Another build thread? Yep, my track-style T

[J. Robinson]

Well, I keep hopping back and forth, but at least something's getting done... Back to the hood! I stopped after cutting out the panels for the hood tops because I had a problem with forming them to a usable shape. Some time ago I made the apparatus in the first picture below. It looks a lot like an ordinary sawhorse, but the top of it is made from a piece of 2" black iron pipe welded next to a piece of 1/4" wall 3" angle iron with a 1/16th" space between them. With this I can bend sheet metal with either a gentle radius or a sharp corner.

I initially thought I would be able to form my hood tops on this, but soon discovered that it wasn't going to work. I ended up with a bunch of bend lines or creases running the length of the piece! (Unfortunately, I didn't take a picture!) OK, I needed something with a larger radius... I was standing in the garage alternately staring at the ruined hood piece and gazing out the door when I noticed that the light pole out by the street might be about the right size. I screwed a piece of angle iron to the light pole with a washer under each end and used this arrangement to wrap the other hood top around the pole. (I didn't take a picture of this because it's illegal to attach anything to a light pole! ) Well.., this didn't work either. The pole was too large so it didn't bend a tight enough radius. Also, light poles aren't real smooth, so this piece came out with lumps and lines too! It was all this difficulty that prompted me to go buy my English Wheel. I've been wanting one of these things forever and this looked like a good excuse to finally get one. The $239 price tag at Harbor Freight is probably less than it would cost me to have a hood custom built and I get to keep the tool...

Having never used an English Wheel before, I thought it would be prudent to use the first hood top (that I thought was ruined) as a practice piece. After rolling it lengthwise with a mildly curved wheel, I noticed that the bend marks began to disappear! I switched to a flat wheel and started wheeling the piece from side to side across the bend... Holy crap, Batman! This thing was starting to look pretty good! I followed suit with the other side (the one I wrapped around the light pole) and it came out pretty nice, too! The final pic is of both pieces taped together on the car. They'll need a little "tweaking" by hand, but I am really pleased with the results of my first wheeling experience.