Projects A Michigan Model A build

Haven’t had a lot of progress on my coupe in the last couple weeks. My 3yo daughter on the other hand has switched from saying “daddy’s hotrod” to “our hotrod”. But with the school year winding down work has been very busy. We do go karts the last day for seniors. Every year I make modifications to make the our karts a little less high maintenance. Last year I installed cross steer steering linkages to wear tires less. This year I’m fabbing and installing chain tensioners so I won’t have to do chain adjustments anymore. Unfortunately I’ve been off for a couple days with a nasty sinus infection. I was going a little stir crazy so I masked up and ran up north to pick up a few vintage Mallory Distributors .

 

How did you break the profile hammer? Just asking because I just cut one out and I might be better off cutting it out of 3/8ths to begin with. Also did you make the dies to make the body lines on the front of the cowl? Would like to see some pictures of them if you could.

 

The profile hammer frame itself is fine in 1/4”. The driven arm seems to be the problem. I’ve made it in 1/4 and 3/8” both struggle. It keeps cracking an 1/8” below the weld. I messaged Carl Fischer on instagram asking if he had had any issues. He said “I’ve been able to keep together a quarter inch upper holder but you definitely have to gouge the corners out and really weld it”. I suspect the 16 gauge is pretty brutal. I think I may eventually mill an arm from tool steel. I made my front cowl in 4 stages. I started tipping the front lip with tipping pliers. Don’t use a metal brake, it’s not a straight line. Ask me how I know. I then did the narrow bead, followed by the joggle, then the joggle with the bead. I will post some pictures tomorrow of the dies.

 

Nice thanks

 

These are the profile does I used and abused to make my front cowl. It took several attempts to make one that I was happy with.