The second time around I wasn’t going to repeat the mistakes, so this time around I used a step die combination rather than the usual half round dies. I also made sure to not go in as deep to avoid distortion. The effort paid off this time around.
The only downside with doing it this way is not being able to finish the ends of the swages. I may end up using some pipe to punch a half round radius for the ends.
Once I’ve figured that out, I will move onto doing the actual ones. A couple of observations, the swage along the bottom was added to give the piece more rigidity. The top half is left open to allow for the upper half to be added at a later stage. The other thing I need to figure out is how to do the raised area that accommodates the winder and handle.
Looks good. How thick are those panels? If they're not too thick, could you find a washer in the shape of the raised part for the handles, tape it to the back side, and then hammer them with a dead blow from the front to stamp the raised shape in? I've done that before with fair results, if the steel isn't too beefy.
Hey Guys. I was keen to add in the raised section on the upper part of the door skin today so the first thing i needed to figure out was my combination, I settled on this. I have specific step dies but they don’t go in as deep as this combo, I also wanted a deeper offset.
After trying out some scrap I was happy with the results and ready to proceed, I was considering doing a test one on a smaller section, but decided to wing it and add it straight onto this one. I wasn’t sure how it would turn out but surprisingly it wasn’t horrible.
Tomorrow I start on the real deal, this is the steel I’m using and it’s top quality. It’s been cut out of the roof from a mid 1970’s Ford Falcon Station Wagon. These were the third generation Falcons produced by Ford Australia from 1972 until 1980 and used a heavier gauge steel than their later counterparts.
The main flaws were the length being about an inch too short and the triangle being too far to the right. I will flatten out the right hand flange to get the correct length, as for the triangle, I will see how it looks with the correct length.
I have begun making one 34 cab out of two very rotted cabs. Its a big deal, I've duplicated all of the metal for the floor but happily, there's no wood in mine. You are doing a mountain of work and I like your results. Keep at it!
The Jalopy Journal
