Tech Week: How to make 33 Dodge Panels part1

I started on another project for a customer last week and there seems to be some interest in me posting a thread on this build. It maybe a little boring if you have follow my build threads before as I have a system of steps I go through with these builds that work for me, and I can build the panels for a reasonable cost? This was a panel that I haven't done before so patterns needed to be made and that was the first step. I lay masking paper on the panel and hold it down with magnets and run a pencil around the edge and mark all the detail and folds. I also crease the paper on the curves where it will need shrinking.

Then I lay it out on cold rolled 1mm sheet steel and use a scribe to mark out the panel and make a left and right with the same pattern as a mirror image.


There is a slight crown in the side of the quarter panels so I run them through the E wheel a couple of times with a fairly flat lower anvil. I bought 2” wide Hoosier anvils earlier in the year, and they are beautifully made but working on my own I have found it harder to support the panels and sometimes get ceases in the tracking on large panels. So I’m going to refit the old wheels soon and try to use a spacer for the narrower wheels.

I used a set of 34 Ford beltline beading dies for the beltline on the Dodge.

I cut the panel 25mm up from the beltline and use this as a guide.

I run the main part of the bead in the electric bead roller.
That will do for the first instalment.

 

This is the setup for the bead roller to continue the beltline and bead around wheel arch.

Just follow the lines marked from the template with a bit of pressure on panel to curve the metal around the die to form the bead.


I tipped the flange for the wheel arch with a skateboard wheel and a tipping die with a small radius for a softer edge.

And knocked it over the rest of the way with a hammer and dollie.

I used a bit of heat to shrink the flange around the bottom corner.

And that is where the panels are at this stage.

 

I have just finished the quarter panels, and have some time to write something about the build. The top section of the panel was set out from a paper template with a 1” flange going into the deck lid opening, this was folded in the panbrake and shrunk to the curve of the deck lid in the Lancaster shrinker.

The other edge was shrunk in the Pullmax with thumbnail dies and the edge neatened up on the Lancaster shrinker, I forgot to take a photo but it was then smoothed out on the English wheel.

The B pillar has a step into the door frame, so once it was shrunk into the right profile at the B pillar I tipped it in the bead roller with a tipping die and a skateboard wheel and cleaned it up with a hammer and dolly.

I made a small filler piece for the beltline as this made it easier to get the shape right at the beltline.

 

The bead around the top of the quarter where it meets the roof was made in the same manner. I first made a paper pattern held down with magnets, and marked it out on some 1mm cold rolled steel.


I used this bead roller set to form the bead.

I run the piece through the bead roller several times to get the right shape, putting downward pressure on the piece to form the curve at the same time.

I used a tipping die with a skateboard wheel to stretch the bottom corner into a tight fold around the curved panel.

Some hammer and dolly work finished it off ready to weld in.

All the pieces were scribed and trimmed to fit and TIG welded in. A bit of sanding and flipper and dolly work and they were done.

 

I started on the boot lid this week, and the customer wanted it as light as possible so I added some extra holes. This is the panel marked out and the holes punched out.

Next I rolled the panel in the slip roller.

And then I rolled the stiffening beads.

I used a radius die in the panbrake to fold the top and bottom edge.

 

Next I tipped the curved edges with a radius die and a skateboard wheel.


Then knock it over to 90degrees with a hammer and dolley and some stretching in the shrinker/stretcher.
The corners are rounded, so I trimmed them and welded them next.


I also tidied up the ends of the stiffening beads with a tool I made from a piece of pipe.

Next I folded strips of metal into angle and made the curved profile in the shrinker.

And here is the panel all tacked together ready for welding.

 

I finished all the dodge panels yesterday, so I thought I would finish the build on here too. So I had made the crown in the panel on the English wheel, and folded the top and bottom edges on the panbrake.

I saw this on a Covell DVD but had mixed results, should have just tipped the edge and shrunk it to the curve of the panel.

I think this would be a good way to do this if I had used a harder material and made a full buck of the boot lid.

Here’s the boot skin welded to the inner frame.

The upper deck panel was a simple panel, which just had some shape wheeled in (just a few passes with a low crown anvil) folded one edge and tipped the curved edge.

The second deck panel had a bead rolled in and then spot welded to the other panel.

 

The tail pan had more detail so I made a paper pattern.

I had to put some shape in the panel with the E wheel in a few passes with a low crown anvil.


Next I used the bead roller to put the swage line in.

I tipped the bottom edge with a ½” bead roller as the top wheel and a skateboard wheel on the bottom to form a radius.

I used the frame that the original panels came on to assemble the new back and to check the boot gaps. I TIG welded the panels together and made all the radius corners.

This is the final product.

 

Sorry about that Ryan, I wasn't sure were to post this how to thread.
Cheers Steve.

 

Amazing talent Steve, thanks for posting this.

 

Damn, you are good!

 

Great tech,

 

Thanks Guy's, I only saw the tech week thread yesterday. I have been meaning to post in the comp for a why'll.(I keep missing it)
Cheers Steve.

 

Very talented metal man you make this look so easy. I want to learn more. I need to make these lower areas on mu 31 Ply. coupe. second pic. shows what I have. Hard to make a pattern form my car.

 

great work! thanks for all the pictures!

 

Thanks Guy's,
Moparfinman You can use the same steps to make a patch to weld in. All the 30's cars have the same look which can be replicated with this technique using a paper pattern, most of the detail looks to be there.
Cheers Steve.

 

Great thread. I wish I had your talent.

 

Very nice. Skillfully executed. What kind of time frame did it take, start to finish?

Andy from STL

 

i sometimes thimk i'm pretty good at what i do--then a thread like this comes along and reminds me i am but a mere mortal.

 

I have a 33 plymouth convert I'm building now,so I am very familiar with that rear metal and all I can say is WOW. I just had to replace the inner rear wheel wells and where the top goes but I had something to work with. You just jump right in and make a car out of nothing...amazing.

 

Thanks Guy's,
It took about 80 hours and 3 sheets of cold rolled steel.
Cheers Steve.

 

I'm sitting slack jawed staring at your excellence!

 

Outstanding work. One day maybe I will be able to come close to that. Practice. Practice. Practice.

 

Thanks Strait edge, Rockable,Yep that's 30 years of practice, practice,practice.

 

Wow!

 

I have seen(I think?) some of your work on the Oz Rodders forum and was just as suitably impressed as I am with this!!

 

Thanks Cactus1, Kool Kemp,
I do post alot of my work on the Oz Rodder website.Here's the Merc build http://www.ozrodders.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=40062&start=0

Cheers Steve.

 

Steve, did you have a site @ Toowoomba Swap last month?

 

Great post!!

 

Wow! This is what I call doing it from scratch!