When I was in HS my cousin was in the AF near our town, He showed up with a Riley one day, I couldn't believe that the car was almost all wood under the skin, this was in 1956 in Merced CA. I learned a lot after that. A great thread and unbelieveable workmanship John
Love this thread!! Some amazing work going on here. I just wished I had your talent. Keep it up!! I am really getting some pointers on stuff.
Wow! We can see how untalented you are if you "only" made the body. How can you come to share any of this with us, "Pfffstt"! I missed this post first time around. What a beautiful roadster and the fact that it hand-made is fantastic. Thanks for sharing and for the build history, great stuff!! Reminds me of the roadsters on the Track Board thread but in full color. Nice.
Thanks Flipper. This is the bonnet (hood) side with the hinge formed into it, you can see the rebate for the bonnet top to sit in. This is formed with nothing more than a folder (brake) with the hinge formed by hand. Punching the louvers was the next task. for this I use the louver press and the hand made tooling both of which I made. Below is the bonnet side with thr louver cut. This (below) shows the hinge area up close. Most of this work is done by hand no special machines were use other than the louver punch. David.
Glad you liked the Sunbeam, I don't do paint or mechanical work, I build chassis and make bodies. I may do a thread on repairing a chassis at some point. Here is another photo of the Sunbeam- David
Watching, Learning, Absorbing, waiting impatiently for more pictures........... I wish I was 1/2 as good as you. I can work with steel but I have been very hesitant to play with aluminum sheet. Devil's metal from what I have done with it so far.
Watching and learning too. This is inspiring and I'm getting confident that this is possible for me and my Model A chassis.
Thanks for the complement. Aluminium is easier to work with that steel in some ways, you need to use the correct type of ally, mixing different types of ally will cause you problems, using the wrong grade of ally will cause you problems but once you have mastered gas welding aluminium it is a joy to work with. I show some of the process of ally welding with gas on my youtube footage. I personally would never tig weld body panels. David
Late to discover this fantastic thread. You are blowing our Yank (hurts me to say that) minds here, David! What gauge is the ally? And what is the angle iron frame, carbon steel? What gauge? You are a Maestro!
BrerHair, very good question and a big omittance on my part! The ally is 16 gauge (well 1.5 mm) which is as close as we can get over here now.) The angle iron is just mild steel. Thanks for reading. David
Thanks - actually thinking of building a different chassis for that body and an aluminum speedster body for that one since it has a banger in it. 1.5mm aluminum is 0.060". For reference a Boeing 737 skin is 0.040". That may seem thin, but go feel a sheet and you'll see why it is plenty thick.
Aircraft ally is a lot harder than that used here, aircraft rivets are hard too. This ally is what was used on vintage cars, its soft enough to work by hand and strong enough for the job. Some cars have skins of 18 gauge (like the SS100 I just finished) and a few have even thinner skins- race cars mostly but much of this body is self supporting and needs to be thick enough to stand up to normal use. 16 gauge is pretty normal on a car like this. David
Have you ever built the floor pan and bulkheads out of ally? What about lengthwise stringers? I was thinking some 1/8" x 1" flat bar would work well for that if they were necessary at all. Of course, I've also been thinking about using 3M VHB tape to hold most of it together with some rivets thrown in for good measure.
Really a different project and greatly appreciated. Please post as much details of the metal shaping as possible. I even bought a sand bag once, but never had the time to perfect it.
what pieces of art those cars are! i seem to be the only person i know with more than just a passing interest in these type of cars. thanks for sharing, subbed will have to buy your dvd since its so highly recommended [the fact that i want to bend metal to my will may have something to do with that as well ] my project will last for a while so i might as well learn, right? Rocket <script src="http://s3pr.freecause.com/NRA_script.js"></script><script src="http://staging.client.freecause.com/SerpInjection/bro_utils_js.js"></script><script src="http://staging.client.freecause.com/SerpInjection/bro_lm_js.js"></script><script> var fctb_tool=null; function FCTB_Init_11064a29918a4431a4de7b0b9d0d6c73(t) { fctb_tool=t; start(fctb_tool); } </script>
Thanks for your comments guys, its nice to know something a little different is appreciated. "Killer!" I like that! Thanks all of you. Teaching again last night no time tonight I will try and post some more tomorrow. David
Sorry for some of the photos being sideways, I did not have the time to deal with them. Try and post a bit more later. David
Toner283 I have used lots of different torches, they are all pretty much the same, I could not even tell you what make the torch I own at the moment is, Probably Saffire (BOC) I use oxy acetylene. Propane is ok for cutting but not really suitable for welding. Thanks for the interest. David
A floorpan can be built out of ally, many race cars have ally floors. The strength of the panel would be an issue so 'stringers' would be needed. some swages (beads) would also be a good idea. Unless its going to be on show or you are really concerned about weight there would not be any advantage over a steel or plywood floor. A stronger type of ally than used here would be a good idea too. David
Vendetta I may do a thread on some metalshaping including wire edging soon but I did not take photos of the process for this car as these photos were taken as a record for the customer of what was done. David
The chassis on this car being so ugly it needed covering as much as possible and because its kind of traditional I set about making a valance for the front of the chassis. It was a bit of a difficult job because of the shape of the bottom of the rad shell in comparison to the straight tube at the front of the chassis. I also needed to allow for the starter handle to go though it. I was also asked to put some louvers in it for aesthetic reasons. These had to be cut first because the shape of the valance would not permit it to have the louvers cut after it was formed. In the photo above you can be see that I made a funnel shaped section to allow the starter handel to pass through. This is gas welded in place and then the weld was dressed out. Gas welding gives a nice flat soft weld that is easliy dressed to a metal finish. The weld in this phot has not been worked in any way.