And from Bonnie Scotland
 

Hi,

Introduced to this site by 'redoxide'. I've done one Riley Special, turned a Riley saloon into a pickup truck, a couple of prewar Riley restorations and now starting on Special number two. I hope to become a bit more adventurous with the sheet metalwork and look forward to hearing some good advice.

IFD

IFD, welcome to the site, thanks for joining us. Hope we can answer your questions. Would like to see some of you past work.

Welcome IDF
 

Welcome to the site, Lots of cool stuff here!! Mark D

Welcome aboard. Post some pics of your projects.

Thanks
 

Thanks for the welcome. Here's some pics of the previous projects. Most of this work is 10 - 12 years old so no digital cameras - and no internet forums for advice. Most of the metal shaping on the first project was done without any knowledge of stretching and shrinking and cerainly no special tools. Hammers, wooden formers and a pretty crude louvre cutter which used the weight of two concrete blocks to function were all I had. The project was to build a body on a cut down prewar Riley chassis and mount a 2.5 litre engine in it.

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This is a more recent picture when I did som more work on the screen.
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This is two years ago - the car is 11 years old now.
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The second project was to make a pickup truck from a 1952 Riley saloon which was heading for the breakers. I developed a sort of 'buck on the car' technique. This time I had access to a wheeling machine but bidn't know how to use it properly.
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Most of my work in last few years has been restoration of prewar Rileys but I'm keen to get back to building Specials and learning much more about how to work sheet metal.

IFD

I'm really liking those Rileys. We don't have anything like those over here..at least none that weren't imported.

By the way, please modify your signature with some type of name we can call you. We prefer to talk to people by name rather than a cryptic phrase.

I hadn't quite understood the signature thing. Now I hope this is better. My name is Iain Drummond and I'm working my metal in NE Scotland, between Aberdeen and Dundee.

Hi Iain.

Feel sure your going to fit in well here, great place to talk shapes, keep an eye for David Gardiner he's a master craftsman from Essex he's done loads of Riley stuff and he teaches part time, he must be busy at the mo.

Thanks for joining us and welcome.

I'm down in the west country.

Thanks for that Tom. The first Riley Special was a 2.5 Pathfinder engine in an underslung ex-Merlin chassis. A bit of a heavyweight but lots of fun. Now I hope to build something a bit lighter! A trials 9hp Special based on a 1937 Monaco (I've done all the mechanical stuff) and I'm now very interested in the sheet metalwork processes to produce an interesting lightweight body.

Welcome aboard Iain,

My family roots come from Buckhaven, never been there myself, but I've heard lots about the area from family members over the years.

I have to join the chorus of folks around here who would like to get our hands on a Riley. Things don't get much better for an aspiring metalshaper than to find a project car like this.

I have to add that I've really been enjoying the threads related to the classic cars from the UK lately, it's been a real treat to see what you guys have been up to over there. I'm looking forward to seeing more pictures of your work. :)

Ken