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Old 05-08-2009, 08:25 PM
Kerry Pinkerton's Avatar
Kerry Pinkerton Kerry Pinkerton is offline
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Join Date: May 2009
Location: Near Huntsville, Alabama. Just south of the Tennessee line off I65
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Default The Art Deco Imperial Project - Part 16

THE ART DECO ROADSTER PROJECT
1/16/08
I took some time off to build the recriprocating thumbnail machine but it's time to get back to metalshaping.

Tools are great and all that but the reason we build tools is so we can shape metal faster. You DON'T have to have all these tools and I'll say it again, until you get your head around shaping metal, TOOLS are only a distraction and consumer of your money. There is no magic metalshaping tool that will make this stuff easy. It isn't.

Finished up the right rear fender today. It's a total of 7 pieces. It's also only at about 95%. I talked to Dutch who told me I was obsessing over getting it perfect too early. Until I get it mounted I really can't work the details out. That makes me feel better. The shiny areas are where I wiped it with a lead file.

This is the rear view.


And this is the bottom of the rear.


Outside reear. Next time, I'll probably make the inside part one larger piece similar to this one.. There is a low spot on the vertical seam that I'll have to wheel out. The fender is just too big to handle by myself so when someone comes over I'll work on tweeking it a bit more.


Front view.


I started on the steel inner fender this afternoon. Once it's finished, I can mount the inner and outer to the car for the first of probably 9 million times.

Building this fender has been a real confidence boost. UNDERSTANDING how metal moves and being able to explain it is not the same thing as DOING IT. Universities are full of folks who teach but have never done what they teach. Good instructors have done both. I had some of both types...guess which ones I learned the most from?

When I started this project, I was really pretty scared that I would not be able to do it. How embarrasing that would be for someone who teaches and talks as much as I do??? Not only the shaping but also the welding of the aluminum was a concern.

This fender is the LARGEST single thing I've ever made, not the most complex but the biggest. It's a good representative panel for the car and now that I've made it, I feel confident that I can make the rest...better, faster, and easier. I'm still no expert but I'll get it done! And while I'm CERTAINLY no master with the TIG either, I'm now confident in my ability to make welds that will clean up nicely and hold.

On a less positive note, I may have a problem with my 'new' 6 speed tranny.I took it to my tranny guy to clean it up and go through it and he said he thinks it has some internal problems..... You'd think I'd learn...if it sounds too good to be true....it probably is.
1/24/08
Back to work on the roadster now that I've finished playing with the recriprocating machine.

A link to this photo was posted this morning. It is not only STUNNING, it is very close to the LOOK I'm after. I notice there are no doors, Apparently it is a step in model. I have no idea what it is but I sure like it! MOTIVATION! If anyone knows what it is or has any additional information, please let me know.



Before I can hang the rear fender I need the inner fenders which will actually be the support structure for the outer fender. These were made in three pieces, the center piece is 9 1/2" wide with 1" flanges that turn down 75 degrees and were shrunk with the kick shrinker to get the correct radius. The sides were cut based on the layout info that Gene Olsen gave me last week. I put a few rosette welds to hold them together and will do the rest after all the tweeking is done.



This view shows the angle of the sides.



And here is the inside view.



The inner fenders are sitting on brackets on top of the tire and the outer fender is clamped to it. Obviously the wheel opening has not been trimmed or tipped.



Here you can see the gap between the body panel and the fender that will have a big reverse that connects the two. At the center of the reverse will be a flange where the two panels bolt together.



A rear view. The pretty bondo work done at MM07 will not survive so I'll have to get new autographs next year. Tomorrow I'm taking the metal angles out of the bondo and begin to mount them in place. I want to mount and finish the right rear before I move on to other fenders so I can deal with any changes or re-design only one time....yeah right!



12/26/08
Lots and lots to do!

Gave up on the T56 six speed. I finally found someone locally who had the special tools to work on it and was quoted $400 to tear down and put back together...parts needed extra.

Given that I probably won't be able to use the 6th (.50 overdrive) gear unless I'm in Nevada or on the AutoBann with a strong tailwind, I decided I'll sell it for parts and once again remind myself that if a deal sounds too good to be true...it probably is.

So I went looking for a 5 speed and was surprised to find a take out from a guy who switched to an automatic. I got the tranny, bellhousing, flywheel, clutch, pressure plate, shifter, etc. for $400 with a warranty that it will be good when I finally get my car running...no time limit...in writing. The Tranny is a Borg Warner T5 from an 88 IROC Camero. I got everything but the throwout bearing fork and the slave cylinder.

If anyone has a lead on what I need and where I can get it please let me know.

