Let's see some sheet metal shaping

I wheeled the area lightly to blend the flares, it actually would have been better to dress it by hand as its a large panel and I put a lot of marks in and ended up dressing it by hand anyway. Next I formed the return at the back of the cowl where it joins the dash then used my Pullmax to put the straighter part of the swage into the panel. I then stretched some metal up on the corner using a small hollowing hammer and a piece of wood.




Using a hammers and dolly I formed the rest of the swage.

 

A little more dressing with a flipper and dolly and I got it to this stage...



This shows the shape in the cowl panel...



More soon.

David

 

Great work as always @Mindover

 

Thanks Cretin, I hope all's going well for you.

Here is the cowl with the swage put in the front.


David

 

Another view.



Here is a link to my '27 T build
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/what-another-27-on-32-chassis-scratch-build-body.596032/

David

 

Thanks for posting David, good to see you finding time for your own project.


Worked on some louvers tonight, wanted to get some practice pieces done to see how well our rotation "theory" might fare.


Kyle cutting an inside lip off the clamp before cutting it in half..








Meanwhile I got the holes (and some spares for height adjustment) drilled in the wheel hub flange...








Clamps added...








We used a "squaring plate" to align the panel for louver angle..





The punch needed some relieving to insure the corners didn't hit the inside radius of the panel...











Cleaned up the grinder marks with a Scotchbrite pad..








Looking at the louvers...


Action shots:















We have some more relieving to do on the tooling to eliminate some marking, then we'll do one more practice piece before breaking into the good stuff..

 

Louvers look good Robert. are you using the standard Pullmax lower tool?
Here is a video of some of the louvers we have done....

and some of the stuff we do with our Pullmax machines...




David

 

David, it is tooling made here stateside by Neil Dunder, but I believe it is a copy of the Pullmax version

 

So I had my build of the aluminum car that is in the background on the hamb 3 years ago but got booted off because the vette frame. Here is a little belly tanker that I whipped up out of a pedal car. Maybe I can stay. Ray in Oregon

 

My latest attempt at metal shaping. All steel body, square tube frame, stacks made from 1" EMT

 

That looks great B-BOP !

 

Like ZZ Top that is smmooottthh.

 

One more post for anyone who may find a need for such a louver fixture as I showed above, was in the shop today and walked past a rolled sample piece we had made using the go kart slick on the English wheel. Part of the test drive when it sold a week or so ago. Since louver tool was still in the machine, hey! Let's see how well it does with a tighter radius...





Size compared to a 4-1/2" disc





The coining was done manually with a corking tool. Some distortion, would fare better I believe in a machine with a taller throat. The Lennox is only about 6" high, where a bit more room would allow better clearance for setting up the rotational fixture.




....and the motion picture..





So don't be intimidated by the next challenge, get out in the shop and make some scrap, learning in the process.

 

I love seeing what you guys with Pullmax and equivalent machines can do with them.

 

Tonight in the shop we started the repair work on the front fenders for the 1947 Biederman Truck, seen here for reference:





The fenders are made using 16 gauge steel, so this may be a bit challenging when we get to blocking and wheeling patches for the fenders themselves. In the meantime (while still waiting for the new English wheel) let's get started on the inner fenders. The driver's side is the worst, with so much rotted away that we couldn't get accurate dimensions. The passenger side was in much better condition, but just shy of 70 years has taken its toll in adding some wavy distortion. So we'll remake both sides for a better match.







In order to get a more crisp bend on the 16 gauge steel, we used a tipping die in the Lennox to thin the metal at the line of the bend.















Bending in the Baileigh Magnetic Brake..



















This detail shot shows how the thinning helps get a tighter bend..







Next, we needed a profile template for the rear radius, so the kick shrinker is used on a folded 19 gauge strip to add the radius..











A flat folded strip works better than an angle as if you shrink too far in this direction.....







......you can simply shrink the back half to reverse the effect without the need for changing to the stretching die..







Now with an accurate pattern, we can use the template on the new inner fender..











All trimmed...











With the new clamped to the old, we can see what the years of abuse has done..







One down, one to go..

 

Oooops!
Meant to post a final pic of this one piece patch (I unfortunately didn't take one)
This is just before I added the rivets.
As you can see, I have already made the lower infill, which required attaching via hidden fixtures.
Just some final tweaking & all was good.
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Today we got the second inner fender cut out, and took them both over for a test fit on the truck








The driver's side has a bolting plate in the middle of the frame for the steering box, so a relief notch was in order...





....as well as a bit of trimming for some clearance so that the paint won't be chipped off on the first test drive. The fabrication of these parts are done, and we should pick up the new Tommasini Wheeling Machine this coming weekend so we can get started on the fender patches..

 

Robert. I like the idea of the thinning relief, but isn't there a concern that the relief will act as a stress riser and cause fracturing in the future?
I am in awe of your abilities.

 

The fenders have (well....before they rusted off) a flange turned under on either end that bolts to the running board and the filler panel behind the bumper. So for the most part, these support the bulk of the weight. This inner panel is more of just a filler that blocks tire spray/mud out of the engine compartment. Given the support the fender flanges provide, I was less concerned that the thinning would have any detriment. The owner of this truck is the current Chairman of the Board of the American Truck Historical Society, so it's use will be limited to truck shows. If it were going to see the same abuse of the past 66 years, then I may have approached this differently.

 

nice work Robert.

 

Hey I shaped this sheetmetal with my right foot and the wall at Madera Speedway in my modified .,,

Just having fun... Love all of the great work ..wish I could do work like the great stuff posted here..,

 

Hey, that's only one sample of each. Could be a fluke, could be plain luck. I've been told it's not metal-shaping unless you can make two the same. So you know what you have to do.....

 

Had a question about placement of the thinning groove, so I thought I'd post the results of the test sample...

Here's the test from tonight. The 16 ga thickness measured out to about .057, at the "thinning" groove it was .053, so we lost about .004 in thickness, or less than 10%. Put the thinning groove on the outside for this bend, it tended to stretch the deformity back out again where it looks like it could be more readily cleaned up with a file..








So where the bending process allowed the groove to stretch back out....





...it also gave us a wider radius than when the thinning was placed on the inside of the bend...





So I'd say to use placement based on if a tighter radius is needed or whether you need it dressed out. Given our original intent was a tighter/sharper radius, I'd place the thinning inside the bend to support that..

 

I love this stuff.

 

You died a very nice job of the repair on that shell. Most people would not realise how much shrinking was involved to get that shape.

David

 

Here is a link to a video showing some wings ( fenders) being made. I used the original panels as patterns.



David

 

David,
In the video you state that you fill any holes in the welds to prepare it for metal finishing. How do you do that?
Paul

 

Love this thread! Learning as I repair things.. On my project..

Had to repair the edges on my fenders



Cut a small strip out










First time using a shrinker stretcher.. A lot of fun!

 

Need to change the heading on this thread to "Let's See Some Metal Sculptures".
Beautiful work guys!

 

Well it wasn't supposed to rain in the mid-Atlantic states today until later tonight, but wouldn't you know, loading something in the back of the truck just seems to coax the precipitation from the sky.



And here we are, unloaded back in the shop, still needing to make the stand. I'll pick up some materials likely on Monday..