New build thread; 48 Plymouth

[Dave Severson]

I usually work on such oddball stuff, kind of given up on finding a source for patch panels and such and just make most of my own... Amazing what you can do with a piece of 20 ga., a shot bag, plastic mallet, couple pieces of round tubing for dies, and a couple body hammers!!!!!! Used to be a sheetmetal shop in town, they were a great source for cutoffs and weird shaped pieces....too bad they went belly up! Probably cuz they threw away too much stuff!!!!

[falconvan]

Before I started patching this I bought a Ron Covell video on sheet metal forming and watched it a few times. I was blown away by what he did with simple hand tools. He was building a replacement quarter panel and tailpiece for a 1930 something Auburn. About halfway throught the curved tailpeice he was building it was looking like he took a perfectly good piece of metal and beat it into oblivian but I'll be darned if it didnt turn out perfect in the end. Amazing stuff to watch and really satisfying to learn.

[bluestang67]

I like the metal shapers site also . They have some great tech there for metal work . These inner cowl and body mounts are gone on the 37 . I spent some time last night looking to rebuild them . I have found them for replacement but at $105 a piece I think I am going to try my hand at making . This is where your patch work has given me a I can do mind process. They will be hidden so perfect match won't be necessary Just some good solid support.

[techinspector1]

I usually work on such oddball stuff, kind of given up on finding a source for patch panels and such and just make most of my own... Amazing what you can do with a piece of 20 ga., a shot bag, plastic mallet, couple pieces of round tubing for dies, and a couple body hammers!!!!!! Used to be a sheetmetal shop in town, they were a great source for cutoffs and weird shaped pieces....too bad they went belly up! Probably cuz they threw away too much stuff!!!!

Have a buddy who runs a fab shop and does the same thing. Throws most of the useable stuff in the trash. I built 90% of the brackets, gussets, etc. for the T by scrounging through his trash.