Hot Rods LEARNING HOW TO DO REAL METAL WORK????

Asking for a kid that asked me...Question??? how did the old custom guys learn to do metal work? and where would i go to learn??? my answer? I got no clue???? most just hack it together and cover it with bondo..., so Is there school??? years ago, maybe 35,. I had a kid send me a resume, seems he went to some hotrod. street rod custom school in Nebraska, or Idaho, don't remember for sure, but, he really has a passion for old cars...

I pretty much told him it's a dying thing,.. most the GOB's don't wanna help the next generation.. and just like making fun of other peoples cars and ideas...

besides old cars... what trade does real metal fab.. you know, the guys that make stuff out of a 4 x8 sheet???

 

Isn't this exactly what @anthony myrick does?

 

he has a school??? where???

 

also???? is there anyone in vegas that knows how to do metal fab??? I also know someone in need of some work done...I can fix dents close enough for a skim coat, but fall way short of being able to fab a new piece of metal,,, or even fix an area ready for primer and paint,,, seems most that I know will just replace a fender than fix the one they have

 

I don’t know of any schools. Just watch and learn.

Look up Union Speed in Minnesota on instagram for some great examples of creating panels from scratch.

 

https://www.youtube.com/@fitzeesfabrications

 

There is probably more information online, in videos and in classes available now than there ever has been. All you have to do is search. Here are three guys that offer videos, have Youtube channels and do in person classes. There are quite a few more around.
https://www.proshaper.com/
https://covell.biz/
https://www.lazzemetalshaping.com/

 

Like K13 says, now is a great time since everything is posted online. Also, tools like tig welders have really come down in price plus entry level english wheels. Back in about 1980 when I chopped the top on my '47 Plymouth, I would only find the occasional magazine article with a few pictures. No one was fabricating compound curved c pillar pieces and practically everyone online is doing this.

 

Here you go.

https://www.mcpherson.edu/programs/auto-restoration/

 

Over the years, I've seen several ads for places that have a school for learning metal skills. If I remember right, Ron Covell is one of them. And there are others. You just need to search

 

The private schools are way overpriced for what they teach. There is an incredible amount of information on YouTube, do a search for metal shaping. Watch more than just one or two guys, some techniques work for some but not for others. Keep an open mind, ask 20 different guys how to do something and you will get 20 different answers and 18 of them will work. Grab some metal and have fun!

 

There is a shop here in Reno that does metal forming . He is a one man shop but does great work.
Vic

 

Having only had one experience with one of the private schools, I have to go along with coupeman36. My youngest son's best friend went to one of those private schools out west. His family put a second mortgage on their home to send him. His response after his one-year course was, "I learned more hanging out with in your shop after school than they taught me in a year". Mind you I'm no magician working with metal but like most of us, you keep trying until the look is what you want. I'll confess at 67 years old I find myself looking things up on the HAMB or You-Tube when I need help.
ras

 

Buy the Ron Fournier books, that is how I got started.

 

I have several helpful videos on VHS I'll loan you.

 

Doing it the self taught route is a slow process (very slow sometimes) unless you has unlimited access to equipment and a mentor. Once you acquire some skills then it's all practice......new skill, practice, new skill, practice....

 

For true metal shaping he would probably be better off working as an apprentice/helper/shop grunt in a top quality metal shaper's shop.

Still one isn't going get that far past the basics in metal shaping in a school that teaches a number of skills during the length of the class as you have X hours for metal shaping and X hours for paint and X hours for ________.

First though I would be watching videos such as Cornfield Customs has on you tube and be out in the garage working on some metal to see what I could do with it. https://www.youtube.com/@cornfieldcustoms
All of that equipment lets him do things far faster than the old school metal shaper with a stump and a shot bag and and English wheel but you still have to know the basics before you move on to the fancier stuff.

Thinking back I can remember that when I was just becoming a "real car guy" reading the car magazines off the Bookmobile or the ones I bought for a quarter at the store most customizing involved cutting a panel out of a donor car and welding it into the car you were working on. Remembering articles on filing your roof in your early car telling you to make gauges of the shape of your roof and take them to the wrecking yard to search for a roof with as close to that shape as you could find to cut your filler panel out of.
As for customizing outside of an article about welding up a framework out of steel rod bent to shape and shaping the sheet metal to fit the steel rods and welding it on to get the shape most customizing was cutting parts off a donor and welding them on your car.

