Let's see some sheet metal shaping

I did buy the lazze beadroller, and they are just a combo of dies from him.

 

I posted this on anouther thread. I made this windsheild frame out of 19ga. It has a 3/16 frame with the sheetmetal glued to it. Also modified a '40 Chevy dash to bolt in place.






I have some '32 rails and a 392 for the car. All I need now is time to get back to working on it.
Jeff

 

A simple patch I made in a few minute with my hf bead roller and shrinker.

 

Dang you guy's are making me jealous.I have been remodeling for the last month.I hope to get some shop time in,this weekend.


I want to tell everyone who has shared there metal shaping here in this thread,how much I appreciate it!There is nothing better for me then coming home and seeing there is a new reply to read.


Merry Christmas everyone

 

What dies did you use? Some of the stepped flange dies that come with it, or something you made up?

It always amazes me what can be made with a bead roller and a shrinker/stretcher.

Thanks,

Neal

 

I only used the step dies that came with it. I rounded the square corned a bit to prevent it from making a crease

 

Cool, thanks.

 

I posted a picture of this one on the HAMB several months ago.

Scratch built '40 Willys nose. 19ga steel



Recently finished this '33 Willys coupe for a client. There was extensive sheet metal work done to this body. More pics of it are on my website and more will be added soon. It's way overdue for an update. www.fergusoncoachbuilding.com

 

Hi guys, a little off topic but here's a little bit of simple metal shaping of stainless steel for a customer's prototype project.

 

Thanks for the reply Randy.

People would kill for that 33.

Randy Ferguson was my inspiration into metal shaping.I found some of his threads on different web-sites and read them and then re-read them,then took what I learned from reading them and then just started practicing.

On that fender that I shaped early on in this thread would have never been possible but Randy walked me through the whole thing.It took me a while to grasp it all but he was patient with me,even through all of the mistakes.

If you were to ask me who I thought was the best Metal Shaper is,it would definitely Be Randy Ferguson.I would put him up against Covell,Butler or Marcel's.

Merry Christmas Ferguson family

 

All I can say is that you shouldn't be asking us for help ! You should be teaching use how you did that fender ! WOW , you do damn good metal shaping and welds look good too ! Are you doing this for a living or are you that damn gifted ? VERY GOOD WORK ! Make sure you pass the gift on to your children .

 

Johnny,

Thanks for the compliments.

You're a natural. If everyone caught on as easily as you, we'd all be metalshapers.

YA DID GOOD!!

Any more progress on your son's hot rod??

Merry Christmas to the Arial family as well as everyone else on the HAMB.

 

Another couple...oh and a HUGE WOW to the guy who posted before my last post.

 

Randy it's funny you should ask I pulled down the buck and plan on working on it this weekend.Bill gave me some aluminum and now that I know how to weld it,I plan on doing the body out of aluminum.

Hope to have some progress this weekend I will post it if I do.

 

It's just a hobby,my son is five and he's got his own hammer and hangs with me a lot.

I'm slow but I just keep working the metal until it fits the pattern.If you get it to fit the pattern it should be perfect a flex pattern won't lie.

I have a ton of fun with it it's a great hobby and you learn something new on every panel.

 

Keep in mind I have never shaped anything before.If it wasn't for Randy and other metal meet members I would not have had a clue on where to start.

I'm not going to bore you guys with all of the questions I had to ask(and believe me there were a lot of questions).I am just going to show the process I went through to get this fender shaped.

Here's a picture of the old fender.It was paper thin and not really repairable.



The first thing I did was true the fender up so I could pull a good flexible shape pattern from.





Then used a file to cut off all of the lips and flanges.So I could get a accurate reading with my flexible shape pattern.




My next step was to put some reference lines on the pattern with some reference holes.I also made notes on the pattern of how much metal I would need to add for the fender lip and the flanges.Then I made some contour gages lined up with the reference lines on the flexible shaped pattern.








Now it was time to start shaping the fender.

OK here's where I started shaping the fender.I had a hard time at first I was trying to shape the panels to fit the contour gages and the flexible shape pattern at the same time.That was a mistake.Get it to fit the pattern first then put the panel into arrangement with the contour gages by pushing twisting tugging or what ever it takes.If the panel fits the pattern perfectly like if it was a layer of paint on the panel it will go into arrangement.This took me forever to figure out.TRUST THE PATTERN.

