Let's see some sheet metal shaping

My Forming is a little more primitive,
Just a vise, pipe, and ball peen hammers in my little suburban garage.
Its not fancy but, works .

 

Had a visitor in the shop yesterday, collaborating with Cody Walls of Traditional Metalcraft (Milton, DE) on adding some louvers to an Austin Healey project he has in his shop. We got the bonnet done yesterday, and I had to modify my radius fixture for the boot as it had too much crown to simply louver while flat. So that is yet to come.



Time lapse:







Modifying our radius fixture for louvering the boot:



Here's pictures of the project car in Cody's shop for reference. Photo credit Traditional Metalcraft. Follow the progress on his build @eastcoastchanneljob on IG or Traditional Metalcraft on FB. This car is sporting a Honda S2000 drivetrain, should be a handful..

 

Cool I didn't know you were English.

 

That's what I was told those parts were..

 

So yeah, we work on just about everything. From drum signs to milk cans to....... While Vince is milking the media blast job..





Another of the lids had been used and abused with a hammer over it's life, the center was concaved inward, the outer rim had several flat spots. So while Vince was busy, I came up with a dent removal tool to help straighten out the next lid.







The half hitch ball was used as a punch straight down into the lid to add a consistent shape back to the outer ring. Some hammer and dolly work straightened the center concave, giving it a slight crown. A deep dent was heated to make it more pliable, the punch pushed to the bottom and used as fulcrum to push the dent outward (heated spot)



Then our "punch" was clamped in the vise to use as a post dolly. The lid was positioned where any low spots were placed against the "dolly" and hammering around the perimeter of the dent raised it outwards..





Some fine tuning left, but this is much better than where we started:




.

 

Anyone else see a problem here ?

 

That's for only adding shape to the metal in one direction instead of 2.
Sorta like when you use a rubber band around the top wheel..
No? Ok...

 

Compound curves

 

That's so you can get four guys working a panel.

 

Anyone for curly fries?

 

Cody set the hood (bonnet) on the Austin Healey to get a look see on the louvers....



…..and this past Tuesday he came back to the shop so we could finish up the louvers in the trunk lid (boot). I must say this was the most involved and challenging louver job we have done so far. The trunk lid has a lot of crown, and with a 6” rise in the center, we needed to use the rotation fixture ala Mini Cooper wheel hub. We added to this a hinge mechanism to allow rotation up and down. The limits of the machine's throat height and high crown also meant we'd have to punch half the louvers from back end first, then rotate the lid and tooling and approach the rest from the front end. Now given the extreme flex/twist that the .050 aluminum is prone to, we needed to make sure the cut pattern would be parallel to the last set at the point we rotated from front to back. This required some "gusset" straps clamped in place to limit the twist.



Before this was added, any twist of the panel would change the outer limits of the cut +/- 1/4". Here's the wheel hub arrangement along with the hinges for up and down adjustment. We needed adjustments along 3 different axis to be able keep all the louvers running true and parallel.





….and we're off....



At this point we were 4 hours in to measuring, clamping, test run (drag the cutter against the panel to scribe the location), rotate 180 front to back, and test the pattern again, just to get to where we could start cutting. …..and another 4 hours to go before we finished. All told, with the time Vince and I spent Saturday working out clamping methods and other details, the layout was approx 4 times that of what it took to do the actual cutting.







….and the time lapse video of the process..







Yesterday Cody sent me pictures of the trunk lid installed.. These louvers really change the attitude of the car... Badass....

 

Very cool to see Robert & Cody team up on a project!

 

...............Couple of incredible talents right there for sure.

 

A few projects I have been working on

 

^^^^^^^^^^^That is great looking stuff! I've always wondered what equipment was in a Custom Body Shop in the 1920's & 1930's That Duesenberg or Rolls Royce arrived, and a few months later drove our as a work of art. Bob

 

Just curious on the Tudor... why are you making your panel joints in the middle of the body reveal, rather than below it? Seems to me it would be easier if you didn't have to make half the reveal.

 

Probably less warpage and easier to blend in. Just my 2ct. worth

 

^^^x2

 

I would say it would be much easier to hammer and dolly that out as it keeps the warpage in a smaller contained area. I am no expert so that would be my opinion only

 

The bead helps keep the warping to a minimum, I have Dollies ground to fit in the body line to hammer the weld out. If you welded it below the belt line the heat would effect the larger low crown area much more and be harder to get back out.

putting the half body line in takes no time at all. Total time with setting machine up, running test pieces and putting body line in panel is less than 15 mins

 

It that a Pullmax or bead roller job? Often wonder what it would be like spending 8 hours in a fab shop like yours. Bob

 

I use a lennox which is similar to a pullmax

 

Here are a few other examples of when I splice the new panel into the center of a bead line and the results. Sorry they are not in order or grouped I am uploading from my phone

 

Amazing what can be done with skill and the right tools.

 

Thanks for the info, and yes, replicating those beads with hand tools can be an almost impossible task.

 

Cutting the hinge slots is that an in house secret? Nicely done. Bob

 

the hinge slots are pretty low tech. I mark the , drill a hole at each end, cut out the center with a cut off wheel, then use a file to clean up and square up the corners.

made some progress on the vintage holder tractor nose/ hood today



Still have some more fine tuning to do but it’s getting there

 

Really nice work, first reaction Hercules stationary engine, I was close. Bob

 

the hinge slots are pretty low tech. I mark the , drill a hole at each end, cut out the center with a cut off wheel, then use a file to clean up and square up the corners.

That is the way I do it, as well. Of course, not many people know how to properly use a file.