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  #1  
Old 04-21-2012, 09:33 PM
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Default Baileigh 2012 Contest-Chevy Task Force Truck Upper Windshield Panel

This weekend is the "homecoming" weekend for the Stovebolt web site, which is dedicated to the vintage Chevy/GMC trucks. The owners of the web site live about 10 miles from my shop, so to add to the festivities this year I offered to host a metalshaping demo for the guys.


Some of the vintage tin that showed up this morning:

















In order to have a specific fabrication project to work on, we chose the panel just above the windshield of the Task Force trucks (1955-59). This is an area commonly plagued with rust issues due to condensation inside the roof:







Where they are now reproducing complete cabs, they have yet to market this panel alone. Since I had just set up my bead roller with the tipping wheel, I thought it would be a good candidate for fabricating this panel.

We did start the demo by showing some basic metalshaping, including tuck shrinking using the modified vice grips..

















One of the questions posed was whether it was better to use and modify poorly fitting reproduction panels or attempt fabrications from scratch. To show how "tweaking" of reproduction panel creased edges could be accomplished, the following was shown: Two folds were installed in a panel to simulate a factory bend, and then lines drawn in to show moving the bend to a new location.




















Moving on to our project fabrication, we had brought in a sample cab for fitment. As chance would have it, one of the local guys did have one of these panels in NOS form to also use as a pattern. He has it slated for installation in his own project truck later this year.














Using some rigid flashing material, a template was made of the upper portion of the NOS panel, and then also compared to the sample cab.








The pattern was transferred to some 18 ga with extra material left on the bottom to make the various folds, and then cut out with snips.








The upper portion is flanged where the roof skin folds over the leading edge, so the flaging dies were used in the bead roller...











Next we moved on to the tipping dies for the various folds.











Some areas were touched up with a shrinker and stretcher to help get the panel to better conform to the front of our sample cab...














.....and compared to the NOS piece.....








All ready for install..
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Last edited by MP&C; 04-23-2012 at 04:39 PM.
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Old 04-22-2012, 01:08 AM
Michael Michael is offline
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Default tiping dies

Thats it,my next project is to make tipping dies. thank you for the push.
great write up and a great project. I have a friend working on one of those trucks now I NEED to see if he needs this fix.
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Old 04-22-2012, 08:38 AM
Larry Mullen Larry Mullen is offline
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Default bead rolled piece

Robert
Good job on the cab /windshield piece . Will it be spot welded or continuous welded to the cab ?
Thanks Larry
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Old 04-22-2012, 08:42 AM
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Thanks for the comments guys. Larry, it gets spot welded around the windshield opening, and will use plug welds on the upper flange (originally spot welded) . Where it's shown clamped to the cab is sitting outside of the same original piece on that cab, so it actually sets back behind the roof skin flange.
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Last edited by MP&C; 04-22-2012 at 08:52 AM.
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Old 04-22-2012, 10:36 AM
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Very nice Robert!
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Old 04-22-2012, 12:04 PM
Larry Mullen Larry Mullen is offline
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Default winshield cab piece

robert
Thanks for the explaination . have not got to that part on my 40 yet.
Larry
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Old 04-25-2012, 09:36 PM
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Just to add to the post, here's a lessons learned on using the bead roller to make this piece.

We were using the bead roller from one bend to the next, incrementally, and it seemed once we got the outer bends to a 90, we would have to come back later and repeat the process again, as it had flattened back out. Here's what we found:





Doing the bends incrementally, we found that doing the outer bends first and then doing the center, pushing the tipping wheel in the center (red arrow) would force the outer edges aganst the skateboard wheel simultaneously (green arrows) and thus flatten out those bends. So to correct, once we got the bends close, the center was first bent to 90 all the way across, then the outer bends could be done next. As the opposite side was hanging off the wheel, there was no flattening effect using this order of attack.


Part of the demo last Saturday was also to attempt to fabricate an end piece using hand tools only, to show it could be made either way. We had issues is this attempt; we also used incremental bends here as well, and it seemed to not pull the end radius around. (stayed too flat) I believe this was due to all the hammering was causing some stretch. Rather than dwell on finding the fix (in the interest of finishing something that day), we continued on with the bead roller.

So this evening, I thought I'd give the manual version another shot, to see if I could try and get better (acceptable) results. My thoughts were to make the first bend completely to help lock in the "pull" of the corner radius for a better fit.

Layout of the end only "patch panel"







To form the upper flange, a shorter piece had been cut out and clamped to the back side, and a slightly dulled chisel used to form the offset.











The pattern was clamped back onto our work piece to mark the bottom bends/lower edge for cutting.








Next, as we will be hammering, I chose to use the tipping wheel on all the bend lines simply to make a better mark and keep the marks more visible.











"Custom anvil"





Used a body hammer on the flatter areas, and a dead blow in the radius to minimize any stretching....








First bend at a full 90, seems to pull the panel to fit the radius pretty well.








Continuing to the other bends, still using the round stock anvil, I did get to where I had to go back to incremental bends again when I got deeper into the radius...








After a bit of Lancaster shrinking along the edges, it was fitting pretty good..











The hammered version would need a bit more cleanup work, but a comparison between the two shows it definitely would be a viable option for someone without the bead roller.








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Last edited by MP&C; 04-25-2012 at 09:58 PM.
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  #8  
Old 04-26-2012, 10:24 AM
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Nice job, I like the modified vice grips for tuck shrinking, cool idea.
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  #9  
Old 04-26-2012, 09:02 PM
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Hi Robert

Super job on the upper windshield panel.

I had to make a section about 18 inches long for my 59 task force. I used the same process with the tipping wheel.
it worked well for me also!


Thanks for taking the time to post a great tutorial !!!!!

Steve
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Old 05-29-2012, 07:07 PM
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Thanks for the comments guys, here's some installation details by the owner to round out this thread...



Quote:
Originally Posted by olddaze
I got the panel from MPandC and I can tell you guys, It's quite a piece of work. Thought I'd snap some pics and include you on the install.
Here is what I started with.



And I cut away a rotten area inside the cab. I was alittle worried that this might cause the piece down close to the windshield would get really wiggley while I was working. Access to the inside was nice though



First off I dusted alittle paint over the spot welds and when dry, I scuffed it off with some 80 grit. Makes the spot welds show up better. Hit then all with an 1/8 bit and then followed up alittle bigger.



I thought the welds along the windshield edge would be the tough ones. I was wrong, broke most of them loose with a putty knife.





Comparing new to old:



First hurdle I ran into was just getting the panel in there. I had to open up the roof edge on the corners so I could roll the new panel in.



I also cut the panel in half to ease the work load and take the worry away of both corner being where they needed to be.





Worked out GREAT! About two days of fitting and 15 minutes of welding. Outer panel is all installed and I couldn't be happier with it. Huge thanks to MP&C
Looks like it worked well for him, another Stovebolt on it's way back....
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