- Joined
- Nov 7, 2013
- Messages
- 1,623
- Reaction score
- 339
- Location
- Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- My Car
- 1973 Mustang Grande 351C 2V, built on the very last production day (July 6, 1973) for Grande's.
Hi folks!
A while ago I bout a shrinker and stretcher, the cheap ones that many, many others have bought as well. They often don't really work but there are people putting up videos about fixing them. This is what they look like:
So I set out to fix my shrinker first.
The most obvious fix were the contact surfaces of the jaws and anvils:
They looked like crap so I grabbed a file and made them smoother:
So once I fixed that and put it back together, the jaws slide like never before.
Then the next problem occured; the beam that the grip slides in has a sharp edge that gets stuck underneath the spring holder. You can thus move it one way but it won't go back. I fixed this by making a very small dent into the tip which solved this problem:
Another thing that was very poorly made was the size of the opening. The bottom was too high causing the top of the lower jaws to move below the edge.
So I also cut a bit off the bottom of the openeing so that it is now big enough and also the bottom jaws are clearly visible:
So you'd think I can now shrink like no one has ever shrunk before! But no...
The jaws hardly grip the metal and just slide to the middle slipping over the sheet metal I put in between...
The bottom and top jaws look ike this:
So, anybody here ever had this issue and found a solution? Do I need different jaws? Is the geometry of the jaws wrong? Is it somehow adjustable?
Cheers!
Vincent.
A while ago I bout a shrinker and stretcher, the cheap ones that many, many others have bought as well. They often don't really work but there are people putting up videos about fixing them. This is what they look like:
So I set out to fix my shrinker first.
The most obvious fix were the contact surfaces of the jaws and anvils:
They looked like crap so I grabbed a file and made them smoother:
So once I fixed that and put it back together, the jaws slide like never before.
Then the next problem occured; the beam that the grip slides in has a sharp edge that gets stuck underneath the spring holder. You can thus move it one way but it won't go back. I fixed this by making a very small dent into the tip which solved this problem:
Another thing that was very poorly made was the size of the opening. The bottom was too high causing the top of the lower jaws to move below the edge.
So I also cut a bit off the bottom of the openeing so that it is now big enough and also the bottom jaws are clearly visible:
So you'd think I can now shrink like no one has ever shrunk before! But no...
The jaws hardly grip the metal and just slide to the middle slipping over the sheet metal I put in between...
The bottom and top jaws look ike this:
So, anybody here ever had this issue and found a solution? Do I need different jaws? Is the geometry of the jaws wrong? Is it somehow adjustable?
Cheers!
Vincent.
Last edited:
