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  #21  
Old 03-14-2011, 06:01 AM
David Gardiner David Gardiner is offline
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Like I said I did not take any photos of the early stages of making this Jaguar shell but I have a lot of photos of the SS100 shells I make which are very similar and made in more or less the same way with the joints in the same place.

Here are the blanks cut from soft sheet brass.



Below is the Jig I made more than twenty years ago for the SS100 shells. I have been making these shells for more than twenty years and I have made more than 200 of then in that time. some go on original cars some go on replicas but most have gone on a kit car called the Suffolk 100. All are the same except I do not cut the hole for the filler neck in the ones for the kit car.



Here is a pic of the finished SS100 shell with some blanks cut out for the next one you can see that it is very similar to the MK 4 Jaguar shell and in fact some people use the MK 4 shell on SS100 replicas.



David
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Last edited by David Gardiner; 03-14-2011 at 06:03 AM.
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  #22  
Old 03-14-2011, 06:14 AM
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jhnarial jhnarial is offline
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Does the price go up substantially when using brass? There is not a lot of people on this planet that can do what you do.
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  #23  
Old 03-14-2011, 07:52 AM
David Gardiner David Gardiner is offline
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Hi Johnny, Thanks but the only thing difficult about forming brass is the welding. Welding brass is very difficult, not so much the actual joining but because brass is zinc and copper. Zinc has a lower melting point than brass the zinc melts and evaporates before the copper has fully melted. This leaves pin holes. In fact if the flame is not set right the sections will not join and the metal looks like honeycomb. It is quite a lot of work to get joints that are metal finished and free of pinholes. I will show more later.
Oh and no... I usually end up making less when working in brass because of the complications. The SS rad shells are done for a fixed trade price.

David

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Last edited by David Gardiner; 03-14-2011 at 08:11 AM.
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  #24  
Old 03-14-2011, 02:52 PM
robert robert is offline
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hello i am really impressed , somethings you have to see before you believe its possible

i am interested in the idea to use brass for better and maybe cheaper chroming

maybe a dumb question but is it possible to use copper
i tried to weld copper sheet with tig after i saw your beautiful grille shels
and it started out very nice, i think now there was no zink in there
or would the use of copper give other problems
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  #25  
Old 03-14-2011, 05:49 PM
David Gardiner David Gardiner is offline
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Hello Robert, I am not an expert in these matters. (I just bash metal) Most car parts (headlight - grill shells and windcreen frames etc.) are made from brass and not copper. I dont think you would have any problem with the chrome plating. I am not sure why brass was used and not copper. perhaps someone else can answer.

David
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  #26  
Old 03-14-2011, 06:03 PM
robert robert is offline
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hello david

in my understanding copper is a part of chroming so i wouldnt be surprised
when copper is even better then brass
maybe brass is better in other things like stiffnes
or they used brass just for lower costs
i wonder if it was just cheaper (not saying it is)if it was, wouldnt it be easyer to use copper and eliminate the trouble of welding brass

just a thougth ; best material choiche in 1930 or best material choiche in 2011 wouldnt be the same a lot of factors have changed
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  #27  
Old 03-15-2011, 01:53 PM
David Gardiner David Gardiner is offline
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Here is one of the top sections of the shell part formed. I hollow these out and planish the surface. Very little wheeling is done to these shells probably less than five minutes on each shell. Most of the work is done by hand. There is so much shape in the front of the top of these shells that it is not possible to do them on the wheel.



Above is the section 'roughed out' I hollow the section then dress out the panel to get to the stage below.



Some of the forming is done on the piece of plywood below. I wrap the shape round the buck to check if I have enough shape, if not I put in more 'till it is right. Then I plannish the section on a stake (post dolly) to get it as smooth as possible.



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  #28  
Old 03-15-2011, 07:18 PM
ClassicRestorations ClassicRestorations is offline
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Beautiful work David, really love seeing how it looked when you were making the seperate parts!
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  #29  
Old 03-16-2011, 01:57 PM
David Gardiner David Gardiner is offline
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Cheers Ruben!

Here is how it looks once formed to shape and planished.




Once both top sections are done the sides are formed, this is the only part I can wheel, it has a slight compound curve on the sides if the SS100 shells this takes only a few seconds and could be done by hand if no wheel is available, the MK 4 Jaguar shell was a single curve so that shell (shown at the beginning of this thread) was made without the need to use a wheeling machine.


The top of this section was hollowed and then planished so I end up with this (below)



Here (below) are the four sections that make up the top and sides of the shell. Both the SS100 and MK 4 Jaguar shells were made in the same way. They are very similar - For those who don't know SS stands for Swallow sidecars, the name was changed to Jaguar after the war because of the obvious connotations. That is why the radiator shells are so much alike One is from a just pre-war car and the other is from a car made just after the war by the same company (with a different name).

The SS100 was the sports car made just before the was and was called the SS100 Jaguar.



It takes only a few hours to make all the sections to the stage shown above. (Thats the easy part!)


David
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  #30  
Old 03-18-2011, 12:58 PM
David Gardiner David Gardiner is offline
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OK I don't know if any one is reading this now but.........
Here I am planishing one of the top sections with a flipper (slapper)


Here is a better photo of the buck, as I said I made this twenty odd years ago and I have made about 200 shells on it so it looks a little worse for wear...



Once all the sections are made I trim the top sections and clamp them in place. These are marked with a scriber and trimmed with snips, any other way is not going to give you a good enough joint for welding.


Next comes the welding....

David
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