Inspired by Ed Roth, Plowboy and Racerdad

Ok first picture is a view from behind/inside the panel. I've found that creating a pattern for a reverse curve requires that there are lateral layers of tape to land on at the narrowest point, or in the waist of the curve. Also using a herring-bone pattern while layering the tape helps to create the reverse. remember that a reverse curve's outer edges are stretched while the center is either shrunk or just left unstretched.



The blue painter's tape, being lo-tack allows the surface needed to be created the Strapping tape gives the surface substance. You need at least two layers of strapping tape to have a durable pattern. You also have to crosshatch the layers of tape so they support each other. Again you have to establish those points of contact at both the waist of the reverse curve and at the extreme outer edges too.



You can leave your tape long/overlap the area that you actually need and then trim the end result. At this stage a reverse curve pattern looks a bit like a corrset!



The pattern looks much more tidy once it's trimmed. Another thing you can do when building your layers of tape is to install pertinent notes on the second to the last layer of tape and then seal them into the pattern with the last layer so the notes can't be lost or accidently erased.



Pattern ready to be removed!



Once you carefully remove the tape pattern you have to 'kill' the adhesive. I use baby powder for this. It completely removes the 'sticky' from the tape.

Dan Stevens
dba, Steelsmith

 

Pattern removed, it doesn't look like much but it is a starting point to cutting your metal blank without leaving excessive extra metal.



The back side with the adhesive 'killed' now allows the pattern to be used without it sticking to the metal and ruining the pattern itself. Since both the corners are the same we can use this single pattern for both pieces, you just have to turn the pattern inside out for the opposite side. This proceedure works for any 'flexible shape pattern'.



That's it for tonight, Tomorrow I'll be cutting metal for the forming of these twin corners.

Yes, I will be sure to take pictures! Ha

Dan Stevens
dba, Steelsmith

 

Can´t wait. This is always interesting.

 

Always look forward to your updates!!!

 

How's it comming Dan?

Jeff

 

I think Dan may have visions of blown Kaisers dancing in his head.... LOL

 

That's what I've been reading....

Jeff

 

Oh, I'm always thinkin' ..., kinda dangerous that!

I have made some progress on the reverse curve for the corner (1st one)! I've just been too busy tryin' to finish up some other stuff before the bad weather gets here! As to the Kaiser's I don't even have them on the property yet! Ha

I do have some pic's I can post, just having to compete for computor time lately ...
I'll get them up this week for sure!

Thanks for checking back ...!

Dan Stevens
dba, Steelsmith

 

So while I have a few minutes and some progress pictures to post, here we go!

This is how I started the reverse curve for the back corner of the Cutlass's cockpit.


This is a radius gauge and I'm using it to measure the inner curve on a scrap piece of the Cutlass's body, just aft of the door opening. The radius indicated is 3".

To consistantly bend a 3" radius in my panel I chose to use my modified Harbor Freight English Wheel. The stock HF E-wheel is kinda wimpy and I bought mine with the intention of modifying to suit my needs, which I have done. It's still wimpy but it works for what I ask it to do. In this picture it shows my adaptation of a pneumatic rubber tire in place of the Steel upper wheel.



When you use a rubber upper wheel and a curved lower wheel you just place a consistant bend in a piece of flat sheet. No compound curve will form. This is refered to as roll-bending. This can be done either in a straight line or on a curve, either way it will only be a flat roll-bend not a compound curve. This comes in very handy for establishing a reverse curve.

As for consistancy, here are the two blanks needed for both of the rear corners. They match up pretty nicely.

This last picture is of my Metlmaster, in it you will see shearing blades. However of real importance are the other set of dies sitting on the opening plate. These are something I have been experimenting with. One die looks like an exclamation point without the dot the other is simply a flat anvil to match. I use these for linear stretching dies.

More pic's to come ...

Dan Stevens
dba, Steelsmith

 

Ok, I know this is a little fuzzy but it does show the tapering gap between the upper exclamation point shaped die and the lower flat(square) die. This is on purpose, it concentrates the force generated in the reciprocating hammer (which has an adjustable gap setting) and stretches more at one end than the other.


