Let's see some sheet metal shaping

Scott B. showed up early yesterday with the two doors for a Model A, and it appears the 90 years or so of carnage has taken it's toll.



Given the extent we opted to go ahead and make both door skins to have a more consistent finish on these. Paper patterns were taken to capture the pertinent details, and some oversized blanks were cut out of 18 Gauge cold rolled steel. The Powell hammer made made quick work of adding shape to the skin...







Once we had our shape needed, the upper beltline bead was added using some aluminum dies we made for the Lennox nibbler.



For the lower bead detail, we wished to use the folded flange as a guide in the dies, so the tipping dies in the Lennox were used to fold the lower flange..



Tipping the flange...



Adding the lower bead detail



the new skin was then test fit before we trimmed and folded the side flanges..



The side flanges were folded over to 45* along the un-beaded area, then our dies for the Lennox clamped in their respective location by aligning the edge along the fold line and tightening in the bench vise. Then a body hammer folded the bead areas over to 90* and the remainder of the straight bends reinstalled into the tipping wheel and folded to 90*.
Looks like these will make a much better job than trying to sort out the old skins..

 

beautiful

 

Looking good..

 

Thought I'd do a progression of pictures to show the carnage we started with on the hood brace to where it was painted this past weekend....











Note the wings left adjacent to the weld to act as heat sinks for welding to prevent the edge from burning back... They get trimmed off after welding is completed.







No Body filler, just epoxy primer, basecoat, and clearcoat. Looks almost factory!!

 

Great idea.

 

Hey, Not been on here for a while. Finished a ferrari tr250 yard planter and finished my steel coupe.
Still in lockdown but staying busy, Ray

 

what scale would you say that was??-incredible!!...

 

it's about 5 feet long. so about 3rd scale.

 

Just as a follow up to the hood fabrications/repairs, this past Friday night we cut and buffed the F7 hood to get rid of some dust nibs, and Saturday morning Jared and I started to reassemble the hood. The horn wiring had some dry and cracking insulation sleeving, so it was replaced as well.





John stopped by mid morning and we got all the parts put back together and adjusted. Looks much better with the hood back on, John has been driving without one for a couple months.









All ready for the Tri-state Antique Truck Show this week in Clear Brook VA..

 

Some basic stuff here, making a vent bracket for under the dash using a hammer and piece of pipe. Excuse the audio quality at the start, what you get for filming with an iPhone 6S. S stands for SUCKS... apparently the phone gets confused as to which of 3 microphones to use.





***********EDIT***************


I had a question on another site on the whys and hows… too good not to share here as well...

Greg, EXCELLENT question!!!!


When you place a weld on a corner, and for an example, lets say we are patching a lower fender right up to the door opening to repair some rust at the bottom of the fender.... you lose the ability to control the two perpendicular sides. Let's say you blow a hole and have to re-weld in a spot or two. Or things just get too hot, period. The heat and shrinking is bound to pull at the weld, and now you are pulling inward in two directions. The weld seam directly in the corner makes it near impossible to planish. So you'll find that in addition to having low spots on the outer surface, you also have altered the door to fender GAP with little hope of fixing it without filler.. By shaping your panel as you want it, and then tipping a flange that carries the seam into the perpendicular side, the crease helps to hold things from moving. And with the weld seam far enough away from the corner that you can hammer and dolly, any distortion can be corrected. With the brackets we made Saturday, this was easy as we just used the pipe once again, this time as a dolly/anvil to planish the TIG weld once completed.

 

Thanks, nice video!

 

Mesmerizing Magic as always.

 

Thanks guys!!


My buddy Jeff Ford down in Aiken SC was working on installing a floor pan patch and had omitted the flange in the radius corner below the toe panel.





So in addition to busting his chops, we put together this video tutorial so he could do the next panel without a drain hole. Hope it helps someone else as well..




.

 

@MP&C Thanks for that tutorial!

 

This is probably shitty but i had to cut an 11" disc so I made something quick at school.

 

If it's stupid, but it works, it's not stupid.

 

I have been absent for a while. Just been covered up with work and trying to stay motivated.

sticking with this thread here are some metal shaping projects I have been working on lately

61 Aston Martin Zagato quarter panel

 

Oh my - such stunning work. It is a wonderful example of what is possible when you combine exceptional talent with the proper tools.

And BTW, to this hoodlum hot rodder that Aston Martin is a beautiful car I would love to own

 

Does the orange wireform stay in place forever or get removed when the quarter panel is finished? Does it need to be cut apart to be removed?

 

I know where I would go after a lotto win and need a car built.

 

Wow, a pleasure to observe!

 

Stunning!

 

It will be removed once all the panels are shaped and welded together. It can be removed in one piece with the quarter panel is not on the car.

 

Outstanding metalworking on a beautiful car!! Thanks for sharing your work with us .

 

I see. I have never used that technique - only wooden bucks. Is it ever necessary that the wireform be a bolt-together affair (like for an entire rear end) so it can be removed without a "die lock" condition?

 

Just curious, what does it cost to have a quarter panel like that built?

 

I use a lot of wood bucks but a wire form made more sense for this application. You can bolt wire forms together if need be, but it would be a rare occasion. Since you are making the pieces individually then fitting and welding them together as one unit. Then installing on the car ( even a complete rear section. You will have access to remove wire form before sheet metal is permanently attached to the car

 

$80 per hour. Roughly I have about 75 hours in on the project total at this point. Building the wire from included

 

Some model a door work. I take the doors all the way down the bare inner frame and repair and rebuild on my way back out