question about sheet metal

What guage sheet metal should I use if I am shaving the tail lights and the tag.

Use whatever guage the surrounding sheetmetal is. Probably 16ga. This will make it the easiest to weld and look the best. I find 16ga to be the easiest to hammerform as well.. anything thinner tends to bend and stretch too easily, you have to be very gentle with it. 16ga takes a bit longer to form, but I find I get better form and finish out of it.

Use whatever guage the surrounding sheetmetal is. Probably 16ga. This will make it the easiest to weld and look the best. I find 16ga to be the easiest to hammerform as well.. anything thinner tends to bend and stretch too easily, you have to be very gentle with it. 16ga takes a bit longer to form, but I find I get better form and finish out of it.

16gage? You're kidding right. 16 Gage is awful damn thick for sheetmetal fabrication. The only time I use 16Gage for the bottom of chopper gas tanks, or where minor fab is done, like a bend. I would use something more like 19Gage, 20Gage, or even 22Gage.

Hammerforming 16 Gage will work if you're popeye, and your arm will still be sore as hell. Then trying to planish the hammer formed steel is a bitch when its 16Gage, even with an english wheel or with a power hammer.

I've build shit with 22gage with no problem. 19gage is the best since thats what the older cars were made of, and its around the thickness of new materials. 19Gage is much more expensive than 20gage because its an odd gage. So you could use 20Gage just fine.

Me likes what me likes!
I'm a beginner, I assume he is as well otherwise he wouldn't be asking, and 16ga certainly allows the most room for erroroneous strokes. If you can't get it perfectly smooth(like me), 16ga has some thickness to allow a bit of grinding.
I'm also used to workin on my mustang which has pretty darn thick panels. Not 16ga, dunno what i was thinkin. probably 18. But I can't find anything between 16 and 20 ga. 16, 20, and 22 is what I can get locally.

Listen to GTmike, I don't do much bodywork. Engine fabrication here...
What car are you doing this to? Picture? What is a 'tag'? Liscence plate?

Me likes what me likes!
I'm a beginner, I assume he is as well otherwise he wouldn't be asking, and 16ga certainly allows the most room for erroroneous strokes. If you can't get it perfectly smooth(like me), 16ga has some thickness to allow a bit of grinding.
I'm also used to workin on my mustang which has pretty darn thick panels. Not 16ga, dunno what i was thinkin. probably 18. But I can't find anything between 16 and 20 ga. 16, 20, and 22 is what I can get locally.

Listen to GTmike, I don't do much bodywork. Engine fabrication here...
What car are you doing this to? Picture? What is a 'tag'? Liscence plate?

I can understand why you would think to use it, and why you would want to use it. 16Gage is often the most commonly available sheet. And you would want to just grind the bumps off. Its a mistake we all make, I'll admit I started with 16 too.

Im guessing your mustang is 18Gage. I might post up some beginner basics on sheet metal forming later on. Im a body boy, your an engine dude, TSC is compositeman, and together we make a great helpcenter for the fabrication forum.

I believe is talking Teg, as in Integra.

I might post up some beginner basics on sheet metal forming later on.
I'd be very interested. I'm starting to do some bodywork to my Mustang, nothing drastic, just the basic shaving the handles, removing drip rails, removing wipers, maybe flare the fenders a bit more, and maybe a little wing on the back. I do have a book about it, 'sheet metal fabricator's handbook', but I can use all the help I can get.
I really don't know what I was thinkin with 16ga. Its probably close to twice as thick as the average modern car's body panels. I'll chalk that up to 'it was really late'...

I can understand why you would think to use it, and why you would want to use it. 16Gage is often the most commonly available sheet. And you would want to just grind the bumps off. Its a mistake we all make, I'll admit I started with 16 too.

Im guessing your mustang is 18Gage. I might post up some beginner basics on sheet metal forming later on. Im a body boy, your an engine dude, TSC is compositeman, and together we make a great helpcenter for the fabrication forum.

I believe is talking Teg, as in Integra.


I believe I also fall under the body man also, owned a body shop up till last week when I closed shop to pursue other means of obtaining money (fancy way of saying I got a job that paid better lol)


I would go with 22g myself, but I'm experienced. For a beguiner I would probably recomend 18-20. Japaneese cars are made of very thin sheet metal but it has a very high carbon content so it takes a little welding on it to get used to it. Also be sure to seal it up good after you finish grinding and such because it will rust very easy. The way I do it is pretty much make a form with the taillight but trim it 1/4" bigger than the light itself then use snips to get it down where it barely fits, then hit it with a die grinder to finish shape it, you want it to fit in the hole with a 1/16" gap, that allows room for the metal to expand while welding. As allways when welding on cars and thin metal be sure to just spot weld every 4" or so, cooling in between each one with compressed air or wet rag to avoid warping. Work your way around with spotwelds till it is fully welded.