Couper

Niiiice

Hotredstang

Very nice fastback !!

jp1967stang

what did you use to make that final lip bend in the front fender

bent metal

"Tipped" to a 90, then put it in possition so the wire is in there. Clamp with vise grips about five inches apart, hammer the metal around the wire so the wire is trapped. Move down another five or so inches, do it again, and again until the entire wire is trapped. Then go back over the whole thing and tighten up the whole thing. By that I mean squeeze it with a vise grip so the metal is tight and even around the wire.

Thanks for the nice comments guys! I'd like to see some of the stuff you all are doing. Maybe this thread will make some of you want to try and do sheet metal fab for your car?

Anyone?

groho

bent, your work is amazing, you make is look so simple. What would you suggest as "necessary" tools for basic fabricating. I already have a 36" brake, and a variety of body hammers and dollies. I plan to picking up a shrinker/stretcher in the immediate future. A list of essentials would be very helpful from an experienced fabricator. Thank you.

bent metal

Well, there are a lot of guys doing better work with less tools than what I have. I like the tools, the more the better.

That said, I would say the shrinker and stretcher are an absolute necessity. With what you already have you should be able to make just about anything except convex and concave. For that I would get a good english wheel. With a decent TIG you should have all you really need. Other tools would just make things faster or easier. ...In my opinion.

NoReins

Unfreakingbelievable!!

bent metal

Anyone have any metal fabrication they want to share? ...please?

Norm Peterson

The little bit that I've done that was *maybe* OK at 30 feet and 30 mph was done ten years or so ago - I think any pictures I have of the process would be on prints from 35mm film somewhere.

Sills and lower quarters, both sides. Fortunately for me and for having to work outdoors, they are simple shapes. The sills were "Paint it, black" to take a little visual height out of the body sides and to help hide parts of the exhaust system. Otherwise, it's the OE paint scheme but not OE paint (or even professional paint, for that matter). This picture was taken about 2005.



Evidently there is a water leak into the passenger side sill, as it has rusted through (again). I haven't decided what I'm going to do about it this time, but the older that car gets the easier it gets to go non-original with whatever it needs, so the range of options is pretty wide open at this point.


Norm

hightower2011

Here's my crappy handy-work












Same on Driver's side:


Here's another ugly patch:


Not done yet, but even when I am done, It'll still be ugly: