Fabing a body from scratch - lots of pics

[ritchj]

I took a metalshaping class so I can better use my metal tools, and wow did I learn a lot!

One of the other students wanted to build a 1932 Auburn Boat Tail Speedster from a plywood buck he had purchased along with a rolling chassis.

We started with flat steel sheets and used an english wheel, shrinkers and stretchers, and a powered bead roller, and completed this work in five days January 11-15, 2010. There was a little hammer and dolly work, but not enough to warrant putting in ear plugs!

Pretty good for three students (two computer guys and a retired firefighter) and the instructor from 8-5 for five days. The photos aren't great because I was working too, but you should get the idea.

We started with the cowl and doors on the 1st day, and worked our way backwards to the 8' long rear quarter panels and that all important iconic non-trunklid, trunklid.

Here's what we started with:





After getting a shape in the metal by using the english wheel we used the bead roller to start the detail work on the doors. One of the other ways this trim has been done over time is with lead. Pounds and pounds of lead - not suggesting there is a right or wrong way, but still, this seems easier





Once the doors fit the shape of the buck it was time to add the bead with the bead roller. I guess back in the day, they might have used a chisel, or layered lead. The bead roller made things much easier.

In this picture you should be able to see the shrinker marks too.

The door:


The cowl


Once the beads in the door were done, it was time to start bending the door top, which bends over the top of the door and drops into the passenger compartment. Remember this car had side curtains, not roll up/down windows. The photo also shows the 1/2" wide templates we made on the shinker stretcher to confirm the curve of the body was the same as the plywood buck.



The cowl was tricky because where it meets the firewall it has a couple of steps - one for the hood, and one for the canvas trim that keeps the hood from being metal to metal on the body. This is an image of the cowl (notice the shinker marks here too) in the bead roller on a trial run for the second 90 degree bend, which I was happy to not have messed up, so I don't think there is a second closeup.



Here is the door top in the english wheel, and the second picture is of the template being checked as the door is in the shrinker





Being a desk jockey, I was pretty tired on the second day, and this was complete before I took a photo. Done on the english wheel and the shrinker stretcher.







Here's the left side quarter panel after a couple of quick runs through the english wheel. We were trying to get a decent crown front to back and top to bottom, and once we had that started we checked templates. These pieces are 7+ feet long and 20 or so inches at the small end and mid 30's at the tail.

You can see the tracking marks from the english wheel.


More wheeling- no hammering, beating, etc.


Then we had to get them to match


In place for the initial fitting


Bead lines were drawn on then taped off


Run through the bead roller






The result


Even though the door have wooden frames, they still have metal so the door skin can be bent onto the metal frame which is nailed to the wood internal frame.

Here's part of the door frame


Not sure if this was a real frame or just a pattern buck, but you should get the idea. Hard to see but it is really Z shaped with an overall curve.


The cowl top was shaped like this over the edge of a plywood table, and then run through the english wheel to add some crown to the top,



The top of the trunk was much harder than I'd expected (like I'm an expert after 4 days) it curves on four axes, and then has a slight bead right down the middle.


Note the shrink marks around the edge



Finished with the bead down the center


The final result was great, in my opinion, it was a great learning experience - the books out there are OK, but I learn by doing. Each piece is held in place by gravity or magnets and some of the beadwork needs to be completed when the real inner structure is finished.

[back2life]

nice...did u ever complete it?