The results do show, but it's pretty slow going for the amount of reverse curve I'm trying to induce. This picture shows a darker 'straight edge' against the slowly curving panel.

Reverse curves are formed by stretching the outer edges or by shrinking the center of the panel. Since this panel is so extreme, I've chosen to use both techniques.

As you can see, the panel is begining to take shape.

Again, this technique so far is going pretty slow. So, I've employed my power hammer to do some stretching. It does leave some hammer marks, but they will mostly wheel out as I continue to work the panel.


More pic's to come ...

Dan Stevens
dba, Steelsmith

 

Continuing on ..., we are showing more curve as you can see. This is accomplished in stages or cycles.


I have to torch shrink the middle of the reverse curve hammer stretch the outer flanges of the panel then E-wheel the stretched flanges to relax them for the next round of stretching. The center of the panel which is shrunk, becomes lumpy and it too has to be wheeled but when you do that you negte some of the shrink you have worked so hard to achieve.


You try to maintain the chosen profile at the same time that you are doing all of this stretching and shrinking.


It's kind of like herding cats! Ha


More pic's to come!

Dan Stevens
dba, Steelsmith

 

In case you are wondering, yes this is the most advanced reverse curve I have done. It has taken a while to define a technique that really moves the panel. Here you will see what I came up with.

It's a small turn-buckle, with the chain attached through a couple of holes I punched into the panel, right in the middle of the reverse curve.

Now when I'm shrinking the middle of the panel I also tighten up the turn-buckle. You can't tighten it up much or the area you are heating with the torch will distort too much so you have to go easy.

I'm also using a diamond shaped heat pattern so that I gain more shrink right down the middle but the narrower heatedends of the diamond act as a hinge and combined with the turn-buckle the panel continues to tighten up.

Every time I tighten up the center of the panel the outside edges or flanges of the panel have to be stretched. Here we are in the helve hammer, using a stretching die.

We then have to E-wheel the results to relax the panel again or the sheetmetal would tear instead of stretching.


Now I'm sorry to say, I've run out of progress pictures! I had wanted to wait until I had at least one corner finished before revealing the progress so far, but I have been delayed so this is where I'm currently at ...

I do hope to make more progress this week, but you know how that goes! Best laid plans of mice and men ...

Dan Stevens
dba, Steelsmith

 

By the way, did I mention how big this panel is? It's 12" tall and 24" long. The depth of the reverse curve is about 3" and the entire panel curls into about 85 degrees! that's one tight turn! ha

Got it on the run!

Dan Stevens
dba, Steelsmith

 

WOW, just found this thread. Great project, great metal work!!! Love where you are going with ths!

 

:wow: i dont belive this is in the same town lol if you ever need a helping hand ill be glad to come learn
it look like you are having lots of fun makeing this one off cant wait to come see it or see it at a show near by

 

One more thing I might mention is that when you use a power hammer, like my helve hammer, to stretch the outer flanges of a reverse curve like this one, you need a much more robust English Wheel to smooth out the results. The HF E-wheel frame is way too flexible to do much with that kind of lumpyness. My big E-wheel is a fabricated one working from the plan-set produced by John Glover. I ordered that set of plans in '82!
While that plan set is much better than the stuff from HF, I believe there is still too much flex in this frame/chassis too. At some point when it really pisses me off by being too flexible I'll redo some of the issues I've got with it. Not that it doesn't work pretty well, it's just that it could be stiffer some times and one of these days it's going to prove to be too flexible at the wrong time!

For more on E-wheel design and an actual graph of which materials to build yours out of and how much flex your chosen materials will have, go to metalmeet.com or allmetalshaping.com, you will find a vast store of metalshaping knowledge on both of those sites.
I haven't really invented any new thoughts when it comes to metalshaping, I'm just learning a lot of this myself. It seems every project teaches me something new about metal. I'm just trying to offer my resulting experiences here, so that anyone interested in metalshaping can see it really is doable!

