Ognib

One of my long time favorites.

Let's see... in the mid 70's, a $300 35 Ford 5 window that was nice enough that I drove it home, after buying it & from the late 60's through the mid 80's, enough 55/57 Chevys to fill a fair sized barn.

The state of zen mentality is one of my favorite things about, not only modeling, but anything creative. Clarity of mind in ones work is priceless!

Very nice work, Pete. Watching you do your brass work just added another log to the fire of my desire to have a lathe & mill. Best

I'm still saving up my lunch money for a tig unit. Continuing my research as to what's out there for a unit, that I can justify the cost, for a strictly hobby shop application. I did check out a 110 volt Miller unit at a local supply store & it's well over $1,000...can't hack that cost for what I'm doing. At this point the unit sold by Eastwood, that I linked to on page 1 or 2 of this thread, still seems to be offering the most bang for the buck, while offering the features I want for aluminum work. Here's a vid of a guy welding aluminum coke cans. Haven't measured the thickness of a coke can, but it's quite a bit thinner than the 1/16" material on the frame or the .016 that I'll be using for body skins.

Bryan, yes great work. Here's one that Marcelle did on a Chip Foose design. Open the photo album for the car...the entire build is there. Marcelle is one of the very elite fabricators out there. Observe how perfectly the hood sides flow through the doors on to the quarter panels. Fantastic work! http://www.chipfoose.com/ws_display.asp?filter=Shockwave

Thanks, Dave. Found it. Number 1 of a series of several vids on this project. Catch you all later, off to work. Best to you.

A lot of fabrication going on this page. Thousands of man hours invested in this build. You'll notice that their bucks are not solid. this particular shop has every example of state of the art shaping equipment. They don't use the bucks as forming fixtures, rather only as a template to fit the panel to, as it's formed on the machinery. A far different approach to shaping, than hand hammering into hollows for shrinking, working over shaping post & hammering directly on the buck. But fascinating to see, none the less. Some most excellent work happening here! http://www.realsteel.com/projects/aluminum-double-dozen/?album=17&gallery=72#gallery

Yesterdays results. You'll notice, that by the 3rd point, the profile is beginning to flatten out across the top, as it transitions down towards the running board.

Thanks, Bill. One of the best things about doing this...figguring out the most effective way to get it done. Educating myself...trial & error...the scientific method. It's like...how ya gonna know what to do, unless you know what to do.

Found this...perfect how-to on shrinking metal old school, without a shop full of powered shaping equip.

Link http://www.nhra.com/blog/dragster-insider/page/2/ Towards the bottom of the page. Congrats, Bill!

I've been thinking about the feature lines on this body. They are only .030" or so tall. My thoughts have been to use .016" for body skins, & I'm wondering how crisply this will form around such small dimensioned feature lines on the buck. If I tig the body together, I could safely solder over previously welded panel join lines without fear of "de-bonding" previous work. So my thoughts are to perhaps solder aluminum wire to the body skin & final shape the feature lines with dremel & files. It would certainly shorten the length of time required to do the bucks...not having to carve in such delicate features. Any feedback on this will be appreciated.

Thanks, Bryan.

Excellent, Dave. How are you achieving the nice anodized look on some of your pieces? I read, someone said something about using permanent markers for this...?

I jigged the body so the tops of both 1/4 panels are square with the template material & then transferred the centerline, which is the high point of the body, down.

Laying out the grid for cross templates & inner fender edge profile. What a great design! The pure elegance of simplicity. Gonna be tricky carving all of this in to the maple, crisply, accurately & with proper perspective & relief. A worthy challenge!

Started out looking for a 3 window, but I've got a roadster & roadsters are cool, so that's what I'm going with.

Little bit at a time. Still a lot of research going on...constructing good pictures in my head, so I can "see" what to do on the bench. Thanks, Richard.

So here's what's fixin to happen. I've got a shape. I've got a piece of flat sheet metal that I want to conform to that shape. To accomplish this the metal will have to be either stretched or shrank. Folds in the paper represent where the shrinks will need to be, in order to accomplish the final shape. Rather than just a few pleats in the paper, the metal will recieve a series of smaller shrinks all along the edge of the fender. On this side, you'll notice that the folds go very deep into the paper. The metal shapers who's work I've studied, all buid a panel of this nature in two pieces. By doing this, a series of smaller shrinks will be pulled to the seam line where the two will be welded together. An easier, more controllable way to work the panel.

The slammers heartland show? I am planning to be there. I'll be sure to stop by your booth & introduce myself.

I'm glad you're enjoying, Scott. I'm enjoying the process. Keep checking it out & I'll try to keep it lively & entertaining.

The beginning of front fender bucks, right & left.

I've got a nice fitting template along the top of the fender. Transferred to a maple block that's large enough to hold the area of the piece.

Much good information on those links, Tom. Thank you.