Dang some good hand fabrication. . I wonder why there is not many hambers encouraging your build. Maybe they be more concerned with fake gassers? Anyhow this is one of the best threads in this place, enough said.
I get a lot of pm's. I'm not concerned with comments. I guess no comments is better than the shit show that happens when something is wrong or doesn't fit in! I'm not really doing anything exciting or beautiful, I just post each day's work as a log for myself. Most people finish something then post the end product. I post boring stuff (I'm still learning every day so it's all exciting to me). The pros don't care, but us newbs like to see what the real world is like every now and then. Feburrry 1st marked 2 years into the this whole ordeal. For the amount of time and money I have spent on this, I could have bought a real nice car and had a life the past two years. But, I'm happy. I never would have learned any of this. I was just chatting about you COE yesterday with one of my shop mates. The picture below is what I started with-
The thing I heave learned and wish I had done first is to clean and blast your panels and parts. It's a nightmare doing it later on. Starting with freshly blasted parts would save me a lot of headache. I see it posted often as advice, but never thought it would be so important. The 35/36 Ford dash I bought was pretty banged up, but cheap. I never really paid attention to it but now that I'm cleaning it up, it was time to fix it. I also filled the stock starter button hole. Note: Using washers is a terrible idea for filling holes. It's a nightmare shaping them. I hammered it a bunch. Then test fit some stocker gauges that I scored from the old guys at the shop. I cut some pieces to blend the dash into the inner door skin. I'm gonna have to let this one marinade a bit before going further. And now to build the structure to house the electronics and heater assembly. I rolled and bent this tube to fit under the firewall/gas tank top. I added some gussets to the firewall and some tube from the firewall to the dash support. The tube I bent will be welded to these, but I was tired and had to go home.
Thanks Blue. I'm having a lot of fun with it! I'm glad someone is excited! It's not exactly the most ideal engine in terms of a budget build, but I'm happy I did it. I spent a while collecting tools and making tools for learning the sheet metal side. Having these things has helped me out a lot. I'll try and get some photos of the stuff I use.
NOTED! I had been considering just grinding my sheetmetal where I was going to cut and weld in fresh panels. I'm going to adjust my plan now (and probably my steering hoop too!). I see you welded your tubing into your firewall. Any specific reason you chose to do it that way instead of bolting it in?
The firewall is welded to the side panels on the cowl, and I welded the dash in as well. I'm going to make my battery tray and heater mounts off the tubing. I want the firewall to be as clean as possible, and there really wouldn't be a reason for me to unbolt these parts (plus welding it is easier!). The top panel of the old gas tank will be removable for easy access. Thanks to Need Louvers' photos in the 'Modifieds Only" thread, I have a new plan for this area and I'm real stocked about it. P.S. I have learned to avoid the grinder for cleaning metal and sand things by hand to to avoid grinder marks on sheet metal.
So I sent my C.A.D. pattern over to Vinny and had him cut it out on the water jet... No. I didn't. But the pattern worked good. I cut it out of 16 ga. with the Beverly. I wanted a little heavier gauge for this piece. I hammered it over my old anvil (antique iron flipped upside down)and shaped it over my tire. It took some fine grinding to the the gaps good, and it will still need some work around the front lip. My lady was tired so I had to head home.
That interior shot over the hood and the new infill piece is killer. Great work. Almost see the chrome on the dash heading down the length of the bonnet in my mind. Cheers M
Great work ! Surprizzzzing What a person can do if they just try . All that experience comes and makes a person a true craftsman .
My shaping station. I mounted stuff on square tube so i can change tools quickly. Also my ironing board bench. Light weight and easy to store
Yes! They are adjustable. The one I found has offset legs to it's super custom. I got the filler piece welded in today. The gaps need some work but the tank top slides in nice and tight. There isn't a lot of room inside the dash to hammer out some of the low spots. I'm gonna try and make a hammer for it. Otherwise filler will work.
Love your work. Are you a member on www.allmetalshaping.com? They would really like to see your work.
I joined a while back. But I have not been there since. I know there's a guy South of me that does metal meets, Dan Pate??, and I have been meaning to go there and see when the next one is. So far I have learned from youtube videos, forums and trial and error. I suppose I should go to allmetalshaping more often for knowledge. I'd be embarrased to post anything on there. I'm starting to figure out the basics but I'd like to learn from some pros.
You should go if you can,they seem like a good bunch of blokes. Peter Tommasini put on a day meet here. It was a nice day out, BBQ and all. Please don't feel embarrassed, you do nice work.
Today I cleaned up all the cut off section under the tank top. I didn't take any photos but the top slides in easily know. For some reason I thought I should start working on the hood I got from a buddy for $5. I knew it had some bondo in it... The start- Then I realized how bad it really was... Dan from the club having a taste.
After today I can't tell you enough about how much I hate removing filler. I used a heat gun and a sharp chisel and paint scraper. It went quick and without dust, but it still took about 5 hours. The filler was and 1/8-3/16" thick in places. There is still pitting and surface rust on the old hood also. I have no idea what the hood is off of. I thought it was stretched but it's not. It is 32.75 inches down the center. Has some weird mounting holes that someone said was street rod crap. My guess is that it had a hinge and someone welded it and shrunk it down the center. Then they hired a boy, perhaps 2 or 3 years old, to hammer it back out for them. Then they finished up that quart of bondo they needed to get rid of. I worked the right side a bit. This is going to take a lot of work.
I am pretty sure you could have made a new hood in less time and effort than you have in that old one! ;-) She is comming together and looking good. Keep after it.
True. 5 minutes into the filler and we talked about it. But I really like the bead for the belt line and reproducing that on a sheet without warping the crap out of the sheet metal is tough. I'm going to borrow a planishing hammer and make a shrinking disk and see what I can do. I gotta learn on something.
I have seen that filler before.... Under the paint on a customer hood that I was stripping to louver! Not good.
I had a fella today ask me about louvering the hood. He's a guy that runs the local metal meet. I want to say I saw the thread and the pictures? For now I continued to use what I have a bang away. I also used a poor mans shrinking disk. I read somewhere about using the back side of a grinding disk to shrink. I backed it up with a smaller disk and both of them are grit side up. I sprayed the panel with soapy water and blasted it with air after I heated the high spots. It actually worked pretty good. Still nowhere near perfect and it'll need more work.
The Jalopy Journal
