How Thick Sheet Metal For Automotive

20 gauge became common in more recent times and this meant 0 0359 inch thick metal still a lot to work with in bumping and metal finishing.

How thick sheet metal for automotive.

Whether you re working on a classic american car from 1957 or a truck made as recently as 2007 eastwood has sheet metal to help you fix it. The gauge number 18 holds no relevance to the actual measurements. Extend blade life by keeping the saw s speed slow. If you re riveting a thick sheet to a piece of angle iron you need a deeper rivet.

A gauge conversion chart can be used to determine the actual thickness of sheet metal in inches or millimeters. Here are a few tips for cutting metal with a recip saw. Rivets come in a variety of head and shaft sizes. Choose a blade with 20 to 24 tpi teeth per inch for thin metal 10 to 18 tpi for medium thickness metal and about 8 tpi for thick metal.

For example 18 gauge steel according to a gauge conversion chart is 0 0478 inch or 1 214 millimeter. You can also choose a depth for the rivet if you re just joining two sheets of metal a shallow depth works best. 0299 and 24 ga. Sheet metal used on the auto body of new vehicles and when aftermarket body work is performed tends to be between 20.

0239 range depending on the. When doing old car restorations sometimes its simpler to replace an entire panel instead of trying to straighten it or repair rust spots. For pricing and availability. Hillman 24 in x 24 in cold rolled steel solid sheet metal.

M d 24 in x 3 ft aluminum sheet metal. Set your saw to straight rather than oscillating if there s a choice. The equivalent thicknesses differ for each gauge size standard which were developed based on the weight of the sheet for a given material. You can get pop rivets down to 1 16 inch shaft size up to 3 16 inch at your local hardware store.

Automotive sheet metal once ran in the range of 18 gauge which was 48 thousandths of an inch thick actually 0 0478 inch. Sheet metal gauge size chart gauge or gage sizes are numbers that indicate the thickness of a piece of sheet metal with a higher number referring to a thinner sheet.