Heat necessary to bend fuselage sides?

[mdwray]

We are an EAA Chapter in Sonoma , CA, just starting to build a Pietenpol. We have completed the fuselage sides using a jig , without any heat treatment of the longerons to aid bending. We are about to set up the fuselage and are wondering if we should use heat treatment - steam, hot water - help the bending process. What is members experience? If you used heat what sort of apparatus did you use?

[danoliver]

I never used steam or anything when bending my longerons. I think it would be tough to try and steam the thing even if you wanted to. Not just because of the size, but also cause of the time you need to fuss around with getting everything straight and squared up.