After reading some about home built bodies, I was very intrigued and ever since, I've been driving around looking at common modern cars to see parts in. Some guys were talking about the rear pillers in minivans as being good lower cab corners. It seems the hardest part to make would be the cowl and I think I found something that will help in making the hardest part, the 'inside-outside' compound inverted curve on the outside edges of the cowl. '99-'06 F-250 front hood corners, they don't roll off completely, but I think it would work. Hard to find a good pic on the net. It has some taper as it goes to the fender and it flares up to the center as if it was a windshield. You'd have to add onto the fender side of it so the cowl could be deeper, but this is past the compound curve. There would have to be some slits cut into the part where it goes to the center as well I think. http://www.autoanything.com/truck/ford/f250/95A3A6A2713.aspx http://truck.hownd.com/photo-4008-reflexxion_703700_steel_cowl_induction_hood_99_06_f_250_350.html http://www.justbenz.com/~steveraymanchevy/4EB03686-1sm.jpg What do you all think, good or bad?
You are likely to find that it is hard to make any production piece do what you want it to. It may look close, but is probably way off. A good way to learn though! You can make a reverse shaped cowl by using a shrinking disc in the valley after you have rolled the side to side hood contour in the metal. You will make a lot of noise, and take forever, but it is a possibility. You would have to re-roll the contour every once in a while to keep it from getting away from you after shrinking the valley. There is a reverse panel shaped this way in my shrinking disc album: http://allshops.org/cgi-bin/community/communityalbums.cgi?action=openalbum&albumid=9980121727059 I would try a small version of the project to get a feel for it, then on to the real thing. John www.ghiaspecialties.com
Hate to link to another board (Sorry, Ryan), but this is how I'm doing mine. I'm just about to this point.. http://www.hotrodders.com/forum/journal.php?action=view&journalid=17166&page=28&perpage=5&reverse=1
The Jalopy Journal
