Lead Loading

[ian65]

Anyone got any experience of lead loading.... any handy hints?

[Steve-A]

I'm sorry, I've no knowledge of how to do this at all. But I will be keeping an eye on this, as I'll most likely need to know it for my next project!

Was there much lead work on the fb Ian? I didn't spot much/any when I was doing my body work.

[ian65]

I don't think there was Steve... lead loading is proper old school.... the e-types were all lead loaded and hand finished... I don't think mass produced production line cars use it but I may be wrong.... too expensive and time consuming I suppose... I've always fancied a go at it because it's the proper job...
I've just found a good writeup on it....

http://freespace.virgin.net/tommy.sandham/leading.htm

.

[Johnnyboy]

Wow.

You guys are something else.

I remember trying to "sweat" joints into lead pipes.... nightmare....

Good Luck!

[spoddy]

i've seen it being done on old US cars on the american hotrod show on TV.
with the lead being melted and shaped into the body to fill up the holes, usually after a shell
comes out of the acid dip when they strip it back to the metal.

but they make it look easy lol.

[ian65]

but they make it look easy lol.

everytime some makes something look easy you can bet you life it's a skilled job..... a bit like plastering....or spraying a car.... it looks a piece of piss.... until you try it yourself!

[spoddy]

but they make it look easy lol.

everytime some makes something look easy you can bet you life it's a skilled job..... a bit like plastering....or spraying a car.... it looks a piece of piss.... until you try it yourself!

lol

although they had to learn too, i taught myself plastering and did a decent job. as a its still on the walls and b is nice and smooth.
i learned the secrets to it, ie ensuring the plaster is well mixed, smooth consistency and used a brush/water to help smooth out
the odd lines form the tools used. but the thing is if you read up on what the trades men use then you can do it too, ok more slowly
and not as perfect but as time goes on you get the hang of it.

so you need to read up on it, the secrets people have discovered and just have a go. practice on an old door or something rusty lol
then try it on your car. from what i seen, its a case of it melts quickly so you got to smooth it in sharpish then it starts to solidify.

bit like solder on a soldering iron, if you think of it like that, but its on a bigger scale.

[ian65]

but they make it look easy lol.

everytime some makes something look easy you can bet you life it's a skilled job..... a bit like plastering....or spraying a car.... it looks a piece of piss.... until you try it yourself!

lol

although they had to learn too, i taught myself plastering and did a decent job. as a its still on the walls and b is nice and smooth.
i learned the secrets to it, ie ensuring the plaster is well mixed, smooth consistency and used a brush/water to help smooth out
the odd lines form the tools used. but the thing is if you read up on what the trades men use then you can do it too, ok more slowly
and not as perfect but as time goes on you get the hang of it.

so you need to read up on it, the secrets people have discovered and just have a go. practice on an old door or something rusty lol
then try it on your car. from what i seen, its a case of it melts quickly so you got to smooth it in sharpish then it starts to solidify.

bit like solder on a soldering iron, if you think of it like that, but its on a bigger scale.

from what I can gather, it's tinning the metal to make the lead stick that's the secret to it..... get it wrong and the lead won't stick

[spoddy]

i would believe so as like any surface it needs to be set so anything like filler or lead can adhere to it.
just read up and then try it out and practice a bit first, plus have belief you can do it, you'll do ok.

piece of piss!

[Steve-A]

from what I can gather, it's tinning the metal to make the lead stick that's the secret to it..... get it wrong and the lead won't stick

Yeah that looks like it's important. I guess the skill is all in getting the right amount of heat into it, so the lead is kinda gooey rather than dripping off the paint work or solid.

Looks like one of those skills that with a bit of practice is perfectly do-able, but would take forever to master. Kinda like welding. With a bit of practice I now think I'm an average amateur welder, I can stick most things together and they will be strong and, if I take my time and do all the prep work and finishing work, reasonably pretty. The difference is a proper welder can do it in 1/4 the time and it'll be so neat it wont need any finishing work.

I imagine with the leading that after a few hours practice you could get lead into the car and then shape it till the panel is smooth. The difference would be it might take 3 or 4 cycles of adding lead then shaping and might take all day/week to do one panel. The pro's would do one application, then a shape and be done in 45 mins.