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Originally Posted by Schroeder
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The book I was thinking about is the "Metal Fabricator's Handbook" by Ron Fournier. You couldn't go wrong getting both of his books IMO.
In terms of leaving the ribs / tubing or not, you could go either way. Certainly lots of custom stuff has been done over the years by outlining it with round rod (or tubing or even EMT...ick!) and then paneling it in with sheetmetal. Lots of pics in 1970s/80s Hot Rod/Car Craft mags showing places like "Customs by Eddie Paul" doing this. 1/4" round rod, flat sheet fill and then bondo'd. The more you can shape, fit, weld, grind to get the shape the better. At some point having the internal structure may get in the way of doing a clean job and you'll want to get rid of it, but the point is to create something cool doing the best quality work you can.
When I was a kid there was a guy in the neighborhood that was building an early Falcon with giant flares and a wing spoiler. He was doing it using plywood screwed to the car, aluminum strapping, fiberglass over that, and lots of bondo to get the shape. God awful construction methods, but he ended up with a pretty cool look and only needed a jigsaw, drill and sandpaper
These two pics are from the first book showing part of a spoiler build.