Gator is bringing the 6 cylinder engine to the Dixieland Meet and Bennett is going to be in charge of hanging the new engine/tranny and modifying the firewall to get the shifter in the right place...

Also in the market for a tilt column that doesn't have the shifter on it...prefer one without the ignition on it either. I know they made them but don't know what they were in. I'm too cheap to pay for a new Flaming River column...
Thene is mounted as far back on the tailshaft as it will go and it's only about one inch from the perfect hand position so I should be able to make it work by modifying the shifter arm.

I have room up front for the cylinder I think. The 250 engine has everything on the drivers side so it might be tight right by the engine because of the headers. I haven't seen the engine yet.
2/7/08 Some progress. I've been building machines and cleaning up prior to the meet. Small steps but slow. I made brackets to hold the inner fender in place.

One for the front...



One for the rear:




And now the fender sits right on top.



I've also built a tool that fits in the center of the wheel and has a pivoting, extendable arm for marking the tip line and character line for the fenders. That's next.

Btw, the T56 six speed tranny is on a truck headed to Rockford. I put it on Ebay, warts, history and all and got my money back. A tranny shop bought it.

3/8/08

I CAN'T FIND THE ORIGINAL PHOTOS ANYWHERE!!!!! I'll KEEP LOOKING
Been a while since the last update but considerable has gotten done. The 318 and auto tranny is gone via Ebay to Idaho. The 6 speed manual is gone to Rockford, Il.

I spent three weeks getting ready for the DixieLand Meet and didn't get much done on the car but during the meet stuff happened for sure!

These photos are duplicates of those posted in the DixieLand report but are duplicated here to keep the saga intact.

Gator brought the Chevy 6 cylinder down with him. Mark Denny mated the T5 to it and we swung it in place:

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Gator suggested bracing the motor in position so the mounts could be built after everything was rigidly positoned. Great idea.

Grant, Bennett, Matt, Gator and some others got to work on the motor mounts while I showed folks where 'stuff' was.

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New shock mounts, 4 link mounts, and pinion crossmember were fabricated

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Last week I recovered from the meet and didn't do much at all.

3/8/08 This week I was determined to do some metal shaping. I was able to layout and tip the wheel opening in the right rear fender.

A little out of the box thinking and it got done:

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The fender was just too large and floppy to manage alone so in a moment of inspiration, I hung the back end from a strap on my rolling trolley. This worked really, really well and moved around as I needed it to. I'll be doing this again.

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I made a new urethane lower for the smaller Pexto and it worked really well. You can almost see it in the upper photo but I removed the Pexto hand crank and used a 1/2" square socket on a ratchet. The whole thing fit INSIDE the radius of the opening and I could position the ratchet where I needed it. The hardest part was trying to see.

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Then came the hard part...hand work. I understand now why this stuff is SO expensive. I had all day in getting to this point.

I can tell you now that bumping aluminum is really different. It moves SO DANG FAST! What you would have to shrink with a shrinking disk on steel you can slap shrink in this 3003 H14. I'm going to have to learn finesse.

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The fender is MUCH more stable and rigid now and it is pretty easy to work with on the bench. I still need to tweek some of the flange and do some metalfinishing on the panel itself but I think I'll build a "Doug Hawkins" style stand so I can access the panel for the metalfinishing.

Next step is to hang it on the car and start building the skin that connects it to the body of the car. I'm going to be using a "Burt" buck from metal tape.
Then yesterday, I decided I didn't like the shape of the rear fender so I cut it apart, repositioned it, and welded it back together.

This morning, it is reshaped, and hung on the car in it's (Hopefully) final position. The inner fender side is seen hanging down in the front of the tire. It will be trimmed away.

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The body panels are drilled and screwed to the temporary structure with sheet metal screws. Cleecos would be in the way of the tape buck.

So how to fill this big hole between the body and the fender. Ken Burt gave me the solution when he used adhesive aluminum tape over metal stats on his motorcycle fairing.

So I sheared a bunch of 1/2" aluminum strips and bent them to the profiles I wanted and taped them in place.

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I started to get really excited at this point because for the first time I could SEE what had only been in my head.

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I used pieces of TIG rod to make sure the slats were in a smooth lofted line.

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The metal tape used to make the BURT BUCK were purchased at a local HVAC supply house for $5.50 a roll.

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Did I say this worked GREAT! Obviously this will not be a true surface but will give me the gross level surface information I need to build the panels. They will be shaped to blend the actual panels as needed. Once finished and metalfinished, a new tape pattern will be used for the other side. I'm going to do the entire right side of the car before I do the other side.

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I stopped at the vertical transition point. Not sure how I'm going to do the 'rolled pan' yet.
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Kerry Pinkerton
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