TECH: Hammer forming making a form and patch panel!

This is a VERY simple tech thread for basic metal working. You do need to have access to some intermediate woodworking tools, or know someone who does to make the form or buck as i call it. this is my first "tech" thread, so keep that in mind and forgive me if i ramble or take too much time explaining something

Dialup guys, all the images are small, "clickable" ones to keep you from loosing your mind waiting for huge *** photobucket downloads . . . Who loves youse more than Fiddy i asks ya?

lets say yur quarter panel looks something like this. nasty. then lets say that the only place you kin find patch panels is kinda pricey and you are a cheap bastige like me... you'd do what i do! make your own.



Start by getting a large piece of tagboard or fiberboard, some call it posterboard...whatever. cut it well oversize of the area you need to form with sheet metal, in this case, the rear wheel opening on the '54. now tape the paperboard over the wheel opening and make sure its on there real good. now grab your favorite marking device, pen, pencil, magic marker, sharpie, hell bit your finger and use blood, just make sure you dont need a ton of pressure to make a good sharp line on the paper. take a small piece of wood, cardboard, steel whatever, and use it as a backer on the outside of the paperboard, then reach inside with your marker and trace the contour of the opening onto the paper. make sure you take your time with this step cause the buck will only be as good as the template you make.



Now that you have your template cut out, make sure you flip the thing over to the side that was not marked when you traced the wheel opening. this gets things correct when you make the bucks so that your part fits the right side of the car when you form it...



now you need three pieces of 3/4" plywood or as i used, MDF from the local gnome cheapo or lumber yard. i had a few s****s from shop fixtures laying around so i used that. for smaller bucks like this one, your local cabinet shop would probly let you pick through their s**** bin for the pieces you need. cut all three pieces exactly the same size so that stacking them as the form buck later is easier as well as making the shape the same as you make the forms themselves. Trace the template onto one piece of plywood and cut the shape out with either a bandsaw, jigsaw, or like i used a scrollsaw. cut the first one VERY close to the marked line from the template, but do NOT cut the line off. after you have the piece cut, use a patern makers file, rasp, sandpaper or belt sander to remove the last itty bitty waste material down to the marked line from the template. this piece is your "master" form buck that the other two will be made from. in the next two pics, you can see how close to cut the first one, and how far to cut the rest of the bucks.





once you have the last two pieces rough cut, its now time to head over to the router table and get them all exactly the same. if you do NOT have access to a router or a router table, simply cut all three pieces VERY close to the line as you did the "master" clamp them together and sand them to final shape all at once, but the routertable method is WAY easier and gets better results. here you can see where the rough cut piece is close to the final shape of the master.



i use two sided carpet tape to mate the master to a rough cut buck, being very carefull to NOT overlap the pieces of tape on the bucks, this will make for an uneven cut on the router table or even if you are hand working the final shape. then i simply mate the two pieces together carefully aligning the two and then i use a clamp to make sure that the tape has adhered to bot pieces very well... this is a safety thing on a router table.







Now its off to the router table. as i say, you CAN do this freehand with a router, but routers get a 10 of 10 on my sphincter pucker meter so i like mine stable. you need a 1/2" bottom bearing patern bit (top bearing also works, but they stick out WAY to far for my taste. ) raise the bit so that the carbide cutter JUST clears the piece on the bottom that needs to be trimmed to shape.



lock the vertical travel on the router and turn it on. when working with a router in a table, always work your piece as if you were reading... left to right. if you try to work the material right to left, your piece WILL end up going through the opposite wall and more than likely taking a few of your fingers along for the ride. (dont ask me how i know this information ) this pic shows which direction i mean.



now that the master and second buck are exactly the same, before you take them appart draw a "witness line" down the face of the bucks,,, this makes ***embly MUCH easier.



once you have all three pieces of plywood trimmed the same, take two of them, and glue and screw them together. this makes the base of the buck form.



Thats IT!!! a complete buck to be used to hammer form your patch panel. total time it took to make, including taking pics and all was less than two hours. cheap, simple and effective. like i say, this is VERY basic tech, cause if i can figure this out, anyone can!
next thread is the actual hammer forming of the patch panel.

 

I knew it! Your a wood worker in disguse!!

Nice work.

 

A**** other things, how do those skirts fit?

Show us the patch you made!

 

Yea, i like to work the wood on occasion... keeps me form being greasy all the time. not that its a bad thing. LOL

Thanks Brett

 

skirts fit SCHWEET meng, and muchas gracias once again for them actually, i used the p***enger side skirt to check the radius of the template before i cut it out because the wheel opening is so ******ed up on the back section. i figger if its real close to the radius of the skirt with the gasket on, it;ll be good enough that no one will notice if its a little off

patch pics are forthcomming as soon as i write the next post

 

Nice job! Looking forward to your next post. One thing though, I would call that a hammer form, not a buck. A buck is usually a three dimensional form with stations (ribs) that are 90 degrees to the base...kind of like a skeleton looking thing...sorry to pick nits.

John www.ghiaspecialties.com

 

Thanks John, thats high praise from you my friend!

i kinda figured i had some of the names of things wrong, and in the future i'll call it what it is, a hammer form. but seein as how i already wrote the followup post, i'll leave it alone cause im lazy about typing

T

 

OK... here is the reason you went through all the fuss of building a hammer form buck... hammer forming time!!!

this is the second of two part tech post... the first post concerned making a patern, or buck with which to form a patch panel for the rear of a quarterpanel wheel opening.

its time to make the donuts!

Cut your piece of sheet steel the size you made your patch buck for. then, clamp the steel and the two halves of the form together and measure 1" out from the edge of the wood. i used a drafting comp***, but anything will do so long as your line is readable and accurate 1" from the edge of the buck. take your time and cut the piece along the line, and grind the edge smooth.







