For anyone interested in metalshaping, I will show how to shape a brass windscreen (windshield) frame for a Deuce. In my day to day business I do a fair amount of work with brass but most of it is for vintage cars (Bentley SS Sunbeam Talbot and the like) Below is a Rad shell I hand made for an SS100. The other day a friend of mine turned up with some brass extrusion that he wanted bent to shape a rear windscreen (windshield) trim for his '32 soft top. I thought this might be of interest to some folk on here so... My friend gave me the Brass extrusion and he also gave me a cardboard pattern of the shape he wanted the screen to be. The first thing I did was to cut a piece of plate to give me the shape of one end of the screen. It would have been better to have a former that was the complete shape but this was all the plate I had to hand and I had to get it back to him the next day.
It takes a fair amount of heat to form the brass, It needs to be a dull red, any hotter and it will crack too much cooler and it will crack. You have to form it without excess heat or force. David
No I welded it. I do a lot of welding of brass (the rad shell above is made from six sections welded together) and this meant that I could blend the joint so that it was invisible. First I veed the joint so that I could be sure I had welded it through. David
No I WELDED it brazing is joining parts using an alloy with a lower melting point, the parent metal is not melted when you braze. You can braze aluminium - you use a lower melting point alloy.(aluminium (not brass) The process I use is welding I melt the parent metal and I use a filler material with a similar make up. David
Sorry I should have said - It was gas welded as was the Radiator shell. Not the neatest of welds but it was going to be ground and filed off so I was more concerned with making sure it was fully joined. David
Thanks for the comments. I have made well over 200 of the SS100 rad shells all hand beaten. Lots of other shells too. The extrusion came from Paul Beck (Vintage Supplies) here in the UK. I am sure it must be available in the USA and other parts of the world though. Here is a link to the Vintage Supplies website - lots of stuff for vintage cars and several different extrusions. http://www.vintagesupplies.com/ David
Nice work, but I`m curious as to "200 shells for an SS100"..? I did not think there were that many surviving cars, or were they going to be used for replica Jags ? I needed one a while back, but could not find one... so I used a cut-down Allis Chalmers tractor grill.
Some of the shells I have made have been for original SS100s (the one in the photo above was) others have been for replicas, many are for a very good kit car called the Suffolk Sports this is based on XJ6 running gear and a 'glass body & box section chassis. Below is a photo of an SS100 replica that I built the body for a little while ago. This car is a very accurate replica of an SS100, based on a modified saloon chassis and running gear. The salons post war had almost the same engine and suspension as the SS100 did pre war. Its a lot of work to build one of these but even a good replica is worth quite a bit. The kit Suffolk Sports costs about fifty thousand GBP when done I believe. I would like to see what your SS100 looks like. Is it an original?. If you still want a shell you know where to get one now. David
David, Damn you are quite the craftsman. Mine is just a P.O.S. f`glass replica that I bought on eBay for a couple hundred.
Here is the trim vee'd or chamfered ready to weld,... here is the welded joint again... And once it was welded and cleaned up... David
Amazing! I always wondered how brass was handled. Any pics of building a grille shell? How do you meld 6 pieces together and form them?
Well having made over two hundred of the SS100 shells alone I have a lot of photos. I will post some build photos as and when I get time if people think it is HAMB friendly enough. I want to show the rest of the 'screen trim job first though. David
Dude, next Baleigh contest, you need to make a detailed post on making the shells, then take home a sweet piece of their metal working equipment.
Wow very nice work ! Incredible workmanship ,I would love to see some pics of the SS replica posted earlier that you built the body for as well...I think we could all learn something from your skills!!
Great work - as usual - actually thats an understatement - unbelievable work as usual. Stop doing paid work & get back to your Deuce chassis........One day I'll be back to see it in person
Beautiful as always David. Post away on the grill shell although not strickly HAMB material there would be a ton of info that could easily be applied to something that was.
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