Projects Giant speedster project

Fender

After I got the transmission painted and buttoned up I started fooling around with the fender idea. I cut a strip, gave a slight bend then put it in the shrinker and curved it. Then I cut two strips and tacked them to the sides of the strip. It looked interesting so I ran it through the English wheel to put a little English on it. (bad joke) It was an interesting experiment and it got me thinking whether I could do the same thing without the center strip. Next time I'm going to try to make one using just the English wheel.

Jerry

 

Fender II

Here's the final pics.

Jerry

 

Looks cool...Make them three piece like that out of aluminum and rivet them together!

 

Here are some fenders along the lines of what you're doing: 1925 Bugatti Brescia.

 

From the rear...

 

3 pc with copper / brass center alum riveted sides
.. go man go

 

That would look good--especially with a brass fin in the middle. Built in running light?

Jerry

 

Cool project. Can't wait to see the finished object.

 

Jerry,

Rivets X2

 

Wheels

Too hot to do much. I got the tires of the rims and brought them over to my shop for painting. School starts back on Wednesday. Yay! Maybe I can make a little more progress.

Jerry

 

Wheels

Today I bead blasted a bunch of wheel parts then I painted the non showing part of the rims. Boring but necessary. While it was drying I started playing with fender metal.

Jerry

 

Fenders

I started out using the English wheel to try and make a compound curve like I need in a fender. Progress was slow so I turned to an old planishing hammer (WWII) I bought years ago. I thought I'd play around and see what I could do with it. I discovered that it's certainly possible to make a compound curve. If you're not careful you can make a helluva dent in your work. Then you've got to run it through the English wheel to smooth it out. So I guess I need to decide exactly what kind of fender I want then work toward building it.

Jerry

 

Jerry,

For what it's worth, I think your' first fenders are cooler. You could also put the center piece on top, like the mount on this Bentley.



Use rivets instead of welds, and the cool factor will approach 0 Kelvin.

Don

 

More wheel paint--plus

A little more wheel painting today. Tomorrow, I flip them over and decide whether to paint them red as they are--which is rough (that's stock), or spend two days bondoing and sanding to make them smooth.

I also spent some time on my experimental fenders putting on a point and bending the lip down. Whadya think?

Jerry

 

Those fenders are nice. They are flat and pointy enough too complement your (I mean the Speedster's) angular and pointy body, while still being round enough to look like fenders.

Keep the wheels rough. You can always smooth them out. They are only original once.

 

Plym49 is dead on! X2

 

What they said.

 

Fender version 1.5

Ha! You thought I ran off on another cruise. I'll be paying this one off for the next 3 years. Actually, I've been experimenting with a bead roller I've had for about ten years. What did I find out? I don't have the time to develop the skill to make what I want. And what I want is a wired edge. So, I've developed my own way. Well really I stole the idea from someone else. But never mind that. I cut a piece of 1/8 steel into the curve I want then I beat the edge over with a hammer. It comes out perfect. I still haven't figured out exactly how much excess material to leave, that will come later. Then I take away the 1/8 flat, lay in the wire and beat some more.

Jerry

 

Fender version 1.6

Now I have a piece of sheet metal with a wired edge on both sides. Next I run it through the planishing hammer until it has a nice curve. I like it! What you see is a smaller version of the real thing. The next trick will be making a making the big curve where it swoops down to the running board. If that turns out okay everything is go.

Jerry

 

You can figure how much material to leave by using a little trigonometry (or geometry and a ruler if your trig is rusty).

The amount you need to create a fully closed wired edge is the length of 270° on the OD of the wire, plus the radius of the wire.

Example:

Wrapping an edge using wire that is 1/8" OD.

Pi * OD = Circumference (or the length of the edge of the circle for a complete 360°).

We want to know the length of the edge for 270° of that circle, so we take the number we know (the whole circumference) and multiply it by the ratio between what we want and what we have: (what we want) 270/360 (what we have) = 0.75

So, for our 1/8" OD wire, we need to add:

[(pi) 3.14159 * 0.125" * 0.75] + 0.0625" (wire radius) = 0.357" (or just over 11/32" or just under 3/8").

Mark you panel where you want the wire to lay (where the bottom edge will touch and the curve up and around will start), then add your 3/8", and it'll wrap around and close just fine.

If it's not clear from words alone, let me know and I'll bang up a quick drawing to illustrate what I'm talking about.

 

Lets see. The circ of circ is piD. So using 3/16 wire that's .1875 X 3.14 X.75 (3/4 around) Why do you add in the wire radius?

Jerry

 

Jerry,

Found this video, in part 2 he roles the edge.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOIcDYlT2mo

 

That video is really cool! I want that Lagonda! I don't have that kind of skill. He's working with aluminum too. I am making a sand bag like that. Lazze has some good videos too.

Jerry

 

To make up the distance from the 3/4 point back down to the panel again.

You're starting at 6 o'clock, winding the sheet metal around the wire up past three to twelve and then over to nine o'clock, but you're still not back against the flat part of the panel yet (fully closed).

The distance to get from 9 o'clock straight vertically back down to the flat of the panel is the radius of the wire.

 

this is amazing. Thanks for keeping us updated.

 

Fenders version 1.7

I was pretty confident I could make a fender top but I needed to know whether I could make the curve that runs down behind the tire. I bent up and wire edged a curved piece of flat metal then ran it through the planishing hammer. It was pretty hard to work back and forth so I thought maybe a little wax would ease things up. I found out a long time ago that the best wax for driving in screws and other shop stuff is toilet ring wax. It's soft and gooey and really makes things slide. I rubbed on a little and found working the metal back and forth was effortless. Cool! My next plan is to make up a jig the shape of the fender that will hold the sheet metal and also the wire in place. Then not only will I be able to beat the edge over and have a clean straight line but also each fender will exactly uniform. I know I should be preparing the body for paint but this fender stuff is fun.

Jerry

 

6 hrs! Thats what it took me to get here. Jerry, you sir are a true mechanic and damned if I havn't learned a handful or make that a couple handfuls of useful tricks and techniques( love the washer trick). I have to say that now I have this weird, aching desire to a acquire a truck engine and frame and build something large, old, and with a boat tail! Thanks for all the hard work and dedication you have shown us with your pictures and text. IMHO I am still new to the hamb but i'm thinkin this might be one of the most epic threads ever. Can't wait to see more. Thanks. LB

 

Bodywork

Doesn't it drive you crazy how I jump around? The way I work is, I start a project, let's say the body. When that reaches a snag, I jump onto something else, say the fenders. While I working on the fenders, my mind is unconsciously mulling my body problem. So now, while I'm work on the body, my mind is contemplating how to build the fender jig. Besides, I was waiting for someone to come over to my shop and help me get the body set up on some saw horses. First thing I did was grind down all the exposed welds. That took most of the day. Tomorrow, I'll begin ponging around on some dents. The batteries in my camera went dead so I have no pictures--tomorrow.

Jerry

 

Jerry, your work bench looks exactly like mine! I like the way you're going with the fenders. Hell, I like the whole car!

Brian

 

Hey, I cleaned it up for the pictures!