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Old 10-29-2018, 09:33 PM
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Jack 1957 Jack 1957 is offline
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Location: Strongsville,OH
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Well, as I suspected, it was pretty much impossible to keep such a large ABS panel hot long enough to get it over to the buck, strap it down and pull it into shape before it cooled off. Reheating did help some but where the warmed up portion met the cooled of portion, it would always leave a kink. I tried working the kinks out with a heat gun but I was just a dog chasing his tail. I spent a couple frustrating days fighting with this rear half. I got it to fit the buck but it looked like hell. No way I'm putting that on my car. No way. So, I lost a little time on that but I'm sure now that a panel that big can't be formed well without dedicated equipment.


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So, on to plan B. I'll make them in 3 pieces, no heat required. I'll glue the panels together. I started with the inner vertical panels and made templates. Then I cut them out of ABS. Trimmed them a little and mounted them with push pins. They need to be mounted securely because the mating surfaces where they'll be glued have to be a precise fit. The picture below is the front, inner panel on the left side.

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The inner rear is done. It's difficult to get pictures under here. Where this panel meets the frame rail, I left 3 tabs along the lower edge and warmed them up and bent them 90 degrees. There are 3 push pins holding the panel to the frame.

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In the picture below, you can see that I marked 4 inch increments all the way around the circumference of the vertical panel with tape and numbered them 1 through 19. If you have ever tubbed the back end of a race car, you'll recognize some of this. Tubbing the back end of a race car involves making a flat circular panel and clamping it to the side of the frame rail. Then measuring from that panel outward to the quarter panel every few inches along the circumference to get the contour of the body where the tub will meet it. That's it. It's fairly simple.
On this job, I don't have a flat straight surface on the vertical panel. I have a narrow area at the strut tower and then wider areas fore and aft. Sooo, The way to tackle this is to use a center line and measure inward from the centerline then measure outward from the center line.
I put a long strip of tape up on the inside of the fender, running lengthwise to mark the center line. Then I taped a plumb line to the top of the inner fender where the strip of tape marks the center and located it to line up with the #1 location on the vertical panel. I measured from the plumb line inboard, then from the plumb line outboard. Write down these dimensions. I repeated the process for the other 18 locations.
If I lost you in this explanation, don't feel bad. I've been doing this kind of work for years and rarely have to describe what I'm doing. Different methods of solving a problem pop into my head and I apply them and modify as needed without giving much thought to having to explain what and why.

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The total length of this tub is about 76 inches from lower front, up and over, and down to bottom rear. I taped a couple template boards together to get the length, then snapped a chalk line to locate the center line. Next, I measured and marked 4 inch increments from 1 through 19 and used a square to draw the lines. I used the list of all the measurements I took from the car and applied them to the template; station 1, CL to inboard, CL to outboard. Then on to station 2, etc.
After all these dimensions are plotted out on the template, I just connected the dots freehand with a marker. I can tighten up the fit once the template is in the car by either trimming excess or adding tape along the edge to extend it.
That's as far as I got today. Stay tuned.

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Last edited by Jack 1957; 10-29-2018 at 09:59 PM.
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