How Thick Is Automotive Sheet Metal

Once transferred the shape is called a bead presumably due to its resemblance to a welding bead.

How thick is automotive sheet metal. This inexpensive tool turns flat sheet into customfabricated. The metal is pulled through the die and the shape of the die is transferred directly to your sheet. Wow that s hard to imagine. The equivalent thicknesses differ for each gauge size standard which were developed based on the weight of the sheet for a given material.

Automotive sheet metal once ran in the range of 18 gauge which was 48 thousandths of an inch thick actually 0 0478 inch. Russ nyberg demonstrates making a step in aluminum sheet metal with a bead roller. 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. Also the rocker panels are galvanized be aware of the fumes when welding or grinding galvanized fumes are dangerous.

The metal sandwiched together on the bottom inside of the rocker panels some of it is 060 and 040 thick so when you re working different panels and braces be aware you have different thickness s of sheet metal. The sheetmetal on both my 56 and 57 chevy is around 040 or 19ga. 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. Sheet metal used on the auto body of new vehicles and when aftermarket body work is performed tends to be between 20.

22 to 24 ga is incredibly thin perhaps the new hsla steel used on modern cars can be that thin but not good old cold rolled steel on a pre 80 s vehicle.