has anyone used the eastwood tool for rear window repair-will it make tight enough bends for the lower corners

I have used it for this purpose they work great.

I have seen other places that sell them for a little less. Cheap around on the net.

The eastwoods shrinker along with darn near everything else they sell is a pirated product!!! They flat out steal ideas from REAL craftsman, turn around build and sell cheap knock offs.
They ARE built with cheap forgien made jaws and a poor cast body.
Dont care what eastwoods claim they ARE made in china.

Get yourself some real tools, those cheap knock off lancasters that eastwoods sell wont hold a candle to a real lancaster.

Bought mine from www.metalcrafttools.com (http://www.metalcrafttools.com)
Great family run business, they make and sell AMERICAN made products that will work and last.

www.tinmantech.com (http://www.tinmantech.com) Kent White sells his with stippled jaws, they wont leave behind those nasty file marks like all others will.
www.daggertools.com (http://www.daggertools.com) Another good small family run place and the owner knows his stuff!
Ron Frounier(sp?) also sells the good lancaster, another family run business were his buiness is shaping metal.

I hate eastwoods!!!!
A cheap knock off lancaster shrinker is a junk tool...Eric

Hey Eric, I am going to purchase a shrinker/stretcher soon. Would you look at this set on Ebay and tell me what you think?

Item number 140133081655
I sent the people at Tools Plus a message and they said this is a Lancaster tool. Its a lot of money so I would appreciate your time. This is the best price I can find so far. Thanks Paul

That's the one i was looking at. Seems to be a good price, but wait for the gran poobah to chime in though. Eric knows his stuff.... :)

ssboy, you leave that wheelborrow alone, you don't understand machinery:)

3chiefs, from what Ive read on metalmeet, they only real lancasters have the "made in the USA" stamped on the body. The knockoffs will have made in the usa on them as well but its a sticker.

Personally whatever you do, do NOT get the combo with interchangable jaws. They work just fine but a royal pain in arse to change the jaws back and forth. If you are making a wheel well you will need to shrink and stretch and changing jaws back and forth is a hassle.

As for the tool plus, I dont know, didnt look at the link Im on vaction and have super slow dial up. But when I was looking looked at them on ebay, and finally went with the ones from metalcrafttools.
Might be a few bucks more but I know what they are, and you wont find anyone nicer to deal with then Cal Davis.

If you look through metalmeet you will soon find what people with way more knowledge then me have to say about the cheap lancasters.

Thanks Eric. This subject continues to confuse me. I went to www.metalcrafttools.com (http://www.metalcrafttools.com/)
and their shrinker/stretcher pictures show tools with the Made In USA stickers.
Paul

Got mine in today from tools plus. I can't wait to go to the shop tomorrow and bend some metal! Jim

Jim are yours stamped as Eric described? I have a video that Tools Plus distributed and they claim in the video that the shrinker stretcher they sell is now and has been manufactured in the USA for decades.
Thanks Paul

mine have the sticker. Jim

Maybe its changed since the postings on metalmeet. I bought mine from metalcrafttools two years ago and they are stamped, I see now on the website its a sticker.

There was/is a recent post on metalmeet from andersdk about the knock off lancasters. Ill try to find it.

All I know is the knock offs have weak frame, they break back by the handle. The teeth that make up the shrinker are not a good quality material.

For someone who is going to restore one or two cars and make few parts then a knock off would probably be just fine. But if you plan on working with 18ga and use the thing you will want the real deal.

If the toolsplus unit is the real lancaster then its a good buy. But if I were to buy another on I would go with the one from kent white because of the stippled jaws vs the file jaws. There is also a guy on ebay that goes by carbuilder real name dan pascose(sp?), he too has the stippled jaws.
The stippled jaws dont mark up the metal nearly as bad as the file teeth.
But in all reality it all boils down to what your pocket book can afford...Eric