Spridget Rebuild

[Dantheman84]

Some more photos of the front sheet metal, these are some parts for the inner guards.





The swage or bead in the panels is not original but I decided to put it in because I think it looks better and stiffens up the panels.

[Gojeep]

Great job on making the stamping come out so well.

[Dantheman84]

The battery tray which joins the left and right footwell was rusted out, so I made a new one. These typically rust out.

[Dantheman84]

After fabricating the parts for the front inner guards I could then assemble and spot weld them together. I am fortunate enough to have access to a pedestal 240 volt spot welder which is invaluable.

[Dantheman84]

Once these were assembled I then made the footwells and assembled them to the inner guards. On Sprites/Midgets both footwells have an opening on the top panel for brake master cylinder, depending on which configuration (left or right hand drive) one of these is blanked off with a bolt on panel. I decided not to put this cutout in the left hand footwell as I don't need it. This is not original, but my car is going to be slightly modified so I'm not too concerned about it.







I also made a small tool to put the pressing in for the throttle cable mount which is on the right hand footwell top.

[Dantheman84]

Just a couple of pictures with the battery tray sitting in between the two front inner guard assemblies, I sat it there just to see what it looked like together. I can't assemble these until I get the chassis rails together. It's finally starting to resemble a Sprite front end





Cheers
Dan.

[Joe Swamp]

This is very impressive first class work. Did you mostly just use a press brake for all these parts?

At this rate you'll have a complete new body in just a couple more weeks.

[Kerry Pinkerton]

Daniel, I am very impressed with the obvious quality of your work. Would you mind showing your equipment and perhaps some in-process photos of your stamping. You mention you were using a small workshop press??? The cut lines are exceptionally clean. Are you having them waterjetted?

[Dantheman84]

Originally Posted by Kerry Pinkerton

Daniel, I am very impressed with the obvious quality of your work. Would you mind showing your equipment and perhaps some in-process photos of your stamping. You mention you were using a small workshop press??? The cut lines are exceptionally clean. Are you having them waterjetted?

Hi Kerry,
Thanks for your interest. I will take some photos of my equipment over the weekend as I don't have any on my computer. I do all my work over at my dad's shed as where I live I don't have enough room for any equipment. Dad and I have bought a few bits and pieces to help with our hobby(my dad likes his cars too). We have a 4 foot treadle guillotine that will cut max 1.2mm and a light duty 4 foot panbrake type finger folder. A bead roller I used for the slightly raised joggle in the panels.

Nothing has been waterjet cut, everything is cut either on the guillotine or with my trusty Wiss tinsnips. I cut all the openings in the panels with tinsnips, maybe drilling a hole in a corner to cut up to if I have to.

If i can't fold something in the folder I will just clamp the piece to a strip of 6mm Aluminium and tap it over by hand using a piece of wood as a 'chaser'

[Dantheman84]

With the triangular pressings, I first cut the hole in the panel having made sure I've allowed enough for the tool to press down. The tool I made from plate and offcuts that I found at work. The bolts act as a guide so that the male die that presses down into the panel stays central to the female die. Unfortunately I didn't take any photos of when I was pressing these. I clamped everything together, sat it on the small 'H' frame press then pressed the male die downwards which puts the 'joggle' into the panel. I spent more time getting the tooling right than actually pressing the panels but I'm happy with the result.





These curved edges on these panels were just cut out with tinsnips then lightly filed to clean up the burr. It shows how I just started with the triangular hole, then clamped the upper and lower die to the sheet and pressed the male die downwards which formed the edge.

Cheers
Daniel.