Nice work Devin. And cool car. Cars that rusty are hard to come by out here. Drag it out of the bay or something?
Traded it for something against my better judgement. It's a Bay Area car built in Oakland. The guy I got it from said it languished in a field for 20 years. Gives a new definition to "California car" lol.
[QUOTE="Gives a new definition to "California car" lol.[/QUOTE] Will be. Your job is lookin sweet. Keep us posted.
Cut out the steel and sandwiched it in the form. A couple minutes of hammering and it looks pretty good!
Next up is to put a swage in the side and do some trimming. Then to make the other side and put the drain tube in it. I still have to figure out how the damn thing is attached but I think it's pretty straight forward.
Great job Devin . If you need some inspiration or some additional Ideas go to Hotrodders.com and under their forum on body and exterior and check out Johns 53 Bel Air convt rust repair thread He is building everything from scratch ! I think you will find this very inspirational and full of ideas for you! keep up the great work ! Now I need to get out the shop and get to work. later Larry
I have read that thread start to finish. That guy John Long is the man!!! very inspiring. Reading that gave me the confidence to just go for it. That's a really inspirational and well documented project he has going there. thanks for the support!
The hammerforms work far better than I could have ever imagined. With the simple shape of the drip rail i had the forms made up in about 15 minutes and maybe another 15-20 minutes of hammering to get the basic shape and trimming. Cheap too.
I have made a few basic ones that worked out well. Your work has given me some ideas on other ways of making them on complex parts, will have to look into this more down the road on a piece of SST trim i want to add ~3' to. it has ribs and i was wondering if it would work.
I think the key is getting it secure to the form well. I've been attaching it with self tapping screws then wailing away with a rubber dead blow mallet which really helps getting the metal to confirm to the shape without leaving lumps.
That's because we where 50 years younger and full of piss and vinager!! Actualey I was nine and my parents would have sent me to my room for life if I would have went after the car with a hammer!!! lol Larry
Snuck into the garage to finish the drip pan. Started by making the other side . And folded the flange to tack it to the inner brace.
Then trimmed and welded the two halves together. I decided to practice using the tig welder after I tacked with the mig. The welds came out great until I hit wider gaps and had to finish up with the mig. The tig welds are so much nicer and easy to clean up with less distortion. I just need to get the fit up perfect. All that's left is to drill the bottom and weld in a tube for the drain and to bead roll the swage in. I got a cheapo Woodward fab roller coming in the mail. Can't wait to bust it out.
You give me inspiration to start a new project. Its a 40 chev 2 door sedan that is beyond anything I have seen before, but it runs like a charm and drives. Almost a shame not to buy it.
I figure I have nothing to lose and a bunch to learn. I haven't put any money into it other than some sheet metal and a couple hand tools. I want to try to do all this and see how it turns out before putting real cash into it.
Today I finished the drip pan and then made replacement pieces for the inner bracing where it was rotten away. They all attach via a pinch weld
The Jalopy Journal
