[fordlover]

My name is Chuck and I love old cars. I live North of Tallahassee, Fl and just retired in Feb 2014. I was a programmer automating accounting processes for 25 years.
I built by first hot rod (48 ford) at 14. I also restored a 35 Chev sedan and a 59 Pontiac Bonneville. I had an automotive repair shop for 15 years in the Southwest working on mostly imports but racing hot boats and dirt track. I raced late model dirt track for 20 years building the cars myself. In the middle of all that I raised 4 beautiful daughters that are doing quite well for themselves and were a great pit crew.
In 1988 I built my first dream garage that was 35x55 to build my dirt cars were I live in Florida. I never had the money to put in a lift or have a lot of expensive tools except for my Snap-on toolbox. That lasted for 6 years, got divorced and in a fit of rage sold my entire shop, property, and house . Dumbest thing I've done. After retiring, I wanted to back to my love of working on cars.
I was lucky to find a 40x100 warehouse that had been sitting empty for over 15 years and even luckier that the owner agreed to rent it for $500mo. I spent most of 2013 repurchasing tools (good grief how expensive tools have gotten) and getting some deals on a couple of cars. Now, I had a place to put them and work out of the weather. I found to 63 Rancheros (one is a real rust bucket) and a 33 Plymouth fordor (almost no rust). Last month I ran across a sheet metal/machine shop going out of business and got some equipment real cheap amoung which was a Roper Whitney magnabend (magnetic sheet metal box brake), and bead roller. I bought sone body hammers and sand bag but not sure what other equipment I'll need.
So now, I am trying to learn how to work metal. I have never done body work . I made some panels for the race car but mostly used fiberglass body panels. I joined this thread to hopefully learn how to do metal shaping correctly. The one ranchero needs floor pans, wheel wells, inter-panels, and a lot of metal shaping. I hope this forum can shorten my learning curve.