David, I've been pleasantly surprised to see the number of HAMBers that appreciate hot rodding from the other side of the pond. That Riley is a gem!
Beautiful design and craftsmanship on all these. Can you imagine the reaction of someone not steeped in the tradition but in love with automobiles, seeing these cars for the first time? Like an American GI serving in England, who had no frame of reference, but knew he had to build himself something low-slung and powerful, sleek of line and agile, on his return home? These specials have more than a little in common with hot rods.
Great work, thanks for the post I have a book buried somewhere that indicated some wealthy Bentley owners would have both a summer open body and a winter body built for their favorite model. They would contact the coachbuilder and have them send someone to change the body out when the season changed.
Hi James, Less is more! (especially in the case of filler) I believe it is the same as 1100. I have clad many ash (wood) framed bodies. I have a Talbot 105 in my workshop now. I am going to do an Alvis 14/50 next, just finished an SS100. We use the term Alloy too but generally to describe two or more metals alloyed together. Ally designates aluminium. Well that's how I think of it. Cheers James, David
Zerk, Thanks I think you are right about the GIs but hot rods existed before WW2. The war polarized peoples ideas and I guess there were a lot of adrenalin junkies as well. David Jimmy B Its a bit too involved to explain it at the moment cos I am busy but I will try to put something up at a later date. David
Beautiful work David, it must be a pleasure to turn on the lights in the morning to start work and see something like the riley sitting there waiting for you. thanks for sharing. What ever happened to that thread about the ash frames, that was very interesting?
Very nice David,yeah I truley understand how you do this,I used to do this for a job too. You have inspired my passion again.Here is something I have been designing and building. http://s219.photobucket.com/albums/cc214/32OLDSTER/MY HOT ROD PHOTOS/?start=20 My own Hot Rod is my passion at the moment,I think it will start something again for me when it is finished Business wise.I'm just trying to concentrate on getting it finished so I can drive the bloody thing.Ive spent the last 27 years building everyone elses car and not my own,its my turn.LOL
Great work David. I also have to say I ordered one of your videos and though I haven't had the chance to watch it yet (it just arrived today) if it is half as good as your service it will be incredible. I ordered last Tuesday and had it in my mailbox today. I can't order stuff in Canada and get it here that fast!! Can't wait to watch it. Thanks!!
I ordered a DVD from David a while back and have watched it a couple of times - even scooted very close to the screen, but alas my skills didn't instantly increase from the close exposure Really it is one of the best I've seen especially how it is done with minimal tools - really am interested in the aluminum welding with torch, however haven't gotten to practice that yet (darn!). Wish I could spend a month across the pond as David's gopher and 'holder' when he needed an extra hand. Keep posting the pictures I'm lovin' it!! I especially appreciated the photos of the structure beneath the aluminum skin. I want to build a facimilie (sp?) of a 1930's Indy car with an aluminum body and had not been able to find pictures that were clear enough to see how the structure was formed. When you work your way back to the area from the seat back how will it be supported - same or different? Jay Self
Do you Ally Oxy Weld your pieces together or do you Tig weld the skins together. Have you ever done a polished body Aluminium racing car yet. If you dont mind me asking how much do you charge an hour,for your marvelous Old Skool skills.Its got to be a sort after unique talent you have. Looks like you have a well equipped work shop too. You have to have all the Old tools to be able to do this work too hey.The Wheeling Machine,Pullmax shrinker love that.I watched one of you Youtube links on forming a dome.Nice gathering got to make it easier than just cold puckering it. Excellent work David well done no wonder you have plenty of cars booked in to build.
Hi Tony, I use gas welding only for ally, I don't like tig on ally gas gives (in my opinion) a far superior weld that is easier to dress out and will never split. For steel I also prefer gas but there probably is not much to chose between gas and tig for steel. My hourly rate is £35.00 (GBP). In the UK this is a bit of a tradition that never died out and has been passed down through the years. There are many companies doing this work here. Tony I looked at your photos from the link you posted, my connection here is a bit slow so I did not see all the photos but from what I saw you do very nice work. The trouble with this work is it is hard to make it pay, is that why you have changed jobs?. Thanks for your input and kind comments. David
K13 Let me know what you think when you have had a chance to watch it. Thanks for the input. Hasty Very happy you liked the DVD. thanks for your custom. One armed hammer head Thanks for buying the DVD. I am pleased you found it helpful. You will not get good unless you practice but the DVD will show you what to practice, Remember Watch practice and watch again untill you have mastered the skill! I will post some more photos tomorrow, I went straight from work to teach at Colchester Institute today so no time to put up more photos. David
David, Love the build and as we know it does not matter what side of the pond you are on we still love old cars! I love the old and new cars that have come from england as there is so much history there. I also must say I stole one of your ladies when she came to this side of the pond and would not let her go back. My in-laws live around Newport Pagnell (sp?), where are you located? Keep up the build pictures as we are loving them over here! David
Wow. Just wow. We named our youngest son Riley, after George of Model A overhead fame. Explaining that he was named after car parts, my mother in law googled Riley and came up with Riley autos, which I never knew existed. Seeing this one, I'm sorry for that. Your work is beautiful! Thank you very much for sharing it with us! Awed, for sure, JK
I am in Harwich in Essex (east coast) This is the place that the Mayflower sailed from to take the first pilgrims to America. We have a lot of things named after the Mayflower, The Mayflower school. The Mayflower pub, Mayflower road and more. Funny but we have no shortage of English women here Lol. David
I think I probably knew about the Riley heads before I heard of our Rileys. Does your son like his name? I think it is good to have an unusual name My daughters like having unusual names. My name is so common here that just about every second person you meet is called David. More photos later.
Hey David I got a cahnce to watch a pretty good chunk of the video last night. I got to the end of the bobber tank build and I have to say it is VERY informative. I learned a ton and picked up a bunch of little things that will be super helpful down the road. I would definitley recommend it to anyone that has any interest in metalshaping. Thanks again.
Steve I don't think we have met but I have seen some of your stuff. I have had a few things featured in the mags over the years but I am normally too tied to the workshop to get out and about. David
Thanks to you!. It took me a long time to make so I am always pleased to know that it is well received. I now know why you get so many names come up at the end of any TV program!. David
ON WITH THE BUILD... The customer had provided me with the rear bulkhead cut from plywood. I made a section of angle steel that would bolt to this to tie the body skin to the bulkhead. The ply was rebated so this sat flush with the edge. I then welded a lengthe of 1/4 " rod to this as per the photo below When the skin is wire edged with this incorperated it ties the skin to the bulkhead.
Unfortunately I can't find many photos of the next stage which is the sections of the tail being formed. The photos below show the three parts that make this area up formed and welded together. The top section was the only part that was wheeled the sides are simple curves. You can see I had to do some adjusting by hand once I got to this stage to get the rear part of the tail to look the way I wanted it to. .
The photo below shows where the joints were put although this was taken later in the build. All the welding was done with gas, I always weld ally with gas. (You can see me welding some aluminium with gas on my youtube footage just click the link below) Once the welding was done the top of the weld is sanded off then dressed and filed to a good finish. This is part done in the photo below. I don't have five foot long arms so the trick to this is welding and dressing the sections in the right order. Once I had dressed the first two welds on the tail (which I could reach from the hole on the rear of the tail) I made and welded the section shown below in. Once this was dressed (which I could do by reaching through the bottom, the bottom panel could be made and welded then dressed. Its a fairly short reach to the back of the tail to the front of the bottom panel so these joints could be reached. Thats all I have time for now. David
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