A few things we have been working on......

[David Gardiner]

Sorry it is so long since I added to this I have been busy seeing my brother who was visiting from the states. I have also had a lot on at work. We spent three days fixing tools and cleaning up last week- way behind with everything now!.

Cladding the back of the body is fairly straightforward, after making a paper pattern a blank is cut, this is positioned in the correct place on the frame allowing for the amount of material needed to wrap around the wood. The ally is then gradually dressed over the frame some parts will need to be stretched and others shrunk. I use a pear shaped mallet for most of this work and finish it with a flipper (slapper).
Odd areas require annealing but I keep this to a minimum.

[David Gardiner]

once the ally is sitting tight against the wood I trim the inner flange to give me a nice even amount to wrap over (usually half an inch) this is closed over the wood and nailed in place using panel pins.

David

[David Gardiner]

This is an Alvis Speed 20 that we worked on a little while ago. The elderly couple who own it were driving it when a deer ran into the side of it, this caused them to spin out and leave the road. most of the damage to the body was done to the rear of the car when it spun off the road the deer damaged the chassis and front. We had the job of repairing the aluminium work. The Lady said she flew out of the car taking the door with her!
She was hospitalised but she was OK by the time I met her a few weeks on. They were a lovely couple and made light of what must have been a frightening experience.

This is the original rear section of the body as can be seen I dont think it was in great condition before the accident.


This shows the veiw along the new door.

We did not get involved in the scuttle area, it was an insurance job and the original was not too bad


Heres the other side, Most of the work done on this car was done by James, I trained him well, lol ! now he can do most things.

its quite a simple shape but often the flatter the panel the more difficult it is top get it right.


On the transporter ready to go...


David

[MP&C]

Awesome work David.

We did not get involved in the scuttle area

Is this the door openings you are referring to?

[David Gardiner]

Sorry the scuttle is what you call the cowl. One door skin was replaced the other was as original.

David

[David Gardiner]

I was looking through my photos and came across some of the Lancia I posted earlier in this thread, it was looking a little sorry for itself in the other photos so I thought I would put up a couple more of it when we had finished with it. Like I said the design is a one off and not really my cup of tea but it turned out OK in the end. You can really see the swage (body line) that gave me all the trouble in this photo!.



The wings (fenders) were made on very simple bucks and done to the customers ideas. I had no original wings, drawings photos or anything else to go by. When I make a part like this I work partly in the metal, I part make the buck and sort of finish the two together. Once one side is finished I dismantle the bucks and reassemble them the opposite way round to give me something to work on to ensure that both sides are symmetrical.



The customer wanted the running boards to come up short of the rear wings.

The rear of the body was 'redesigned' by the ash frame man and I had a hell of a job with it. This and the doors were a pain.
Well I just thought some of you might like to see the 'finished' item.



David

[David Gardiner]

While I was in this thread posting the photos of the Lancia above. I thought I would put this photo up too I did post it once before but its such a nice car! with some superb shapes.








We have a nice Talbot 105 in at the moment. I will post some photos of some of the work we did on that soon.

David

[banzaitoyota]

I am always impressed with each project you share with us David

[Gary Tisdel]

Thanks for taking the time to document your work David, they are my favorite.

Gary

[David Gardiner]

Glad you like the projects. Here is another one we completed a few months ago I intended to show more of the work James and I did on this car but never had time, If I can find time and if anyone is interested I will post some build photos.....

Here is what we started with...


Almost there, in bare metal.......


Here it is painted


A close up of some of the bodywork.


Like I said I have a lot of photos of the build of this car so if anyone is interested I will document some of the processes.

David