Oh and if you are in the area and have a project that might need a little Kustom metal work done to it, but don't have a shop like mine with all of the tools it takes to get this kind of shaping done, I am for hire! PM me ...

Thanks for listening!
Dan Stevens
dba, Steelsmith

 

Can't believe it's been a month since I last posted on this thread!

I won't bore you with all of the details, but this economy has me on the ropes. I have a couple of responses to recent resumes I've sent out. One is that 'dream job' we all hope for. The interview/skills test scheduled for today has been rescheduled for Monday afternoon. Please, Keep me in your Prayers!

In regards to the Cutlass project, I actually got to put in about 6 additional hours on the corner panel I'd started. I'm to the point that I'm using a template to check the profile and the wire buck to see if I'm there yet!
If everything goes according to plan I should be trimming the panel to fit tomorrow. With one done, the second should be a bit easier. In case you haven't figured it out, this is one tough panel to form!

After the two corners are tacked in place, I'll have to figure out just what the lower panel will look like. I have some ideas, there will have to be a relief for the wheel/tire to clear. I may have to do a partial wire buck and a section of trailer fender to simulate the panel.
Once I have a mock-up that will hold tape, I'll do another flexible-shape pattern out of tape, just like I did for the corner pieces. I may have to add some 'blue-foam' to help flesh-out the shape.

I'll post pictures tomorrow of the 1st corner installed on the car. The second corner wire form will be placed with a MDF form to hold the entire horizontal width from corner to corner across the back.
Time-wise, I'll bet I have 40 hours in this first corner piece. The second one, I'm guessing I may be able to cut the time in half? It's still a very tough panel ...!


Dan Stevens
dba, Steelsmith

 

I´ll keep my fingers crossed about the job Dan. Good luck.

 

Thank you James!

I'm really looking forward to todays activities! Final fitting on the 1st corner piece will be a good thing, but actually seeing the panel below it with wheel-relief in 3 dimensions, will be a first! As I mentioned, I have some ideas as to how this part of the body will look, but I don't yet see it clearly.
I will later today!

If I get stuck, there's always the other rear corner panel to do!

I'll either post at the end of the day or sometime this weekend. I intend to push hard for the next two days as fall weather is on it's way and the temperatures are predicted to drop drastically by Sunday. It's also supposed to start raining.
At least it's not snow yet!

Dan Stevens
dba, Steelsmith

 

Hi Guys! Thought you were long overdue an update, with fresh pictures!



This first one is showing the newly renarrowed butt section. You can also catch a glimps of the freshly minted right upper corner section!



Here's a better view of the new corner. Waay too many hours in this panel but what else can you do without one?!



From this view, the corner and the bodylines line up pretty good.



This is the full corner view. You can see that for this new corner to work a relief will have to be cut for the wheel to clear as it moves up and down. The lower half of this corner, (the part that doesn't exist yet) will have the main fender relief.
The plan right now is to run cycle-type fenders, attached to the backing plates on all four wheels. Can't make up my mind whether to paint them black so they blend in with the tires or go with the sme color as the body...?

More pictures to come!

Dan Stevens
dba, Steelsmith

 

There's a big hole where the other corner goes, sure looks empty in comparison.



I've just overlapped the back-section onto the sailpan of the cab. While it's tacked in place I will mark the new cut-line from underneath.



This is the first time I've seen the back-end on the car since the new rocker-panel structure was installed. It is also after I found I had to narrow the sail-pan, which meant I also had to renarrow the the little butt by an additional 1-3/4" so the seams in the sail-pan would line up with the outside upper corners of the butt section.





The bodylines match-up almost as if I had planned them to!



The only issue I see at this point is that I may have to make a small addition to the corner section after I cut out for the fender relief. I won't know what that will look like until I do a mockup of the lower section, below the new corner panel, with the relief made.

One more batch of pictures to come!

Dan Stevens
dba, Steelsmith

 

This view show the area of my concern. The sharp bodyline, just below the door handle hole looks like it is climbing as it goes around the corner. I think when the relief is cut out for the fender/wheel to articulate in, I believe most of that issue will go away.



