Help me figure out how to roll the edge of my wheel tub
 

I am new here but I will be around for a while. I am not an expert with sheet metal. I bought an old Chevy car to restore and have been using it as an excuse to enhance my sheet metal skills.
I am using this little task as practice for more complicated project in the future.

Here is my current situation. The framing of my back seat is hitting the edge of my wheel well in one area. The wheel is made from scratch by me. It's not perfect but it's not bad either.
Here is a picture of the current problem
http://i1306.photobucket.com/albums/...ps5a7ee7e4.jpg

Here is what i did so far: I grinded the tack welds towards the ends of the wheel well to allow the metal to be free. I rolled the edge by hand. I started with a wrench to get the shape going, then i used a hammer and dolly to shape it a little nicer.
http://i1306.photobucket.com/albums/...ps30102d9d.jpg

It works to meet with the factory wheel well metal. But the edge still hits the seat frame. You can see in the picture below that as i get closer to the tack welds in the center of the wheel well, the metal is not behaving like it did at the ends. I have used a hammer and dolley quite a bit which made things a little worse:
http://i1306.photobucket.com/albums/...ps3ddfc046.jpg

After banging and getting frustrated i made my decent looking wheel wells, look like garbage
http://i1306.photobucket.com/albums/...ps7f524e1b.jpg

I need help figuring out how to get my edge rolled nicely enough where there are no peaks in the metal and things look cleaner.

Oh, and i took my gloves off for one second and did this:
http://i1306.photobucket.com/albums/...ps5ecb47bb.jpg

Can you please give me some detailed advice of how to roll the edge of my wheel well using basic tools and ahammer and dolley?

wheel tubstn
 

Attachment 21090

Attachment 21091

Attachment 21092

Attachment 21093Bhre,

you probably need to start over. template the shapes nicely in cardboard. cut out some blanks as tidy as you can. corner weld them at 90 degrees and then beat the radius into the panel over a dolly. here are a few pics from a tech article I did a while ago. I nicked the idea from David Gardiner.

HI Todd
Tony is spot on in showing the way to do it right.... just make sure that when you beat the corner down you use the right radius doly, or the shape will spread to far down
Peter
PS.... lucky with the cut........:) it could have been worse

Custom Metal Shapers
 

Tony, Nice pictures and explanation. What kind of torch is that in your pictures? What brand and model? Thanks, Gerry:D

Did you use the torch for the welding? Or did you use the torch to heat the edge to anneal it after welding?

Do you have some step by step instructions that would help guide me a little more. Keep in mind that I am still pretty new to this stuff.

I only need to roll the edge on one side and in one section. Do you suggest I roll the entire edge just to make it easier for the metal to behave as I want?

I'd like to avoid starting over on this piece. But I do have a second one that needs to be made, so I can try a different approach on that. I will work the wheel tub a little more on Friday night and see where I can get it. If it absolutely doesn't want to behave I will start over.

Todd, From what I can see he fusion gas welded it together and then hammer formed it on the dolly creating the curve. By fusion welding he melted the two together without filler rod with the torch. This takes a lot of practice.
You can still mig the peices together and grind the welds and hammer form on the dolly just like in Tony's pictures.
Hope that helps. Gerry

tech article upload test
 

Hi there, It was a quick midnight post. Ive attached the PDF files of the tech article. see how they turn out.

Beautiful work Tony.

Thanks for taking the time to post. It's inspiring stuff to us novice metal shapers.

Todd,
What guage metal are you using...I'm guessing 24 guage from the pix... it looks pretty thin for inner tubs.. If if was thicker it would help you with your welding also...

welding torch
 

Hi Gerry,

the welding torch is just some cheapy Chinese torch. its a smaller size better for our kind of work. I havent gas welded on a job for years. we have the torch for heat forming, shrinking and odd jobs. I gas welded the wheel arch in the tech article for example purposes only but its probably the best method for that job.

I have had tiny mesco and the dillon torches in the past but I wont spend the money to replace them these days.