I was thinking about a car I worked on a while back. I built a hood and side panels out of 6061 T6. I thought it turned out fairly well but I wasn't quite happy with not being able to reproduce the tapered hood bead 33 34 cars had. Can it be done with a bead roller? Any other was short of actually die stamping it? Any one got some pics of how its done? BTW here is a pic of the car:
how far from central Il are you? It would be easier to do in a radius brake and then finished with square brake. Hard to explain but I'd be glad to show ya.
Well I'm quite aways down the road. But I'm pretty sure I know what your talking about. use a radius brake bend to form the peak of the bead and then use a regular brake to form the tight bend at the base. the only problem with doing it like that, is trying to form the pointed end of the bead. on a 33 34 the bead stops sort of the end of the panel.
yeah, slot the end, hammer closed, weld it up, file to perfection! Thats how I did the bottom 2 beads on this.
In one of Covell's shop tour videos, a guy built a 32 hood top in a fashion like Da Tinman Describes. A quick search and I can't find which video it is.
I've done it with a Pullmax. Think of a Pullmax being a stamping machine for this job. I made a lower open ended female die to form the bead that accepted screw on end formers to neatly form the end of the bead. After reaching the point where I wanted the bead to end, I attach either the left or right end former, depending on which direction I'm moving the piece through the dies, and after positioning the upper male die over the end former, let it make several strokes to neatly form the end while the work piece is held stationary. The upper male die has end forming shape to it but doesn't form ends until the female end formers are attached. The tooling isn't any work of art at all. Just welded up and ground to shape. The hood you made looks good. Is there a reason for not louvering it?
The idea was that the louvered hood increased drag. I don't know if it makes that much difference, but it was a good excuse to make an aluminum front end. There was one louver in the hood. we ran two different engines and the other was blown. So I made a little door that slid forward,so the hood scoop could stick out and the louver was the handle and stop for when it was closed. we got a record that year so maybe it worked. got any pictures of those dies you made?
I have building hoods for about 30 years. The way I do it is I roll half a bead ( the top half) and brake the bottom edge. That way I can roll it off the front edge with it curving down to finish the bead. I will try to get close-up pics later.
Hey man those hoods look killer. thats awesome! thats sorta what I had invisioned. Now when you say your rolling a half bead, do you mean your using a die similar to a step die but with a rolled edge?
Make a die the shape of the top of the body line and do it just like KrisKustomPaint says. Sorry for the crappy picture....
Photo shows forming surfaces of the male die on left and female with end forming attachment on the right. I use the male in the upper position pushing down to form the bead so I can see results as the work piece is moved through the dies. In my earlier post I mistakenly said that I can attach the end forming piece to either end of the female die. In use I must have just reversed the die instead, which works fine but it would be easier to have end forming attachment for both ends of the female die. Crude they are. I used half of a nut for the attachment. Too either side of the male die you can see spot welded pads that I added to make shallower beads with the same tooling. Hardening is only required for production runs.
I've got to say carbrilethiboy's hoods look as good as any I've ever seen I'd like to know more about the specifics of how he does his hoods. the beads look just like a factory hood.
From what I have read, 6061 t6 is not the best choice for body work. It is very tough stuff, and it may crack at hard bend lines. Used mostly for structural components. I've played with it a little bit and it does not react to stretching and shrinking the same as other softer alloys. John www.ghiaspecialties.com
Oh its a pain in the ass, that much is sure. I wasn't callin the shots. I was told heres some aluminum make a hood. "Can we get some 3003, It will be a lot easier?" "nope."
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