With the car's buck back in the shop we're starting to fabricate body panels. In regards to the hood, hatch, and door openings independent wire frame sections were created and bolted into the holes. Decided to start with the more straight forward structural sheet metal components that will support the exterior sheet metal skin.



Templates are created from drawings, dimensions and the wire frame. Since everything is identical from side to side - only revered... ie. rockers, inner wheel wells, A-Pillars, etc only one template is created and then transposed onto the sheet metal. Depending on the what structural components are being created we're running with 18GA & 22 GA



This is the rocker cover after being transposed from the template with the interior lip created after being run though the tipping wheel...with a soft lower wheel.



The blue line indicates the second exterior bend of the door seal step. The first exterior bend is 11/16" to the left of the blue line...one down and one up.. as per the shape needed.



Then using a shrinker/stretcher, the lips are stretched and shrunk to create the appropriate curvatures. Doing this a series of times and putting the different pieces together gives you this...



Here's a shot of the driver and passenger side door openings. With the wire door frame sections removed, the almost complete jam perimeter panels have been temporarily 'pinned' into place on the buck.

The beginnings of the rear cab wall. Pieces are laid out on the sheet metal in such a way as to reduce waste, yet created as large as possible to eliminate fitting and welding multiple pieces together.



Rear wall with final forming complete. The beads put in with the bead roller before the ends were rolled over.



Rear wall temporarily pinned into place with some self drilling self tapping metal screws to the jams and floor pans which were created earlier. This method allows the piece to be removed if necessary for tweaking. An old seat thrown in to add some perspective inside the cab.



Creating the drivers side scoop for ducting air into the rads. Once the desired shape is attained with cardboard, it's translated onto sheet metal.



Completed drivers side scoop shaped, welded and installed. The flange will be incorporated and fixed to the engine compartment's interior panels later.

Thanks for looking!

mmm hmmm, that would be like the edelbrock 460 heads that were identical to my cast 460 heads i posted all over the internet a couple years prior to the debut of those aluminum chunks they sell...and same for the Ford/Kasse heads - I was there first..  good luck with any kinda lawsuit unless you have unlimited pockets

-- Edited by Seeker1056 on Thursday 12th of July 2012 11:11:09 PM

fatstax wrote:

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hey invision i just saw a ford concept car on the web that suspiciousley resembles your car, you better have a look, perhaps a juicy lawsuit in your favour

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Hey fastax, which ford car would you be referring to?  Although I'm curious, as seeker pointed out chasing them in hopes of a a lawsuit will be like doing a burnout on ice.    Final drawings/renderings have been completed, but in reflection to your concern I haven't posted them online.

Anyway, my thoughts in sharing this project are to either inspire someone to tackle something they've been dreaming to build or to share some tips in metal shaping with the members here...maybe both.  If someone sees something feel free to ask how I made so that you can apply the technique to your custom car build.

Thanks Gents!

DavyJ wrote:

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Nick, looks like another great project. Thanks for taking the time to share.................

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OldGuy 71Acadian wrote:

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Nick, you are one crazy skilled individual. Love seeing your work and especially your creativity. Great job!!!!

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Thanks guys!   Really appreciate you guys following along and the thumbs up.

OldGuy - me crazy skilled?  nah!! just plain crazy. 

Just got back from camping at KillBear Ontario Park...and procrastinating a little by catching up here on the site.  Go away for a few days and all kinds of great discussions going on.  Guess I should get back at it and finish cleaning out the truck...

Moving onto the rear of the vehicle now. While some pieces were already created, such as the wheel tubs and scoops, structural pieces needed to be fabricated. After the templates are produced they are laid out to best utilize the sheet metal.


A picture of one of the channel box member pieces. The shapes of some of these pieces get a little interesting at times.


Pieces, pieces and more pieces...


Rear sub-structure have been almost completed and mocked up. The rear wheels will take up most of the space in the wheel well hole.


Now the pieces need to be tweaked, mated and welded to one another.

For this next part I want to keep 'detail shots' of the actual hinge and pivot in my back pocket...at least for now. However, here are a few pictures of the door shell integrated with the impact beam structure which itself connects the pivot to the latch area.

After the inner door shells were spaced and mounted into the openings work on the hinges and impact beams could begin. That 1/4" rod at the top is only temp...holding the shell correctly spaced within the opening.



