Scratch build Art Deco Roadster

[Kerry Pinkerton]

Interesting epiphany today. I knew it before but today really drove it home.

I had the left upper cowl piece ready to tip and fit.



So I put it in position and marked the firewall line with a sharpie. The panel can be moved back so the sharpie line is fine.



You'll notice the panel is not perpendicular to the firewall. It sits at a slight angle both to the side and to the back. What this means is that the firewall tip line is NOT STRAIGHT.



The curve is clearly seen here.



I used a bead roller. This one was made by John 'Boogiemanz' Brown. It uses 1" keyed shafts and I modified HF bead roller dies by reaming to 1" and broaching a keyway. The tipping wheels are from Hoosier Profiles.



Several passes and here we are.



A little work over a flat surface with a steel hammer and it was nice and straight.



But the curve is not correct.



So I shrunk the edge a bit. My flanges are pretty wide but they could have been trimmed back and if they were about an inch the shrinking could have been done with a Lancaster with stippled dies. I wouldn't use the standard Lancaster dies on aluminum.



And here we are. It fits nice.



The door opening is next but I decided to radius the door edge which is documented here:

http://www.allmetalshaping.com/showthread.php?t=2752

[Kerry Pinkerton]

Some additional progress on the cowl.

Radiused the left door top.



Built the cowl sides and welded it to the 1/4" aluminum plate that has the mounting bolts pressed in it. Gaps will need some tuning.



The center section was scribed and tipped. The line is NOT straight because the cowl top is not 90 degrees to the firewall. It's a gentle arc.

To get the cowl top to curve I had to do some work with the kick shrinker.



And here she lays on top of the two cowl ends.



I carefully cut the holes that the windshield posts go through. Some trimmng of the post bottom was required to get them to lay against the cowl.



Scribed and cut the line using the two tape method.



It's a REALLY tight gap. I'll tack it up tomorrow and wait till the other side is cut in and tacked before I TIG them up completely.



The hood center is going to be 1/16" long so I'll have to trim it back a bit before the hood can go back on.

[Joe Hartson]

Looking good, can't wait to see it with the hood on.

[123pugsy]

Looking good Kerry.

What do you mean by ''scribed and cut the line using the two tape method''?

I've never heard this before.

[Derald Timm]

Kerry,
Your roadster is looking great. Won't be long and you will be driving.

derald

[jhunter]

Originally Posted by Derald Timm

Kerry,
Your roadster is looking great. Won't be long and you will be driving.

derald

Probably just two or three more Dixie Meets.

Just kidding. The car is looking great.

[Kerry Pinkerton]

Originally Posted by 123pugsy

...What do you mean by ''scribed and cut the line using the two tape method''?....

Pugsy, this is the approach I'm talking about. It's not new but slicker than most any single trick I've learned and a perfect solution to what can be a VERY, VERY difficult problem.

From Page 1 of this saga............................................

I used the double tape approach that Casey Hill showed me last year. Richard Crees posted this drawing which shows how it works.



This is one slick, accurate way to get an EXACT cut line! Thanks to Richard for the drawing.

1- Take masking tape (or any tape really) and CAREFULLY lay it down with one edge on the exact place you want the other panel to line up, that is, the cut line. The red tape in Richard's drawing.

2- Lay the second panel in place. Unless your overlap is extreme, you should see some of the first piece of tape sticking out. If not, do a rough trim until you do.

3- CAREFULLY lay a new piece of tape over the top of the first piece lining up the edge perfectly. The blue tape in the photo above. Part of the tape will be on top of the first piece and part will be on the second panel.

4- After you make sure the tape is secure to the second panel, pull it off the first piece of tape (or cut it with a razor blade etc). The edge of the tape is the cut line. Since the tape is the exact same width, if you were careful in laying both pieces, the edge of the second piece should be EXACTLY transferred to the second panel.

5- I used 1" blue painters tape but I think most anything will work. Remove any sticky residue before welding of course. Richard used red and blue so you could see how it works, obviously you don't need to use different colors of tape.

When Casey Hill showed this to me I stared at it a couple minutes before it clicked. It wasn't until I took some tape and tried it that it really made perfect sense.

[123pugsy]

Thanks Kerry.

I've never seen that before.
Another trick to tuck away in the vault.
And thanks to Richard as well of coarse.

[Kerry Pinkerton]

Had a few hours off from my paying job so I got to work on the cowl some more.

Scribed, cut, and welded the three pieces together.



Btw, the attachment method is a total of 5 bolts on each side. 2 into the fender and 2 into the A pillar (door post)



After some filing and bumping, here it is back on the car.



This is the back of the dashboard and I'll tip a 90 to that tape line. It will need a bit of shrinking to get the profile right.

[123pugsy]

Looks good Kerry.