Model A doors
 

Scott from Kahiko Customs in Charles City VA showed up early Friday morning with two doors for a Model A. 90 years or so of carnage has taken it's toll and we were collaborating with him to make some new door skins.


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Given that we opted to go ahead and make both door skins to have a more consistent finish on these. Paper patterns were taken to capture the pertinent details, and some oversized blanks were cut out of 18 Gauge cold rolled steel. The Powell hammer made made quick work of adding shape to the skin...


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Once we had our shape needed, the upper beltline bead was added using some aluminum dies we made for the Lennox nibbler.


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For the lower bead detail, we wished to use the folded flange as a guide in the dies, so the tipping dies in the Lennox were used to fold the lower flange..


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Tipping the flange...


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=woiWT6Vkot8


Adding the lower bead detail


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akyj0OkeC4Y



the new skin was then test fit before we trimmed and folded the side flanges..


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The side flanges were folded over to 45* along the un-beaded area, then our dies for the Lennox clamped in their respective location by aligning the edge along the fold line and tightening in the bench vise. Then a body hammer folded the bead areas over to 90* and the remainder of the straight bends reinstalled into the tipping wheel and folded to 90*.

Looks like these will make a much better job than trying to sort out the old skins..


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Very nice Robert! Did you put a bit more shape in than was required first on the basis that the details would 'suck' some out?

No only a better result with new skins, but probably quicker and therefore more cost effective when you have machines like yours.

Robert, that is an outstanding Job. I have done several of those doors, and your approach was very correct and accurate. Nice work, young man.

Yes nice job Robert. It's good to have the right tools.

VERY nice Robert. Love the detail work.

Thanks for all the comments guys!


The lower portion of the skin curls under a bit more, it's not a consistent radius. We used body sweeps to check our progress on the hammer, and would position the skin overhanging the table and pull the lower part downward to simulate this detail in order to check that the horizontal area through this bend still had plenty of crown. The finished part looks a bit flat as the flanging straightened things out but that should regain it's "composure" once the flange is folded over the rest of the way onto the inner frame..

As usual clean and really good work, thanks for sharing!

Antoine

Congratiolation for the MSOTM.

Congratulations Robert, your one crafty and classy dude!