I had to make some more '36 Ford floorpans. The last set I made I had alot of handwork on the end of the beads finishing them off and getting them to lay down. I took my existing dies and modified them. This is what I came up with. The upper has a urethane ring I put in it before thinking it would help. With the levers on the lower pictured above I don't think it is necessary. Here is how they work. The lever supports the panel on 3 edges instead of 2. The extra edge helps put more stretch in the bead, and supports the panel to keep from pulling metal in from the sides. Here is a picture of it in the machine with the ratchet on. And the finished beads. This panel has about 10 min of handwork into it. This is the rollerbearing guide I made too. I clamp the panel to the angle on the outside. With this I can't even screw up. Jeff
Thanks guys. When I was at Dan Pates Minnesota Metal Meet we had a late night discussion about these dies and it only took me a year to come up with these. They saved me a bunch of time.
I don't have any way to make a video (I'm preaty low tech). I am bringing the dies to the Minnesota Metal Meet next week. If we can make them fit Dan's Pullmax we'll have a video. Both machines use 3/4 square, but his needs longer stems. I'm trying to get a set of louver dies done before next week that work on the same principal.
The Jalopy Journal