Heres another mistake I made notice how much extra metal I was leaving.You only need to leave about a inch to a inch and a quarter plus what ever needed for lips and flanges.






I was killing my-self for no reason,except I didn't know any better.

This is what I ended up with after all of the mistakes




So it was back to the drawing board.I knew what I messed up on,I had to start over with out so many mistakes.





<DL class=postprofile><DD>So after that heart ache,I started over.This time not paying any attention to the contour gages.My main goal was to get it to fit the pattern perfectly then worry about getting it into arrangement.




Hot dog,it worked just like they said it would.This was the biggest lesson I learned.

It even fit the fender.





After learning this lesson things went a whole lot smoother.








<DD>Now it was time to start shaping the rear section of the fender.I cut out a blank and tried to come up with a plan on shaping this panel.



Notice the relief cut out in the corner of the fender.This made this panel so much easier to shape.

After some beating and banging I had the panel close to fitting.




After that I got it to fit the pattern perfectly then put into arrangement.



<DL class=postprofile id=profile151><DT></DT></DL>

<HR class=divider>Had to see what the three pieces looked like on the fender.




Now that I have the three large panels shaped it was now time to fill in the relief corner.So I cut out a blank and shaped it to fit the pattern.



Took it for a *test* fit and to scribe a good line on it.





Then I welded it into place









Next I will be welding the fender up.




<HR class=divider>


I used these guide lines to weld the fender up.

. Align and clamp the panels in the right position/arrangement.
. Start tack welding in the center of the panel.
. Tack weld one inch spaced from the first weld
. Grind those tack welds, just proud of the panel
. Hammer the tack welds a little on dolly just enough to stretch back in the shrink caused by the welds cooling. If you don't do this, the weld shrink will pull the panel and the parts will overlap eventually
. When tack welding you should shift the sides from the center, to always stay in control of what happens. Welding one direction only may take you in for a unpleasant surprise
. Once the panel is tack welded, ground and stretched all the way across, you start welding the spaces between the tacks. One inch at a time.
. Allow to cool.
. Grind weld just proud of panel.
. Stretch on dolly to bring back the panel into original arrangement.
. Go to the adjacent one inch space.
. Weld.
. Grind.
. Stretch.
. Next one inch space in the other direction





<HR class=divider>




</DD></DL>

 

Here's a picture of the first piece welded up.




After I got the front section welded on,I took one last fit with the flexible shape pattern.











<HR class=divider>


Here's some pictures of where I'm at right now on the fender.I still need to roll the lips and flanges.











<DL class=postprofile id=profile154><DT> </DT></DL>
This is a really old thread that I just copy pasted here.

 

What method did you use for shrinking? Or is it all stretched? And what gauge steel are you using?

Thanks

 

all i can say is, i do this kind of work for a living and you have a talent my friend it took me many years to figure out how to work and manipulate the the metal like this. great job and keep it up.

 

If you look at post 22 or 29 I explain how I shrink.I don't have any fancy tools so I do most of my shrinking on a stump.Sometimes I use tucking forks.

I use 19g

 

In the e mortal words of Joe Dirt, DANG!!!!!!!!

 

cool info and thanks for the pic

 

Johnny give something like this a try for the lip.

They worked good on the '36 Ford fender I worked on. You'll be suprised how much shrink and stretch goes into the lip. I used the torch alot to shrink the edge.
The dolly I made helped finish it.

Fender looks good!!
Jeff

 

Thanks I read through this post when it first came out and forgot you had shown your shrinking method.

Is the 19 g draw quality/aluminum killed steel? I have heard that all 19g is but wasn't sure if that was true. If so do you find it alot easier to work with than regular cold rolled?

 

Here is something my friend Mike Roberts from New Zealand made.....

 

that mini cobra looks amazing!
great work!

 

the cobra looks cool, but what about the car its on. what's the word on that one. it looks like you are doing more metalwork on that one.

 

Your work just blows my mind. Amazing sheetmetal work guys. Keep the pictures comming

 

That Cobra is incredible.Is your friend a member here on hamb?I would love to see some progress pictures.I would love to know how he got his patterns.

Jeff I have been eye balling that tool that you made.I have been meaning to make one but I haven't got to it yet.


K13

They say aluminum killed steel is easier to shape.I think my stack is cold rolled but I'm not sure,I bought my metal on a pallet and I didn't ask.