If not I may have to add a thin pie-cut of metal to straighten out the bodyline.



Just a couple of pictures of how things look from the inside, both from the cabin looking back and from the inside of the trund looking forward.



Last but certainly not least, is a comparison of the decklid hole in the new narrowed butt and the original width decklid below it! The hole is a wopping 19" wide! As you can see the decklid will have to be cutdown just a bit! LOL!!!

That's all I've got for now, sorry it's been so hit 'n' miss for posts and pictures ...
Life can be tough ..., all I can do is keep after it when I can squeeze in some time!

Dan Stevens
dba, Steelsmith

 

awesome build! keep up the good work. nice to see people thinking outside the box

 

If things go well tomorrow, I will try to define the right lower corner panel with fender relief. If that throws me for a loop, I have either the opposite upper corner panel to finish or section the decklid! Plenty of options! ha

I've still got the front sheetmetal to narrow up a bit too, hood, grille and scratch build a firewall, not to mention the entire roof/windshield surround.
Sure would be nice to be able to just stick with the project, but life happens ...!

Thanks for looking!
Dan Stevens
dba, Steelsmith

 

Go Dan, go!

 

Thanks for the support Guys!

As usual, I haven't gotten done what I wanted to, but I did get the decklid cut down. I'm now trying to find my way through the cut 'n' match process to make the inner structure come out looking as if there was a plan there too.
I'm going to try a new method,(for me) and am experimenting with reusing the original decklid skin. Sounds like it should work, the rub comes in when trying to duplicate the turned over edge for attachment to the new innerstructure. BTY I'm trying to do the reused decklid in one piece!

Once the decklid is back together as a complete unit, it will supply the locations for the torque boxes and with those located, the new narrowed rear frame-rails will be defined.
It all rolls down-hill from there! Ha

Dan Stevens
dba, Steelsmith

 

hey dan howed everything go yesterday ??? how it went well ! cant wat to see your next up date look like you have a lot of fun wish i had a shop to play in

 

Dan,
Great to see you back on it. Hope all goes well with the job.
It seems like the visual issue may be coming form the lower "flare" where the new piece meets the side of the rear section. For some reason, that area just doesn't seem to resolve correctly to my eyes... Not trying to nitpick, I know what a pain in the ass that piece was gonna be... Maybe extend the tire clearance notch up to the "beltline" of the new corner? I'm sure once you get the lower corner panel mocked up it will come to you.

 

Hi Guys, yes things are continuing to progress. I shied away from doing the lower corner section, while I tackled the narrowing of the decklid. I'm still mulling over exactly how that lower section of the corner is supposed to look ...
I'll have to do a mockup with the wheel removed, before I do any cutouts for wheel clearance. I think I may have to do a foam-form, so I can see the panel in 3D. Once I have that lower section figured out, then I will make the cutout for the wheel, (it should resemble the underside view of a section of flatfender or spare-tire ring as viewed from the inside).

I think the upper corner's lower flaired section is where I lost track of what was going on with the body's original lines. There is a slow/gradual widening of the distance between bodylines from front to back. Before I removed the rear quartersection the bodyline actually took a more drastic dip to swoop around the cutout for the wheelwell. Since there will be no wheelwell to swoop around I decided to have the lower bodyline rejoin the 'spearpoint' bodyline that was formed/joined to the front ends of the rear bumper. It's not a lot lower than the existing bodyline, but there is a transition, and when I cut those blanks for the upper corner sections I didn't take that widening distance between the bodylines into account. So it looks like I will have to add that small pie-section of metal in front of the cutout for the wheel clearance. I still don't think it will amount to much, but it will need to be there.

That's how it looks from My house!
Dan Stevens
dba, Steelsmith

PS Haven't gotten a reschedule for my interview/skills-test yet. That was supposed to happen last Friday! Anyway, I'm just hangin' out waitin' for my number to be called!
Thanks for your well wishes/concern/Prayers!

Dan

 

Dang it Dan! When I see this you post on this I want more progress pictures!! Keep up the good work man!