Fender, need help
 

First project of any scale. Started with some tucks on the edges on dished out stump. Followed by wheeling. 16 gauge aluminum, not sure of the alloy or heat treatment.

I'm close on the large radius but want to decrease the other radius substantially. Shrink the edges more or keep wheeling down the middle or?

Attachment 35212

Jeff
It looks like you have about 1" in cross sectional height ? you want 2 + ?
If you do the math , 2" on radius is 2 X pi difference in length . Meaning the center will be 6+ inches longer than the edges , that is a lot of shrinking .

Kind of depends on how much you want to reduce your smaller radius. Wheel the centre much more and it'll go hard and start fighting you. I'm assuming what you want is near enough flat sides in which case I would crop an inch off either side of what you have, make a new pair of sides with the upper edges shrunk and turned over to match the cross-section you have already then weld them in.
I would spot the sides on every inch or so then knock the tops off the welds with a die-grinder. Wash it in the wheel to get your final shape then fully weld.
Don't forget, there's no right or wrong way and someone else's technique might suit your style much better.
Best of luck.

Will

Jeff ...what you are asking is.....
one edge is OK but you like the other edge to be flatter???
or less smaller radius??:confused:
Peter

The red radius is OK. The blue radius I want a tighter curve.

Attachment 35217

Hi Jeff,

Do you want the fender to stay at that width or do you want the fender to be narrower? It will make a difference as to how you will proceed.

Jeff you would need to re block and re wheel the middle of the blue radius more :D
You will find that by doing that the red radius will tighten some what :D
but simply re open it by hand

Peter

Shrink a little, wheel a little, trim a little. I found a soft wheel run along the long axis on the english wheel a better way to open up the larger radius, I just don't have enough strength to push the ends out evenly. I wanted about a 6 inch final width so I started with 8 thinking I would lose width with shrinking and curving. Turns out I lost very little if any width so I had to trim about 3/4 inch off both edges. With a desired width of 6 inches and a profile like this what would be a good width to start with?

Attachment 35218

I want it a bit narrower, like 6 inch or so

I'm thinking you want it to be a motorcycle fender in which case I'd still say make a new pair of sides for it.

Will