Today I was trying to just form a patch panel for the lower cab corner on a 50 chev truck. Mine didn't turn out that good. SURPRISE! Kinda looked like that bad shell you made a new one for. Next one will be better..Practice practice thank you for sharing how to do it right. Your work is amazing .Pieces of art for sure. Thanks Again
Dave/Mindover........Just finished reading this thread from the start, an absolute treat and pleasure..........many thanks for taking the time to document your work and post it here.........this is what makes the HAMB worthwhile, again many thanks.........Andy Douglas
Gerry, at the risk of being accused of pushing my DVD you could do worse than take a look at my youtube footage, I am sure you will find it interesting. Broken down into small stages its not too hard to make a good job of patch panels. David Hi Paul, I use 18g which is thicker than the originals but it gives plenty of material to be hand worked and then polished. David Hi Andy, Glad you enjoyed the thread. I enjoy talking to like minded people on here - I love the HAMB. I have another couple of threads you might like also. Here is a link... http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=596032 http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=526153 David I did make one for a Dutch guy for a big old truck (can't remember what it was) It was intended to be nickle plated but he liked it in brass so much he left it that way. David
Awesome ! Only 3 days of work to do that piece of art !... I already seen your DVD a hundred of times, but each time with attention... I believe met you at your workshop during a future trip in England to learn some of your tips... Thanks for posting ! Mile
Hi Mile, if you are in England give me a call I am sure we can arrange something. I am pleased you like the DVD so much!. Three days add up too quite a bit of money though. David
David, if you are interested in knowing the chemical makeup of the flux you use, I have a friend at the University of Alaska here in Fairbanks that may have access to the equipement to find out. Please send a p.m. if you are interested and aren't too busy.
Austin, I have sorted this after a year or so of problems I now make them in less pieces and I have solved the welding problem. Thank You though! David
Here is another thing I make in brass, radiator header and bottom tanks. These were formed by pressing using simple tools in a fly-press. The long swages (beads) were done on my Pullmax. David
Thank you Tom. Hi Jim, Here is a photo of my fly-press and the tooling used to make these... I actually have six flypresses. All different, this is the largest. You can see a couple in the background. I have one set up for louvers and I can get a large bonnet (hood) in it, another is set up for punching holes in sheet and will reach about a foot and a half. one for notching corners and making castlellated notches for bonnet (hood) hinges. The others get used for whatever. David
I did wrought iron work for a couple of years starting when I was about 18 so I learned the capabilities of a flypress. I sometimes spent all day swinging the handle of a huge flypress, punching keyholes for gates into 5mm steel plates. Tooling is simple to make for parts like these. Glad you like the thread. Thanks for taking the time to let me know you read it. David
The part I love is that you show that you don't need the latest whiz bang tools to do the job. Sometimes it's easier to use the old tools as you have a better feel of what the metal is doing. I really enjoy seeing how this stuff is done and although I seriously doubt that I'll ever build a brass radiator shell or steel T bucket from scratch, I have learned a lot from watching your progress.
you always do such a good job , How many hours / days/months before you were making more parts than scrap metal ?
Thanks Tom. I am glad you enjoy my threads and got something from them. David I kind of worked my way to doing this, started off learning to weld to city and guilds standards when I was 16/17 did wrought iron work and some sheet metal work and did some stuff for my bikes (mostly BSAs ) got into hot rods but did quite a bit of welding on cars in my spare time 'cos there was money to be made. Found I could form bits and pieces to patch the cars and make the patches quicker. Progressed onto doing work on my friends '50s cars did a few chops, custom jobs, always wanted to get better and strived to learn as much as possible, then they started the full time course at Colchester Institute (which was the town I lived in) People came from all over the world to attend the course but I was lucky enough to live near it. I got in on the second attempt. Two years later I had my diploma in Vehicle Restoration that was thirty years ago and I have been learning ever since. I went back to Colchester Institute as a lecturer later the year I left and taught there for twenty odd years on and off. Unfortunately there are no courses there any more. I will be doing come courses here soon though. Well you did ask. I built this before I went to College. It started out as a Ford Pop (Anglia) like the one sitting next to it. I did not have a wheeling machine or any other machines at the time. Its in bare metal in the photo. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=4965&pictureid=310680 Go here to see more...http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=364638 Its a lot easier to learn now, the information was not out there thirty -forty years ago. David
David can you reserve me a place on your course as I would guess when you do announce a date the spaces will fill fast.
I will make an announcement on here she I have something sorted out. I have a lot of work to do before then. David
Here is one of the header tanks welded, I have got these almost done now so I will post some photos soon. It may not look too pretty at this stage but it just needs cleaning up. David
Truly beautiful work. Craftmanship like this is rarely found today and all the more to be appreciated. The SS100 coupe is a worthy application of your talents, I believe the car is one the finest England ever produced. Plus you are located in a truly historic area surrounded by lovely Victorian buildings and the Colchester Castle. I'm just a little envious...
Hi James, thanks for the complement. I lived in Colchester most of my life. True Some lovely buildings, but spoilt by lots of crap built in the seventies, aluminium shop fronts and plastic shop signs like most of England's towns. I spent many hours in the Castle when I was a kid. Harwich (where I live now) is the place that the mayflower sailed from. David
Here is the weld on the inside... Here is how I formed the ends of the tank over a bench stake. David
David, your skills are very inspiring. It's so cool to see this type of work with hand tools. I am teaching my students the basics of metal straightening right now and am planning on showing your You tube video tomorrow to show them what is possible and what they can do with lots of skill and practice. Thanks for sharing.
Here I used toddlers to mark the flanges. The welds were cleaned up, then I tipped the flange. The almost finished header tank... David
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