had a hard enough time getting the bends right on my canopy using the press at my brothers work, had to trial it on a number of small peices before we worked out how many small bends to make it look rounded and even then it was a bitch to get right, definetly the hardest part of my canopy.

I really wanted to make mine follow the lines of the cab, and it does nicely, but honestly if i was doing it again i would seriously consider just making the top edges with a single bend at almost 90dg but keeping the angle on the lower section like mine has.

We made mine out of 50x50 3mm wall sqaure tube and 50x50 6mm angle as the frame and skinned it with 3mm checker plate... it should be plenty strong and me and my brother can lift it on and off with just 2 of us, its not overly heavy but its very big and awkward easier with 4 of us

frame
top edge radius

frame

follows the cab shape with the bend in the lower section of the legs and radius top

skinned

and on the vehicle it all looks nice


plenty more pics in my members ride thread, i should have some of the internal frame somewhere i can post showing the bracing etc.

regarding thickness, i guess if you want it durable and able to be used for load carrying on top of it without dinting and warping easily 3mm is good, for just a canopy 1.6 would be fine, but i can say without a doubt i would have already bent mine if i did it out of 1.6, its been dragged along trees several times and used as viewing platform with several people standing on top of it - its overkill but exactly what i wanted.

Btw i dont think i really noticed any change in consumption when this went on so the added wind drag etc of the checker plate is probobly not an issue when your driving a vehicle shaped like a brick, as for cleaning??? its a land rover i thought they were alergic to soap?? mine hasnt been cleaned at all yet and looks nice and shinny.

You never know gents... remember golf balls have dimples

Originally Posted by MacMan

You never know gents... remember golf balls have dimples

Dimples only work for a very small range of Reynolds' numbers (inertia to viscosity ratios). A LandRover is not a golf ball...