I have a fairly complex piece to make. Any advise from the metal shapers out there would be greatly appreciated. It's a 57 T bird Left fender. Tools I have to work with; helve hammer, shrinker / stretcher, planishing hammer, pressure forming machine, bead roller and plenty of basic metal working hand tools. I gas weld most everything, but will plug weld (mig) the overlapped & leaded seams to install the part.. So, where would you start? What tools would you use? (I'm not opposed to buying/ building more tools, but the budget is tight.) Would you try to make it in in one piece?
Hey tin, I'd probably build the piece in two pieces, jus to make it easier to handle. I'd wheel the upper, starting with the reverse crown area, then develop the upper area with a semi to low crowned anvil. Once these shapes were well defined I'd use a tipping wheel to develop the flanges/joggles. The lower area of the panel would be developed with some light wheeling and '' muscled '' into shape & butted to the upper. All welding would be gas, and I'd probably not go with the stepped flanges if possible1 " Do not reach greedily for the Kool-Aid "
I'm not a metal worker by any means, so I can't help you out... But if/when you make it, please post some pics, I'd love to see it. That'd be extremely impressive.
Thanks Pimpin, but a wheel is one thing I don't have. And one of the things I don't want to buy cheap. The step flanges have to stay. It's a resto. And a mess! And I will post this part when I build it if the mods are ok with the O/T car. I'm just now about to put the quarters back on after rebuilding the floor,rockers and wheel houses. This has been a huge undertaking. I'm finally seeing some day light. This is what I had to work with
Here's how I'd do it . If the flanges are OK I'd save them and weld em on the new metal. Especially the headlight bucket one. It be from several pieces welded and planished . First one , the large radius bucket . Make it longer as in deeper up the fender and cut it later. Second piece, return in front and below the bucket. Nice radius bend with some shirinker work. Third would be the reverse curve back up. Same radius bend and shrinking/stretching work. Just cope them together building off the main bucket piece. Fourth would be the curved flang off the reverse. 90* bend and shrinker. Hammer form the small tip or tipping dies.
Good God, nothing rusts like a T'bird. Don't ask me how I know but, when you save one you have a beautiful car worth having. Good luck! MIKE
Unfortunately it's all pretty bad. @ the leading edge of the headlight flange the patches have been lapped over the existing metal and brazed. All of it is deeply pitted. I think I follow you 31 Vicky. And have been thinking kinda the same. I don't mind welding a few pieces together. I'm getting pretty good at what I call hammer welding. It's got to be nice, and a little beyond what I've done. I'd like to minimize the wasted steel Has anyone worked with hot dog dies? Saw a video that looked interesting. The dies look easy to make for my press.
Oh, you'll make some scrap on that one ! Lol Have you ran a but weld thru the planish hammer ? Just about perfect and quick. Have you tried to find another one ? Just have a go and try it. I Doubt that what ever you make will not be a drastic improvement over what you have now. If the piece needs a little filler, its better than a gallon. Maybe metal surgeon will show up and give an idea. Just for shits I made a 90* 6" radius elbow 2" tube out of 18 ga flat steel because my buddy told me i couldnt. Made it out of 4 pieces.
I WOULD CALL ALYN SWEDBERG IN CENTRALIA ,WASH. HE IS THE MOST HONEST, TALENTED CRAFTSMAN YOU WILL EVER MEET. HAVE HIM REPAIR THE WORST PARTS, AND ADVANCE THE PROJECT. 360-623-4774 cell
I can understand and enjoy the body saves here on the HAMB, but that project looks like a money pit that has no bottom. Not all parts cars deserve a full restoration IMO.
i'd like to see your progress pics. that 'bird is so much worse than my shoebox that i feel ashamed to have stopped working on it. glad to see it's not going to fade away!
WOW! I too would like to see some pics of the progress of this build. Do they make re pop parts for that car? Thats one hell of a project. Were their more pieces when you got the thing or is that what your starting with? That thing makes me feel like a chump with the rust repair I tackled on my own ride..dont think I have any room to complain now. Cant wait to see it move along and get finished. -Dane
It's not really a mater of deserving restoration. The owner would rather spend the money and have a nice car in the end than take the loss and have nothing. I wouldn't have bought it, nor would I restore it for myself. But I'm capable and actually enjoy going this deep. Some day the car will be worth what he is going to have into it..........probably not in my life time.....but maybe someday. But thanks to the guys with suggestions on how to do this. We have some master craftsman willing to share what they know. No need to "move the project along" or farm out any work. It's not stalled, I can make this part, I'm just looking to learn to do this work better and more efficiently.
It was a running driving car. Didn't look all that bad. I was surprised at the lack of repop sheet metal, and the quality was horrible. I threw some parts away and just made my own. Right now I'm nearing the point of assembly of the back half of the car. After that it's front fenders, aprons, and lower a pillars. Hell I'm close now!
Thats looking killer man! At least its not your car and your dime I would love to see this when its finished. Your works looks nice. -Dane
Make in 2 pieces. It can all be done with a brake a shrinker/stretcher and an anvil. I feel for you on this. I did a 55 bird that was almost that badly rusted and smashed on every panel. 30,000 later it was in primer. What a waste of money. Jim
It reminds me of a '56 I worked on back in the early 90's, it came from the southern coast. The salt air had permeated everything and the guy should N-E-V-E-R, I repeat N-E-V-E-R, have bought it! He knew virtually N-O-T-H-I-N-G about automobiles and had poured money, money, money into it! I straightened a lot of evils out under the hood, but you would never be without a job with that car!! "Shadow Jobs", yeah, I like that term!! ; o I think it helped to "burn" me out on doing car work for hire! I will suggest this though, the 'Bird was conceived with the big car as a "little" brother, many of the contours and shapes are the same, similar. Those fenders are almost identical in some areas as a big car!! You do know the headlight bezels ARE the same!! I believe you could graft part of a passenger car fender on, might save a little work!! Just my 2 cents!!
I'm with Pimpin, get rid of the stepped flange if you can, I'd use two pieces down through the valley... this should make the upper section pretty much a linear roll with tipped flanges and should make the compound shape more manageable. Then do some raising on the adjacent seams over a correctly radiused anvil to form the valley and gas weld down through the middle. I didn't see an e-wheel on your list, but a go kart wheel on one of them forms those long linear rolls slicker than snot.
I'm with MP&C, those reverse curves can really frustrate you, with simple tools, If you make your seam down the middle, it makes them a hell of a lot easier. Just a sandbag, shrinker/stretcher, and some planishing to do them in halves. Maybe a simple hammer form (even just one side, with some angle iron and clamps for the other?) for the flanged areas.
Thanks guys! I think two pieces will be the best way. I'd love to do the compound area in one piece, but I don't think I have the tooling or the experience with my press to form it. I made a hot dog die today. It works, but I need to get better material for the top die. I destroyed the soft one pretty fast. I'll let you guys know how it works. I'm just part time on this, and still have 2 or 3 weeks on the back half of the car.
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