Greetings From Utah

[SloW8]

Hi All,

I am from town about 40 miles south of Salt Lake City. I have a huge interest in all things automotive and would love to build a small car inspired by race cars from the 20's. Something along the lines of a Bugatti Type 35 but not really a copy of a Bugatti. Simple straight 6 or 8 cylinder engine and vintage brakes and gear. Something of a 4 wheeled motorcycle.

I used to work at a place that does aluminum bodied Cobra replicas. I worked a little in the machine shop but mostly at the desk and didn't do panel shaping, but some finish work, mostly polishing.

As a total beginner, All Metal Shaping seems like a great place to glean some knowledge and get started. I would like to start purchasing some tools and start forming some shapes but don't have a huge budget. I plan on getting some hand tools and then move up from there.

Thanks!

[Tom Walter]

Welcome Joe. You're in the right place.

[crystallographic]

Originally Posted by SloW8

Hi All,

I am from town about 40 miles south of Salt Lake City. I have a huge interest in all things automotive and would love to build a small car inspired by race cars from the 20's. Something along the lines of a Bugatti Type 35 but not really a copy of a Bugatti. Simple straight 6 or 8 cylinder engine and vintage brakes and gear. Something of a 4 wheeled motorcycle.

I used to work at a place that does aluminum bodied Cobra replicas. I worked a little in the machine shop but mostly at the desk and didn't do panel shaping, but some finish work, mostly polishing.

As a total beginner, All Metal Shaping seems like a great place to glean some knowledge and get started. I would like to start purchasing some tools and start forming some shapes but don't have a huge budget. I plan on getting some hand tools and then move up from there.

Thanks!

Did you work for the Kirkham brothers?

[SloW8]

Originally Posted by crystallographic

Did you work for the Kirkham brothers?

Indeed I did.

I never learned to shape the bodies though. They hadn't started forming the coupes when I was there and the regular Cobras came from Poland mostly done. I ran machines in the machine shop and did a little bit of coding but mostly did sales and customer service work.

I started out polishing the cars and helped develop the polishing method that they use now though it has continued to evolve.

[Peter Tommasini]

Hi Joe welcome to the forum
the Cobra body has a very unique shape
Peter

[HEATNBEAT]

Hi Joe and welcome!