Knee Grips

In an earlier episode I told the tale of making the back-plates for the knee grips.

I wound up with these as flat plates and when bolted onto the tank a problem showed up, the plates were flat and the tank was curved!.

Flat plate

Flat plate on Tank

So the plates need to be contoured to match the curves of the tank to get the grips to sit snugly in place against sides of the tank.

This means the application of applied brutality, i.e. Hit it with a hammer!.

It is a bit more sophisticated than that really.

I obtained a sand-bag to give a firm but yielding surface to work against and proceded to gradually work the plates into shape using a both a rubber mallet and a hide/copper hammer.

It’s a case of gently persuading the metal to move where you want it, try it against the tank for fit and then hitting it again until the desired result was achieved. Because of the sand yielding under pressure you can readily mould the metal into a compound curve, just don’t try to rush things.

Plate after shaping and painting

Plate after shaping and painting

Then it just needs for them to be painted before they are fitted to the finished tank and the rubbers stretched into place over them.