The plan was to create a hollow hinge so that the door's control wires could pass through leaving a clean jam perimeter. The second challenge was to have the doors open diagonally upwards (butterfly) through the use of a single pivot pin. Here's the door opening for the first time on the new hinge...will it work?



Success! The door swings up as designed. Now to install some cylinders to make the swing effortless. Open 3/4's of the way already provides sufficient space to get into the vehicle comfortably. The door can now be finalized with the installation of the latch, window frame, glass and handles...later on.



Thanks for looking.

I've had a body dipped in nitric acid for rust removal, but not primer. I know in the US dip priming is available, but never looked into it. I had my car dipped at Technostrip located just north of Toronto, and they may know where it can be done. When it came time to prime my car, I used hypodermic needles to inject epoxy primer into tight to reach areas, and let the epoxy wick into pinch welds.

 If I'm ever in the area I'd love to see your shop. I went to a metal forming course with Ron Covell a few years ago and would love put some of the skills he taught me on a large scale project. Maybe someday !!

Firewall located and installed. The centre section which was temporarily removed needs to be trimmed before going back in.


A view of how the inner fender protrudes into the cab. The frame will shoot diagonally past the front of the hole you see under the inner fender


Inner front fender mocked up for the first time after being created by the english wheel. A little tweaking here and there will have it sitting where it needs to be. Now onto the other one...only in reverse!


Fabricating the seat rail supports.

Some work on the rear fascia as well as the roof support hoop.

Cardboard/pressed paper gets used a lot around our builds. Every piece is mocked up in cardboard first...then transposed onto sheet metal. Could probably build 1/2 of R2 if I wanted to :P

Rear exhaust scoop mocked up with cardboard.


Slip roll used to create the sheet metal inside piece for the rear exhaust scoop.


More structural supports for the body...in this case the roof. There's one of my first slappers...its a brute... but moves 18ga sheet metal around nice.


Inner rear hoop for the cab's roof completed. Once installed it will tie the roof sub-structure into the rear wall and floor.

So here go the front inners. It's deceiving how much sheet metal these eat up out of a 4'x8' sheet.

What started as an almost straight piece of sheet metal had a lip created in the tipping wheel and now having this lip shrunk to create the curvature for the drivers side inner front fender splash. ... that was a mouth full.

A particular inner profile was required to create exterior joint that won't trap moisture down the line.


... and the shrinking continues...


... and some more... The distortion isn't an issue at the moment as it can easily be cleaned up later.


... almost there...tweaking the shape here and there to finalize the curvature.


Inner fender splash formed into a nice curve. Now just need to smooth out all the shrinking ripples and fit it into the vehicle.


Using the wheel to touch up the new piece. Then onto the other one...only in reverse.

Had a few minutes again this morning to try and catch this thread up to where my project currently sits... At the present time I'm finalizing the plugs to create interior molds so that fiberglass pices can be made.  Looking back, I'm in a way missing the metal shaping.

Anyway, getting on with the build.  Got ahead of myself and ended up rolling the P/S before taking a picture of how it started. So here is the flat D/S piece(left) next to the completed P/S piece(right). After cutting them out of 22Ga sheet metal with two different arcs extrapolated from an imaginary cone within the front compartment, the longitudinal edges had a quick pass though the shrinker prior to rolling in the wheel.


Here we are starting the wheeling process for the drivers' side inner fender. In the background you can just see the template box getting fatter.


After only a few longitudinal passes the piece is starting to get some curvature. At this point I switched to about a 60*-70* diagonal wheeling pattern in order to speed up the rate of rise. Sorry no photos of this stage, but you can just make out the marks on the passenger side comparison piece on the right. I wasn't too concerned about initial wheeling marks since the piece had a ways to go and would be smoothed out with a lower anvil that closer matched the curvature later on the diagonal passes. The completed passenger side piece provides a visual comparison of the shape we need to attain.


Front inner fenders complete and temporarily installed with some self drilling/self tapping #8's. The moisture trough has yet to be redone... After finishing this version, I wasn't happy with the narrowness along the sides. You'll see what I mean when I post photos of the new trough later.

Here are a few snap shots of fab work being done on the rear hatch structure.

Creating the rear hatch's vent areas.


Filling in corners. Once the pieces have been fit and welded into place the seams will be tapped out, ground and finished to appear as though the rear structure was fabricated as one piece with no joints... at least that's the plan.


'Hammering' out the rear hatch's substructure. Looking from the inside out, vents have been created to facilitate more effective cooling.


