So I have been wondering, would it be worth it to take Aluminum and form it over a fiberglass body? I know that aluminum is a pain to work with and I would not expect to make money from it but 1 body and some forms and then sell the fiber glass one off? The forms would be so if I ever got in an accident then I could repair the metal or just make new metal. So what do you think? P.S. The body is a speedway track t body and I have looked for origional, but it would be WAY out of my price range. So here are the Questions and please answer so I can understand. Thank you and have an awesome day or night! What metal (if not aluminum) would you use? Is it worth it? Would it be kinda cheap, I mean I know how much metal costs but I do not know about the forms? Again thank you and have a good one!
Okay, what? How about 2 sentences because you are going for 2 different ideas or work them to be together. I am not trying to be an asshole even though I am coming off as one I just really want to think about this and I would like good resoning on it. Plus I forgot a question, how would you go about doing this?
I think it would be worth it. I personally love working with aluminum as opposed to steel, it moves faster. You just have work hardening to work around. You'll have to make a "skeleton" for the body, use whatever you want for that, I've seen everything from 1x1 steel tube, to moderate gauge sheet broke to a 90 and shrink/stretched to contour, all have been successful. As for the skin, my choice would be .063" 3003 H14 aluminum. You can get that at almost every metal supply store locally. If you don't go with aluminum go with 20g 1020 steel (if the metal shop doesn't know what you mean, which they almost always do, just say you need a sheet of 20g cold rolled steel) AK or SK would be nice for areas with a lot of shape, but its not necessary. I have a lot about hand forming an aluminum body for my next build as opposed to going the traditional route. Good original iron is expensive, and my current project I'm in the process of remaking all the sheet metal below the windows-don't want to go that route again. Keep us updated, could turn out really cool!
Do you have any metal working experience? Forming a body is very involved, but with no roof you can cheat and go with no doors-which I reccomend, thats the hardest part. Some tools/equipment you are going to need/have access to: English wheel, shot bag, assortment of forming hammers, hammer and dolly assortment, bead roller, shrinker stretcher, welding equipment (I was taught to oxy weld aluminum body panels together-yeilds a much more flexible weld that works out very easily, but is very very hard to do. I still TIG weld the panels when doing the work, and practice the oxy welding, hard to develop that skill to the point where you don't screw stuff up), and a torch set. You will need to anneal the panels as you work them. A planishing hammer and a pullmax would REALLY be helpful as well, but not necessary.
Hammering aluminum over a glass body would not get you what you are after, unles you like ichiness and a pile of glass. If T's are too pricy you might want to reconsider as they are still one of the cheapest Henry Ford bodies out there to start with.
After reading what Tman said-are you using the body as a referenc or trying to use it as a hammer form? Like he said, its not a hammer form, and will not work as one. As a reference it'll work fine though, obviously, haha
Yes, this I know. Don't read the following story unless you have a sense of humor and you don't really mind that I can only work on cars in the one way which is described lower. The funny thing is (and this is sad for me) that every time I am with my friends from school, I get to work on their tuners and they love BONDO, FIBERGLASS, and HIGH MPG. Most of the hot rodders don't care for BONDO, FIBERGLASS and in a trade off for power to mpg, most hot rodders say "POWER!!" The reason I bring this up is because when one of my friends got some aluminum to copy his body kit, I know it is a dirty word here but I do have a point, he tried to hammer it over the fiber. HAHAHA!! That shows you how little they know about metal.
go to allmetalshaping.com, register. someone is in the process of doing exactly that to a 550 spyder porche
Your kinda talking about my dream here. If I can ever find a good deal on a fiberglass coupe I want to do the same thing. My plan was to use the fiberglass car to take flexible shape patterns and contour gauges off of. For the hard panels to shape one's that would be easier to form with a hammer form I would take bodo bucks off of those areas. Then when you were done with the body you could sell the body. I would use 19g cold rolled sheet metal.
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