 

How did the old guys get skills?
I guess it was just a natural progression from standard body work. Bump, shrink, file, repeat then lead if needed. And/or the general nature of car building. Not all cars were mass produced. There were several coach build companies around. From luxury and sports cars to competition cars. Add that to skills learned from the military and various trade schools. Fabricating aircraft panels uses the same skill set for cars. Body work was a natural progression from blacksmithing to carriage building then into body repair. Blacksmiths made suits of armor from banging metal. Metal shapes the same now as then.
I learned out of necessity growing up. Couldn’t buy new parts so I figured out how to fix the crap I had. Metal straightening and body panel fab have a lot skills that cross over.
The biggest help was working with some super skilled old body men.
Another help was working somewhere where straightening was appreciated. Most modern body shops hang more new sheet metal than they repair. It’s just part of the business.
Spent 14 years pounding out panels at a European car repair shop. Those owners didn’t mind paying to save the “originality” or the vin stickers that were everywhere on those cars.
How to learn today? Hmmmmmmm
We’ll, videos, internet, social media….. all hand to of good info. Social media sites that specialize in metal work.
Then start banging parts.

schools? Chances of one being nearby is slim. Collision classes don’t really cover it unless the instructor digs old cars and can incorporate it into the class. Jumping in on classes that often happen at various shops would probably help more. 1-5 day classes that focus on metal work.
I’d like to attend a few but most don’t happen near central bama.

https://www.allmetalshaping.com/
This place has some insane talented folks.
Stuff doesn’t move like it does here but there’s some great info to be found

 

If the guy wanting to learn is in Vegas Sosa Metalworks use to do workshops. One could contact Christian and see if he is still offering them.

https://www.sosametalworks.com/

 

Wyotech in Laramie, Wyoming would be a school worthy of consideration. They have been teaching for over 50 years and seem to be in a trade school/community college type of format with 4 (9 month) core programs that can be supplemented with one or more of 6 (3 month) specialty programs, all programs are automotive related.

Jessi Combs, for example, was a well known grad who took "Collision/Refinishing" as her core plus specialties of "Chassis Fabrication", "Street Rod & Custom Fabrication" and "Trim & Upholstery".

 

Back in the late 60s, when I entered 9th grade, we had a metal/wood shop we could take. There, at that time they taught the very basics of metal fabrication. We formed an ash tray out of a flat piece of metal over a wood buck with a hammer, got taught how to bend metal on a metal break and we were taught how to drill holes in metal and rivet the metal together. That was about the extent of metal shop for the 1st 1/2 of the year, the 2nd half was wood shop, that taught the basics of wood work.
In 10th grade we could take auto shop. The 1st 1/2 of the year was the very basics of auto shop, and you had to be able to put, plugs, points & condenser (all properly set), cap, rotor and plug wires in the proper order on a flathead 6 that was there, before you could even go into the shop. Then you did the plug, points & condenser into a lawn mower motor and make it run. The metal shop in high school was more about machining rather then forming.

I learned more about metal forming from the guys at the local dirt track in their home garage, then I did anywhere else.

Watch some videos and online stuff, go to a junk yard and get an old fender or hood, pick up some metal forming tools like a tape measure, a small square, a sharpie marker, tin snips, a ball peen hammer, a 4" vice, and a chunk 6" x 6" or bigger wood block (about 1'- 2' long). Then go into the garage, cut the old fender or hood into smaller pieces you can handle, and start banging on metal. I suggest you make a simple project like a 4" x 4" steel tray with 2" high sides. Make as many as you need to to get the hang of forming it, if you want to get fancy, pick up a drill, drill bits and a pop rivet setup and make the tray with the ends fastened.

 

yep, wyotech, the guy I hired went there.....

 

Just like to point out that in times past, us guys growing up, always had the need to get work,after school, and Summers. The jobs were basic, the pay laughable, but exposure to 'Metal bumping' was priceless.
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Like that old story,,, a tourist asks "How do you get to Carnegie Hall?
The answer given was "practice practice practice"

 

Big thing no one mentions. Getting the right mindset while practicing and/or learning. Remembering it's just steel. If you bend it wrong it can be bent back. If cut wrong it can be welded back together and cut again. Learned that mentality from a king of the hill episode where Bill teaches Luann how to cut hair lol

 

AND here also

 

I just started hitting metal with a hammer until it resembled the shape I wanted. The more pieces I have hit the better they resemble what I want.

 

Pat Brubaker teaches classes at his shop in Hastings, Nebraska. Pat is very good and the price for his workshops are very reasonable. You can learn the basics here and then you have to put in the time.

https://imperialwheelingmachines.com/collections/metal-shaping-classes

 

I think, as with a lot of manual/creative skills.

You have to diversify where you look for help to develop those skills, The world is a big place and there are only a very few folks shaping metal for vehicle bodies, let alone American products between 1929 and 1965!!!

 

Just so everyone knows, I know all I want or need to know about doing body work, I;m 70 and just had surgery on both hands and both elbow's, and still need both shoulders and neck done... and now my knees are going south...
I really need to quit working on shit.. but guess it's in my blood...don't know why I just don't pay people to do stuff.... guess it's cause every time I have to fix what they did or do it over... not many people have pride in what they do now days... they just want the money...

 

There are lots of people who have pride in their work the problem is people want to pay them what it would have cost 40 years ago to get the work done. You see it on here and other sites all the time guys whining about what trades want to charge to do work and calling them crooks because they can do the same work for the price of the parts. Well that's not how a business works. When everyone wants to pay bottom dollar you get bottom dollar results and the majority of people think bottom dollar prices are actually top dollar. Or they compare pricing to Billy Bob who works out of his garage for cash with no business license, no insurance, not paying taxes etc.