So I don't highjack another thread, something a little different for making custom beads on your floor ... Here is an example from one of the micro car websites ... The pattern is made using a router on MDF cutting a 1/2" round channel in the pattern your looking to create ... using a hardwood block to tap the 20 gauge metal down into the pattern ... Amazing results ... it might be hard to match some of these with a traditional bead roller, especially the interlocking curves & circles ...
Another floor being made using 20 gauge sheet metal ... with a plywood pattern ... forming the bead work for the floor on a small Isetta ... I'll be trying it myself ... soon ... as I finally found the Isetta that I've been looking for ... I think I got a great deal on it ... it was even sandblasted and delivered ... but I KNEW that I would have to do the floors ... the body is pretty GOOD ...
Since an Isetta came with a single cylinder 13 HP motor to move its almost 800 pounds around origionally ... anything I do with be an improvement ... All I NEED is a shoe horn to get my fat ass into it ... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Af9UKStjoKU There will be limits on how much HP this little car can handle !!!
Those are neat tips. The second with the larger sheet is something I thought about trying if I had to make a quarter panel for a 32 that needed a belt moulding in the metal. There was another post on the Hamb that a guy used a similar method, but made the female part of the pattern in plywood, and used a bead roller die on his moveable machine table. He put the die in the chuck of the drill on the machine table, then attached the plywood and metal to the table. He used the cranks to move the table over the metal creating beads. The problem was making some longer than the throat of the bead roller. Use your brain, its allowable!
when i was in high school ,one of my friends put a turbo charged corvair engine and corvair transaxle in a 1957 izetta.
If anyone wants to look at a few more of the restoration pictures related to the origional floor replacement pictures ... The site by Whirlibird ... the artist that uses the MDF in the first set of pictures ... http://www.flickr.com/photos/14287541@N04/ The site by Isetta Bob ... the one using plywood for floor replacement ... http://www.isettabob.com/Restoration/Gallery.aspx?Section=Body For those looking for a little more HORSEPOWER ... http://www.europeancarweb.com/features/epcp_1003_1957_bmw_isetta_300/index.html I'm not planning anything that will do 0 - 62 mph in 3.5 seconds!!!!! Performance Peak Power: 150 hp @ 9000 rpm Peak Torque: 70 lb-ft @ 7000 rpm 0-62 mph: 3.5 sec. (est.) Top Speed: 150 mph (balls limited)
The Jalopy Journal
