All MetalShaping - John from Antioch, IL

My name is John and I live in Antioch, IL. I grew up around cars and watched my father beat metal into pretty incredible figures, but didn't ever get "taught" the tricks while I was younger. I always liked cars but school, and sports stood in the way until I joined the service when I turned 18. I did the military thing for nine years and while doing so--tried to teach myself about cars. I've always been fond of cars--and with cars I've always known them to be made of metal. Aside from the Corvettes--I always knew that unless I planned on shaping a quarter panel from resin and fiber screen--I needed to learn something about metal work.

Case in point is my '65 Suburban--not a super--rare classic by any means, and not super-rusty.. But, it had more rust-gremlins than expected although it lived its entire life in California before I rescued it in 2011 after a trip back from Afghanistan. It skipped line in the project schedule and I've been learning a lot on it. From welding sheet metal to light forming--but nothing serious. No compound-curves and no real panel-beating techniques. I've met some cool people from the H.A.M.B. and in the real world that have talked about this site--so I finally thought I'd check it out..

Prior to this introduction I was able to peep a baseball bat hammer which will get employed on my '48 Ford Sedan--and made one up today..

This site is already helping me..

Just looking forward to the resources the forum members can offer--maybe someday I can offer some in return.

-John