Pretty much my whole bed upper roll is slightly crushed. Is there a way to fix this? Make a plug with long point on end and just heat and beat?

 

Hope to see some good ideas myself. Saw once where a fella cut off the damaged roll and used a solid rod in its place. I had thought about a rod with rounded point driven into the roll after heating damaged area. Could be used as a dolly once in. Wouldn't want to get it stuck, though.

 

I'm curious as well. Like you I've been contemplating a rod with a rounded tip. I think the inside diameter is 7/8"

Bobby

 

I assume a stud gun and slide hammer but my god. It would take years

 

Don't laugh, but could a ball bearing type of sphere work. My thinking is that possibly it could be forced thru the bed roll with some type of bar stock, the bar being marked with measurement's so you would know the exact location of the ball for heating and bumping at all times. At least if it got stuck it could be abandoned with no ill effects, or pounded out from the opposite end OK! I can hear you guys laughing from here, that's ok I love you all anyway.

 

I bought a parts truck from a guy once who described using the plug on a rod technique on the roll of his finished project truck. He at first tried using a piece of hollow pipe which almost got stuck when he heated the area needing to be straightened. A solid plug with rod threaded into it was the method he said worked best. Stu

 

A great idea, Jimmy! A lot less friction than a long tight-fitting tube. I think a combination of stud-gun pulling and hammer-and-dolly'ing with the sphere in place could do it. Not sure you can drill a ball-bearing but a sphere turned out of steel would do it.

 

I won't laugh A musical instrument restorer (Specializing in brass horns) I know uses ball bearings to take the dents out of the tubes.

 

My thought was to leave the ball bearing un-attached to the rod and pushing it from either end, that way you wouldn't be stuck with using a 8ft.legnth. you could start short and use longer shafts as you proceed. I agree ball bearings are made from some pretty hard stuff. Question, would graphite be affected by heat, if not it could be used to lessen friction even further.

 

Good idea on the ball bearing. My original thought was to build a short slug with a rounded nose, then drill and tap the end so that it could be attached to some sort of rod.

You can actually buy 7/8" ***** fairly cheap (I could be wrong on the ID of the bed roll, its been awhile since I looked into it).

Bobby

 

Wow. A useful post by me. Yay me. Think I'll get in it. A ball bearing and a piece or 2 of slightly smaller round tube. A bit of heat and a hammer might just work.

 

Give it a go, take some pics, have a frosty beverage and tell us all about it

Maybe it will give me some motivation to start some body work on mine

 

I think the ball idea is a really good one. To make it super fun, load it as a cannon ball and shoot it across!!!! Huh, wadda ya think?

Muzzle awareness here though. Point it in a safe direction.

Or...............................Just do it like you were thinking. I think it will work.

 

Yes a ball welded to a solid smaller rod measure lenth and you know where its at as you move it thru. This sounds like a 2 man job but i think it will work great.

 

That sounds good too, it would give more surface area to work at a time.