By Don Wiederhold
It all started when I had to have a hub replaced on the rear axle of my Chevy Impala. I told the mechanic to keep the hub for me as it was the electronics that failed and the bearing was fine. I figured someday I would find a use for it. Well, I did; I built my very own rod bender, as you can see in the picture.
They always say a picture is worth a thousand words so I hope you can get some general ideas from the photos. I machined off the portion where the wheel mounted on the hub so the standoff didn’t have to be so tall. I plasma cut off everything but for two studs.
This bender was made specifically for the part shown in picture. If you wanted to make a more universal bender, I would suggest putting another hole halfway between the two studs to mount your handle. This would allow for more travel to over-bend in order to compensate for springback.
The nice thing about this hub is it’s a bolt-on unit. I just had to bore a hole in a plate and put in a mounting hole pattern. It really works smooth.
