Oddly enough, Riley is a very popular GIRLS name here in Michigan... so we get a lot of "does your daughter" or "does she" when we call Doctors, schools, etc. But I do think he likes his name, unless I yell it as "RILEY HUDSON", then he knows he's in trouble. Take care, and keep up the awesome work! JK
David - Thank you so much for the detailed photos and explanations! My earlier post was an attempt at humor / tongue-in-cheek about watching the video. I have watched it more than once already and did go about trying some of the tips presented. I'm thrilled that you are keeping the feed going but in awe not only of your work, but wondering how you get all of it done - metalworking autos, posting on HAMB, Metalmeet and others, teaching at the school?!?!? Jay
Yep Dave, its a very time consuming job doing this HIGH CLASS work we do. I found it was me that had a trouble with my invoices,when I got over it the Customers were still there keen to pay my bills. They come to you for QUALITY WORK,you dont tell them to bring there car to you to get repaired or built.They make a choice they want to pay to get the Craftman Type work you do. I once had a Great Customer that said to me,"Dont let the invoices adding up stop your quality of work,he was happy to pay. I couldn't afford my invoices but he could,don't limit yourself.Be open to the World of ABUNDANCE. TONY CARTER.
James D You could. TONY CARTER thanks you are right of course but some customers want to pay others don't. Its not always down to how well off they are either. David
BACK TO THE BUILD. Someone asked about how I formed the angle iron. well its not too hard to curve - you can stretch one flange by putting the other in a vice and pulling against it. To shrink a flange you can beat the edge of the flange over a hollow and it will shrink, higher crown curves may need heat shrinking and areas like the one above the steering column in the photo below are created by cutting out one flange curving the piece to the desired shape and welding in a new flange of the correct shape. Sorry I could not answer this before but I did not have time to upload the photo and answer the question. I did wrought ironwork before I learned how to do coachbuilding I also did ductwork and I have found these skills usefull.
The next part of the build was to join the front section to the back section. This is done in many ways on vintage cars. Bugatti type 35s and Alfa Monzas have a plate screwed to the back of the joint between the two halves But for these cars I normally make the body one piece to keep it simple and because I find it quicker. I chose an area that will give me the shortest weld while putting the weld in a position that is curved and accessible so that it will dress out to a good finish easily. The next stage is to work out the cut-out shape. Once this is done I wire edge the cockpit incorporating the piece I made earlier. with all this in place I have a basic body. The photo below shows the cockpit wire edged, how it all ties together and the welded joint. You can also see the flange that runs inside the body and bolts to the chassis. On some bodies this can be formed so that it is outside the body, the body can be made narrower and it gives a different look. David
Steve, I once used to think it was a British thing but after talking to people on various web forums I realise it is a problem everywhere. I have for many years had my customers sign a written agreement and I spend a lot of time giving them progress reports in a magazine article style with every invoice. I basically have a contract from invoice to invoice so that if things get out of shape it can only be over the amount in the last invoice. I just thought I would add that since doing this I have never fallen out with a customer over the cost. I invoice in fairly small chunks too. David
I found a photo of yet another Riley special I built so thought I would put it up. This is the car in my youtube footage that is used in the title sequence of my DVD. This car was also a special built in the fifties that I rebuilt the body for. The bodies built on these cars in the past tended to be very much amateurish so now the cars are worth a bit more people replace them. This car has a very short wheelbase ( I think it was about 80 inches) and the customer was quite er.. 'stocky'. so needed some space in the cockpit. This is what we came up with. David Oh I did not make the mudguards (cycle fenders) or wing stays for this car.
#Sorry this is the photo that is missing from my earlier post, it did not appear for some reason "The next stage is to work out the cut-out shape. Once this is done I wire edge the cockpit incorporating the piece I made earlier. with all this in place I have a basic body. The photo below shows the cockpit wire edged, how it all ties together and the welded joint. You can also see the flange that runs inside the body and bolts to the chassis. On some bodies this can be formed so that it is outside the body, the body can be made narrower and it gives a different look". David
Dave 99.9% of my customers are excellent but i did have one guy that argued about his bill, I had quoted £900-1000 for the work, The final bill was £1066, (pretty close i thought) He refused to pay despite giving me the wrong parts twice !!! I will never do anything for him again, his loss
You are right, his loss - you do superb work and its not possible to estimate any more accurately than that. Consumer law (in the UK) says that an estimate is a guide price and that if you are within 10-15 % it is reasonable. By asking you to do the job and accepting your estimate he is in a legally binding contract. David
I forgot to mention that the owner of this car did a full size drawing of the car for me to go by which can just be seen in the photo above.
excellent work! when my next unenjoyment check clears I want to order your dvd's! I think they are just what I have been looking for.
This is great, like the looks of the green one too. Wish i had , had a chance to learn some of this stuff. Always been interested in metal work, have done siver smithing, blacksmithing and ductwork, but never met anyone who did this. My loss. I was wondering if you could give us some detail on the wire edging technique? Is it in the video? Thanks John
Patdoody It is one DVD its two and a half hours long and edited in such a way that there is a lot of information on it (and no waffle). Also the information is complete I show the techniques in full none of this here's one I did earlier stuff. John Wire edging is on the DVD. it is a difficult thing to describe without photos or video but I will try, I have shown it in magazine articles. You have to 'throw' a flange, the length of this depends on the wire used. I used 1/4" rod for this body so I needed a 3/4" flange. I simply throw the flange using a hammer and dolly, once you get the flange to about 90 degrees you insert the wire, lock the wire in every few inches by dressing the flange over it with a hammer and dolly, bending it to shape as you go. Next close the flange as far round the rod/wire as possible using a hammer and dolly. Finally I use a pair of adapted pliers or pincers. (I have several different versions) to close it up. David
The next job on the Riley was to make the chassis covers. If you look at the chassis you can see the reason for this, its pretty ugly, its sort of built inside out compared to most other chassis with the open side of the chanel facing out this is then boxed. This is how it comes stock. Thats all I have time for now. David
Dave, I love the BRG Riley Special, its so much closer to a Hot Rod than a modern billetmobile. Keep up the good work
Wow. I wish I could weld aluminum like that, it is a skill I have not tried my hand at yet. Looking forward to more pics, this stuff is metal porn!!
Thanks for the comments guys you are all very kind its nice to know you like this stuff. David I will try to post some more later.
Great as usual David, not sure how I missed this. For those that don't know, David has a GREAT DVD that I feel takes a very easy to understand, simple approach to beginner metal shaping with basic tools. I highly recommend Davids DVD if you are interested in learning about metal shaping it helped our shop out greatly!!!
The Jalopy Journal
