volvo p1800 to approximation of a ferrari 275gtb spyder : v12, 5spd, tube chassis

Kendall Frederick said:

275nart said:

Thank you fellas!  I was there a total of 19 days about 11-12hr days.  Wray gave great instruction and helped me on what to do when I got myself into trouble (which was several times).  But as he says metal is clay so there's almost always a fix for any goof ups.  All the panels were made by me Wray probably spent 20 minutes total touching any of those panels!  But that was the goal, to learn and do it all myself. 

Kendall Frederick said:

I subscribe to Wray's Youtube channel, and I was pretty sure that I recognized this car when the video came out.  Haven't watched it yet, will do so now.  You did some beautiful work there!  I know what you mean on the tool envy, did you use hand tools/English wheel, or does he have bigger stuff like a power hammer?

You probably already know about him, but I've been watching Mike Cornfield's Youtube channel and he's been hosting classes at his shop recently.  The work he does is amazing, but he also has some amazing power tools that most of us will never have.  

Once again, great work, looks like the car is taking major strides toward completion!

Thank you.  He has a power hammer but says there was no reason to use it really.  The hand hammer then wheel method is faster and easier to read as you're going along, plus it's a lot quieter and you don't vibrate your hands to jello.  A power hammer also leaves a hammered finish on the panels instead of nice smooth chromed up look like the wheel.

 Shrinking can be done on a stump (there's probably only 2 more panels on the car that will need shrinking) the rest of the shaping can be done on a sand bag with a mallet and then wheeled up.  I would like to get a better wheel and a budget upright planishing hammer to dress the welds but my bead roller/tipping wheel and kick shrinker/stretcher will work just fine for all the rest of the work.  I do need to make some hand tooling as I go and buy some more small hand dollies etc. 

I'm super impressed, and of course I have more questions.  :-)  Did you buy T0 (dead soft) aluminum sheet, and if so where?  Or did you anneal your panels yourself?  I have tried a method I've seen from Ron Covell where you coat the panel with soot using an acetylene flame, then heat it until the soot burns off, with mixed results.  Flat panels worked great; when I tried it with mandrel bent tubing, not so great.  

When I've tried forming sheet that was not annealed first, it wore me out.

I am using 3003 h14 (half hard) and it is great.  There isn't a need to anneal these panels to work them.  You can anneal the edge to tip over easier (still can tip it 180* without annealing).  I found it helpful to anneal the tight corner inside edge flanges where you need to stretch the material a lot to make the flanges.  annealed 2x back to back using the method you describe.  It also helps to keep the edge of the material from tearing in the stretcher.  

In reply to 275nart :

metal is clay

This was a breakthrough realization for me when I got into bodywork.  

There are only two things you can do with sheet-metal: stretch it or shrink it.

Learning the various methods of doing so and controlling the results is the real art.

275nart said:

 

I feel tingly.

I took a little break but I'm on the ball again working first on the headlight joggle on the left side and then starting all the tipping and welding and planishing for the right side fender and nose piece.  Having to upgrade some of my own hand tools along the way!  A better wheel is definitely something on my must have list as well. 

In reply to 275nart :

Geez, you do impressive work.

True craftsman

Just WOW!.

Quite the journey.

Pete

Thank you guys!  Might be a couple weeks before another update (not 2 months though!).   I'm already planning how I'm going to tackle the grill opening area- that will be another difficult portion to make.   

Looks great!  I'm curious what the steps are to get the joggle in the headlamp area?  Did you start by tipping a flange and shrinking or stretching, then re-tipping?  I've been following "Metal Shaper Tom" on Youtube (and ordered a slapper from him), and he, quite often, uses a "tipping stick/tool" to make flanges.  Did you use something similar to get the joggle?  I'm hoping to do something similar later this year when I get back to my build.

I can't imagine peeking into someone garage and seeing this. My jaw would drop to the floor. It is just amaizng. 

RoddyMac17 said:

Looks great!  I'm curious what the steps are to get the joggle in the headlamp area?  Did you start by tipping a flange and shrinking or stretching, then re-tipping?  I've been following "Metal Shaper Tom" on Youtube (and ordered a slapper from him), and he, quite often, uses a "tipping stick/tool" to make flanges.  Did you use something similar to get the joggle?  I'm hoping to do something similar later this year when I get back to my build.

Thank you!  I have been watching some of tom's youtube videos.  I tipped the first bend then shrunk and stretched it to fit the body.  After that I annealed the edge, marked my tipping line with pinstriping tape then just used a pair of vice grips and slowly tipped it again from the edge of the pinstriping tape.  Just some minor hammer and dolly work after that to get it smooth.  I don't know if there's a better way to do it but hopefully this helps!  

Excited to see updates. 
Not disappointed. 
 

so fun to watch this. 

I'm a decent fabricator, but reading this thread makes me feel like a hack. 

This car is screaming to be left raw/polished...

Thank you the plan is to leave it bare either polished or just "welded/planished"

This is an awesome build.  I've done enough metal work to know that I don't have patience to do a whole car.  I once thought I did which is why I started to learn the skills but I now know that I might get one side done but doing the other side is way beyond my ability.  It would sit in a corner of my shop literally half done until my widow got rid of it.

Kendall Frederick said:

I subscribe to Wray's Youtube channel, and I was pretty sure that I recognized this car when the video came out.  Haven't watched it yet, will do so now.  You did some beautiful work there!  I know what you mean on the tool envy, did you use hand tools/English wheel, or does he have bigger stuff like a power hammer?

You probably already know about him, but I've been watching Mike Cornfield's Youtube channel and he's been hosting classes at his shop recently.  The work he does is amazing, but he also has some amazing power tools that most of us will never have.  

Once again, great work, looks like the car is taking major strides toward completion!

Haven't watched Wray, and have been following Cornfield on insta for some time... But have a look at Chris Runge's YouTube. if you ignore his thumbnail shrinker, he's really doing it with the absolute minimum of power assist Although the time saving from that thumbnail shrinker is substantial...

if people are looking for relatable automotive sheet-metal projects, I can highly recommend this YouTube channel. https://www.youtube.com/

Also a fan because he is somewhat local to me.