A few more pieces to go yet...then onto the top skin.

More progress on the rear hatch ... the outer skin this time. At this point I'm not too worried that the pieces don't fit exactly to each other...that will come. Once the momentum is set for shaping the pieces to the buck, one side is done followed by the other side. That way I don't forget a particular sequence taken to create the panels.

Starting with D/S the sail panel.

Fitting it into place, the sail panel inner piece flat horizontal surface will be bent down into the vent area with the end bent to close in the end - trimmed where required - then hemmed




Fitting up the sail panel outer pieces.


Creating the front pieces for the rear deck.

Moving on with the front fascia.


Initial layout out of the grill's centre bar. Piece is clamped and the rear surface is about to be scribed.


Shrinking down the material to create the required curvature. This slow process resulted in some deformation of the surfaces - too much material having no where to go.


In order to eliminate the buckling, the torch is used to heat the affected area. Then while still hot, the area is quenched with a wet rag. This increases the curvature a little more than necessary, but when the piece is planished it should end up close to what we need.


After some hammer and dollie work the piece is fitted ... not too bad for the first time. However, some additional shrinking needs to be done as the curvature isn't just right yet.

When my dad and I were building the body for Rhythm - specifically the upper rear 1/4's, due to tool limitations, they were created from 5 pieces. And there was nothing wrong with that. But, creating, fitting the pieces to each other and welding them was a really tedious process.

Since we built the English wheel, I've had some practice making pieces for R2 and other projects. The thought crossed my mind about making the upper 1/4's for R2 as one long piece to eliminate some welding. However, the thought was a bit intimidating. Reason why?... the 1/4 had 3 reverse curves - one for the fender flair, one on top to accentuate the taillight and one for the dove tail. You'll see what I mean in the photos below.

So here it goes.

Interchanging the upper wheel with a rubber wheel provided a consistent initial roll. Placing the panel on the buck shows just how much more curvature the 1/4 panel requires.


Switching back to the hard upper wheel and moving some metal fast. I'm not worried about the tracking marks as they'll soon be smoothed out. The tracking pattern can be seen throughout the panel ... the ends are starting to curve downwards.


After some rolling, the 1/4 panel is starting to take on a nice shape. But we have a little ways to go yet...


Most of the tracks have been smoothed ... the next step is to create the fender flair(reverse curve #1) and the tail light feature.


After putting in the fender flair, the panel needed some more material to make the reverse curve 'right'...meant some more wheeling...


The reversed curve fender flair is coming in nicely, but we've lost some curvature in the horizontal plane...so a few more passes in the wheel to bring it back in before moving onto the taillight feature(reverse curve #2)


1/4 Panel almost there...a tweak here and a tweak there...then onto the other side. You can just make out the taillight feature and the dip(reverse curve #2) on the top. When the panel has the right shape it should sit there without forcing it down with clamps.


Here is the 1/4 panel for the other side being fit to the buck...some more wheeling is still required to get the centre up/ends down...can't just depend on the squeeze clamps.

Thanks for checking out the build.

ROAD TRIP!!!!!

123pugsy wrote:

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Looking good Nick.

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 Thanks very much Pugsy!

Seeker1056 wrote:

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thats some serious talent you have !!! even Ron Forman would be impressed

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 Thanks Seeker   Even though I've been at it for a while ... I keep learning more everyday.  Thanks for checking out the build.

By the way, who's Ron Forman?

It's a mountain of metal work to tackle - with about 74 exterior panels and just about as many structure components. Some are straight forward while others take some thinking to determine an approach that eliminates welding pieces together .... not that there is something wrong with welding panels.

So, getting on with the build - with the rear 1/4 pieces taking shape it was time to move onto the rear bottom fascia. Using the buck as a template, sheet metal pieces were cut to the approximate dimensions required. Adding too much material would hinder the shaping process and result in more waste.

Here is a progress comparison. Yes, the left piece started out just like the right one...just forgot to take a picture of it.


Bottom left rear fascia piece all smoothed out and ready for trimming.


Tuck shrinking of the right rear piece completed to help with the curved profile and ready for some english wheel shaping.


Both sides almost completed ... need to trim up the perimeters and install them for scribing.


Pieces clamped in place and scribed. Once the remainder of the body panels have been shaped the huge job of trimming, fitting, and welding will begin.


Front fenders are coming next. Thanks for looking.