Hi
I need some advice on removing some distortion following welding of a patch panel. I replaced a portion of the 'wing' (top) section of a 51 Ford F1 pickup bed near the bed roll. Despite going extremely slowly, there's a bid of distortion whereby the folded edge between the vertical side of the box and the wing has bowed outward (towards the outside of the box) and has pulled the vertical wall of the box along with it. Fortunately the bed roll doesn't appear to have distorted. It's clear to me that the metal in the welded area of the wing has shrunk from the heat and will need to be stretched to get the edge straight again; in particular, stretching along the bottom edge of the wing before it changes to the vertical side. My question is whether the vertical section will now need to be shrunk along with it? How will I be able to tell if and when I need to do some shrinking?
distortion1.jpg
distortion2.jpg
Thanks
Jeff