I have a lot of irons in the fire, so to speak, but my major love is my 1932 Ford racer. If you're not familiar with this project, it's a 32 Ford with a home-made body, that's trying hard to look 1930's exotic. I finally got the body buck built (a while ago), and found a sensible way to anneal the aluminum sheet that makes up the body itself. After a LOT of hammering and fitting, I have a fraction of the rear boattail done. I have to say that building bodywork from scratch isn't as easy as it may sound... --Matt
Matt...I really like boat tails!! What is the rest of the body going to be like? Stock looking frontend with the boat tail on the back? Fendered or fenderless? Clark
Rails, Got to give you some encouragement. This is the Don Lee Special, took the photo at the Road Agents meet on Saturday.
Thanks for the kind words, guys. Clark, the car will be either fenderless or have small cycle fenders. The hood will be longer than stock. Bruce Lancaster and I discussed this a long time ago at Carlisle. He recommended that I retain the stock firewall because it's a structural piece. So I decided to extend the hood rearward past the firewall, with a supporting cowl under the hood, and a small cowl that's visible with the hood closed. (By the way, the angles involved mean that the rear would get faily wide at the rear if I don't widen the grille shell...) Here's my photoshop rendering:
Finally... Simon, there is indeed a flathead in it. Unfortunately, the Ardun heads are the plastic fakes that I got from eBay. I primered them with Fusion paint and coated them with Alumablast. They'll be decent as wall art. And thanks, Unkl. I will post this on the Metalshapers site. --Matt
so,tell us how you got those big sheets annealed, at the header coating place? us nosey *******s wanna' know! thanks
"harder than it looks"?! I don't know about anyone else, but to me it looks damn hard right off the hop. It also looks like you're doing a great job, keep going, and keep us posted.
[ QUOTE ] Unfortunately, the Ardun heads are the plastic fakes that I got from eBay. I primered them with Fusion paint and coated them with Alumablast. They'll be decent as wall art. [/ QUOTE ] What are Fusion paint and Alumablast? Wayno
Chuck, I took the sheets to a heat treating facility and they did a bunch of them in between real, paying, military contract work. Thanks a lot, Big A. Wayno, Fusion is a rattle can primer sold by Krylon that's intended for plastic. Alumablast is a silver spray paint that has a high aluminum content.
Gotta love boat tail speedsters! I have always wanted to build a Model A boat tail... ever since seeing them at Model A "roundups" as a kid. DuecheRails, I'm sure you already have... but if you haven't, check out the Great Race's web site. There were wuite a few boat tail's with '32 frames that roared through Pleasanton a few weeks ago. Real neat stuff. Sam.
A local guy builds these Modal A speedsters - never met him though. Yours looks right - and if you've been brainstorming with Bruce L. I'm sure you've ended up with tons of cool ideas. Good luck and keep us posted.
If you are using commercial grade aluminium, you can anneal it by using your oxy welder with out oxy turned on to leave a black film on the alli. Once you have covered the panel in black, set your flame with the oxy to a blue flame, carefully burn the black off without over heating the metal and it will be like working with rubber, you will then need to heat treat the metal back to it,s og properties. Practise on a bit of s**** first.
[ QUOTE ] Wow, what a project. That will defintely be worth all the work in the end. [/ QUOTE ] Lord, I hope so!
It is def harder then it sounds!.. Stick with it, and make sure u keep us updated with the pics.. It will be worth it. Best of Luck
Is Joey E. the axle dropping guy with the blue modified?...it isn't him. I forgot this guy's name - but KCTAchris knows him so you might contact him if you want info.
Cool work! Patience is the key with that much metalwork. [ QUOTE ] If you are using commercial grade aluminium, you can anneal it by using your oxy welder with out oxy turned on to leave a black film on the alli. Once you have covered the panel in black, set your flame with the oxy to a blue flame, carefully burn the black off without over heating the metal and it will be like working with rubber, you will then need to heat treat the metal back to it,s og properties. Practise on a bit of s**** first. [/ QUOTE ] Didn't know this. Exactly why this place is so great!
Annealing this big of a sheet is more difficult than Mule makes it sound. I can use that method with no problem on smaller sheets of aluminum, but for a piece as big as I'm using, I just can't keep the heat consistant. For what it's worth, here's the expert explanation of how the soot method works: http://www.metalshapers.org/tips/covell/annealing.shtml So far, my sheetmetal is fitting within 3/8" of the buck. I want to get it to 1/4". That extra eighth is killing me! Here's my rear-end view, rendered in PhotoShop. Imagine it with cycle fenders. --Matt
[ QUOTE ] Annealing this big of a sheet is more difficult than Mule makes it sound. I can use that method with no problem on smaller sheets of aluminum, but for a piece as big as I'm using, I just can't keep the heat consistant. For what it's worth, here's the expert explanation of how the soot method works: http://www.metalshapers.org/tips/covell/annealing.shtml So far, my sheetmetal is fitting within 3/8" of the buck. I want to get it to 1/4". That extra eighth is killing me! Here's my rear-end view, rendered in PhotoShop. Imagine it with cycle fenders. --Matt [/ QUOTE ] Looks spooky.
The Jalopy Journal
