TOOLS, Metalshaping with water

[Mr 42]

Ok Bear with me on this one, its not directly Hot Rod. And i have not figured out what to use it for in the Hot Rod Sphere. Anyway My son Henrik have a Moped that he tries to go a bit faster.. And he wanted to have an tuned exhaust pipe for it. He found the dimensions on the webb somwhere, and they suggesting making it in pieces.
But we did it in this way instead


We took two pieces of sheet metal cut it out in the dimensions suggested on the web (as a sillouette sort of). Folded over the edges 1/2 inch, and welded the two parts together.
Then we attached a piece of water pipe in one end


Filled the contraption with water from the tap.



We had to weld up some minor leaks, before it was completely sealed.


Then he connected a water preassuretester pump (your favorite plumber has one of these).


A couple of pumpstroke and it started to change shape.




There was some minor tweaking the had to be done, in the wise.


The some more pumping 25Bar + ;-)



A bit of hammering.


Starting to look good or what.


The finished result. looks almost factory built..


The reason for using water is that if something breaks, the water will leak out quick, letting the preassure falling real fast. So you dont get any "explosion".


Dont Try to do this with Compressed air, Its really dangerous

So know its up to you boys to find Hot Rod Applications for this method.

Hope i didn't go to much of topic with this one....

[airkooled]

Very smart. There's a lot of hydroforming going on in the production of new cars these days. I never thought about anybody doing it in their garage!

[51 MERC-CT]

Great post. Recall doing some hydroforming many years ago on some small parts using a porto-power filled with water. REPEAT, DO NOT TRY THIS WITH COMPRESSED AIR The reason being that water does not compress like air.

[gofast62]

man thats what i needed, a way to form chambers. how fast did you get the moped? i built one for my kid that went 72mph, too fast for him. (so i played with it) built him a slower one.

[flatoz]

MAN YOU GUYS ARE FUCKING BLIND!!!!


check out what is sitting in what looks like a speedster chassis in the background!!!!

the moped is a wind up toy compared to that!

[OldsGuy]

That is really trick!


Cherish all the times you can work with your son. My son is 25 and married and lives out of town with his wife now. I REALLY miss the times we spent together working on cars, some of the best memories I have.....

[Sinner]

Is it just me, or does it look like the speedster thing that flatoz mentioned have a v-12 in it?

[flatoz]

thats what I'm talking about!

[**MCQUEEN**]

http://www.tinmantech.com/html/vid_f...ming_alum.html

[Bruce Lancaster]

"thats what I'm talking about!"

That's the great thing about Lars--he's functioning on about 97 different levels of technology at once!
Probably building a steam powered lawn mower and a Moon rocket, too. Just hasn't told us...

[rattlecanrods]

Originally Posted by Sinner

Is it just me, or does it look like the speedster thing that flatoz mentioned have a v-12 in it?

Check out his website.... http://www.brandow.tk/ It has build info on the speedster you see in the background... plus movies!!

BTW the Volvo Duett-truck kicks ass...

[Mr 42]

Originally Posted by Bruce Lancaster

"thats what I'm talking about!"

That's the great thing about Lars--he's functioning on about 97 different levels of technology at once!
Probably building a steam powered lawn mower and a Moon rocket, too. Just hasn't told us...

Well im building a boiler for my Fathers Steam engine, how could you guess that Bruce ;-) Havent started with the rocket yeat ;-)

There is some more pic's her of the V12 "car"

http://www.fototime.com/ftweb/bin/ft.dll/pictures?userid={48619F65-6AF6-4074-A2A8-9D4D9FDCF7A6}&AlbumId={768B597E-ED22-4056-A7E9-3A572D804965}&GroupId={411B2414-D86D-478D-8FEA-083B0034C025}

[Bruce Lancaster]

Another note: Do you guys realize how short a time ago it was that hydroformed frame rails were a really high tech advertising point for Corvette??
And that just a few more years back NASA was the leading light in hydroforming??
And now here's a HAMBER showing a teenager how to do it with a claw hammer, some plumbing supplies, and a vintage vise??
Do you think if we got the whole HAMB pulling together we could beat NASA and put a man on Mars first??
By the way, I propose Germ...

[DrJ]

That kind of forming would be good for forming something like the high crown Deuce 3 window door skins if you put two oversize sheets of steel in a form similar to what is used to blow pastic bubbles.

The earliest application of intentional hydroforming I know of is Piotr Kowalski's
Sculpture "Now" (c.1965) on the CSULB campus.
It's about 18 feet tall and sometimes referred to as the "stainless steel artichoke"
I've been led to believe it was done the dramatic way, in a swimming pool with plastic explosives... I don't know if that is fact or fiction...
See it on this page.

[hotrodladycrusr]

Great post, love learning something new everyday. Thanks for posting......but the orange shaggy seat has to go.....too girly

[Aaron51chevy]

Very cool post! We have some crossmembers we use here at work that are hydroformed, never thought of applying it to cars/bikes. A guy could really make some trick pipes for a hotrod that way. Not to mention if he has a few scoots sitting around (like me). Pretty cool way to make some fin pipes!

[Bruce Lancaster]

How about a belly tank lakester??? Make the halves flat, bolted together at the eges with a temporary heavy steel flange to support the thin flanges...and it would have that original joining line like a real AAF gastank...
J, I was thinking explosives too...C4 way to fast...maybe cordite...hmmm

[Rolf]

Great post, cool moped too !

Love the seat cover, I had one of those on my first "chopper"

[porknbeaner]

Originally Posted by airkooled

Very smart. There's a lot of hydroforming going on in the production of new cars these days. I never thought about anybody doing it in their garage!

Looks like it would work to make blisters, or fistails or any number of bits n pieces put of light sheet metal.

[Hackerbilt]

Originally Posted by porknbeaner

Looks like it would work to make blisters, or fistails or any number of bits n pieces put of light sheet metal.

Right on P&B!
Matching blisters or one offs...you name it...and not a hammer mark in sight.

Thats one crafty way to form simple shapes.
Not the least surprised its one of our Swedish friends showing how to do it. All the old country Hot Rodders are sharp like that!

A portapower pump and water...amazing!