Now, clamp the buck and steel together on a bench or sturdy table. make sure you clamp the buck tightly! you are going to be hitting the metal 100's of times, and it needs to be secure in the buck or your patch will not fit correctly. take it slow and tap lightly, but firm. dont try to stretch the corners too fast, but dont hit it like a limp wrist either. "Walk" your hammer blows across the metal from one side to the other, taking a few extra blows where the steel needs to stretch for the corners. like i say, this takes literally hundreds of blows to accomplish, and if you had to do this every day, you'd look like popeye. i'll let the pics of the actual bending/stretching process speak for themselves.







Note here in the next two pics, that the stretch is taking shape nicely. slowly stretch the bottom or inside of the arc, and then little by little move your hammer blows up toward the buck itself... many many small blows!





Now that the heavy hammerwork is finished, you can take the rough patch out of the buck. its more than likely going to need some planishing, smoothing and light grinding to get the inside "lip" to look nice, but hell it IS going on the inside/underside of the wheel opening, so its not that critical.
here is the finished patch panel, and a rough "test fit" on the car. Enjoy!!!

 

Wow Fiddy, looks great. Nice tech and glad you got to make some noise this morning.

 

Good post.

I just wanted to add that MDF (Medium density fiberboard) is great for hammerforms, it shapes easy and is hard as a rock.

Also, sometimes it's good to drill a couple of locating holes right through the form & metal sandwich. Insert a piece of welding rod then clamp the whole thing down. It definately won't slide or scoot out while you're hammering, then just spot the hole shut & grind it after your panel is done. It also helps to perfectly relocate the piece if you need to put it back in the form and do more.

 

A couple more tips. sometimes on a tight curve, the metal will deform the would instad of shrinking as you need it to. So insert a liner of 22 ga steel between the would and the metal being formed, it will spead the load on the wood to make the metal form better. And if the flange has to be nice and flat, run it through a shrinker lightly to take any wrinkles out. Sometimes on a real tight curve, the metal will stop moving because of work hardening. Remove it from the form, anneal it, put it back on the form, and continue.

 

Fiddy! Damn man, good to see you out in the shop workin' Very good tech, I'm impressed.
Later GV

 

Another tip when doing 'inside' flanges like Fiddy's patch, is to hammer on a piece of steel pipe in the curve area. I find it stretches the metal more evenly and makes it easier to get a nice finish on the flange.

 

Nice tech Fiddy............I love metal working for dummies. Makes me feel competent on a whole new level!


If YOU can do it, then I can do it......AND make it look better.
**x

 

WTF! Why cant I see any of the photos? This happens to me a few times a week.

 

Thanks for all the praise and extra tips.

this was my first attempt at hammer forming, and i learned a WHOLE lot while actually forming the patch piece. but then again, thats what its all about isnt it?

T

 

Very Nice Fiddy!

 

great idea!
i think it would be a good idea to put the two reference holes near the edge of the piece, then you can just trim that portion of the piece off before you weld it to the car's body. less welding and grinding.
make the piece slightly larger on one or two sides to accomodate the reference holes.



tred.

 

Fiddy, nice job on the tech.

 

Hmmm. Guess I need to ask for a router/table for Christmas, huh?

Very nice post. Looks like an excellent job!

 

Fiidy Four

I am glad that you love us meng!!!!!! Muchas Gracias Para Ti.
Now most people as well as I will be able hammer up a part/patch panel and have learned how to do it themselves & should have be able to do some light etal panel repair.
Thanx again Meng!!!!!!!!!
Kevin

 

Thanks again everyone... like i say, it was a learing experiance, and very humbling to get a better understanding of just how much i DONT know about how things work.

Simon, thanks for the pipe tip! i had been trying to stretch that area (which got harder and harder as i went, work hardened? ) and tried a ball peen but it did little to ease the amount of maring to the inside flange face. there is always next time!

One more note to make on this,,, i did realise that, if i flipped the form over and hammered another patch, you can make pieces for BOTH sides of the car with the single form... this might not hold true for every form you could make for any given car, but it sure cuts down on woodworking time for sure.

MercMan.. routers are by far the best way to go when duplicating flat wooden parts... my setup is almost production shop in nature, but a guy really only needs a good fixed base router, and some way to hold the material on a benchtop to be able to make paterns this way. i also use the same method to make crankshaft cradles and get all the main bearing supports exactly the same when cutting them. anyone need a crank cradle for a ford flatty crank?

 

Great info fiddy.Im gonna make lower fender patches(behind the front tire ) and ure advice willgreatly ***ist me ,thanks mike



AJAX PLUMBING" WE KNOW ****"

 

all my pleasure man!

 

fiddy..

great tech.. I am a BIG fan of hammer forms..

as you can see here..
On the 36 plymouth fender I repaired
http://public.fotki.com/sawzallshop/sawzalls_shop_-_projects/jays_36_plymouth/

in addition when I was doing my 49 lincoln I made hammerforms to repair the lower front section of the rear quarter..



note that this required a hammerform that was MUCH simplier (and not as NICE as fiddys.. )

I put my shrinker to work on the edges of the panel to get the overall radius



inplace:

 

one last edit... i got two PM's asking me what gauge the metal was i used, and DUH, i forgot to mention it in the OG post... its 18ga cause thats what i had on hand

 

Just to show you what can be done with a hammer form, the old Miller race cars had frame rails that were hammer formed cold from 11 ga steel over a cast iron hammer form.

 

my arms ache just thinkin about swinging a hammer to do that

 

Great thread!

Been thinking of something similar to create a different-shaped splash pan between the body and the 55 Pontiac split rear bumper I have planned for my 52 Chevy.

 

I had forgotten this little tidbit. Need to see if I can put it to use sometime