[BIGYIN]

Well it could be a rod if you like.. call it what you want, giant pile of poo! its just a post of general interest hopefully...

Latest build is this 1930s Alvis it was a 4 cyl motor but thats been replaced with a 3 ltre six, shortened chassis drilled rails ad brakes, and 4 barred rear on slipper eliptics.

Started buiding up a body for it, something like an ally boat tail doh dah whatsit.. follow along and have a belly laugh at my expense you might even learn how not to do something ...

 

[BIGYIN]

Shoved it out and made up a cardboard template for some idea of a side profile.. No real idea of what its going to look like, just using a couple of random reference pics and some imagination..

Best thing with cardboard is its free, and easy to cut and when you cut it wrong its easy to stick the bit back on... saves time and money.. but unfortunately it goes soggy in the rain..

So the body will be finely crafted ( cough ) from 3003 H14 1.6 mm ally sheet.

Starting from the floor and working from there the bod will be developed to include such finery as blisters ( to match the ones on my fingers) rivits or maybee even rivets :beuj: and a smattering of louvres, expertly shake cut on my home made louvre press. :smoke:

 

[nobody]

did you mount the diagonal bars on the rear as they seam out of place to the rest of it.
looks good for a shitter

 

[blackjack]

Just brush resin onto the cardboard - job done!! Well, it was good enough for Trabant....

 

[BIGYIN]

Starting at the back and working forward for no other reason than Im probably kinda backward.....I made a start to the tail, or what shall frome hear in be termed, the "arse end" for those qualified in tech terms.

With some trusty cardboard I marked out the side profile making a cut out to suit the line of the chassis then set an edge usuing nowt more than a hammer and dolly..

then with a big wooden mallet the shape of an egg I whallopped the top edge of the sheet into a piece of old tree stump. This was purley because my stress medication had run out and had zip to do with any intentional metal shaping.......however inadvertantly a row of ripples occurred along the top edge and a voice in my head called these TUCKS...

After smasshing the TUCKS flat the panel took on a curved appearance strangely reminisent of an old boat tail racer.. :tup:

I smoothed out the damage and was left with somethig to work on...

 

[BIGYIN]

About this time I decided to rest and so far cant get my lazy arse back in the shed... must try harder...

 

[Roadrunna]

Moved this over to the garage :tup:

If you use the image hosting rather than the attachments you can get more than 5 images per post and they will show up full size from the off :tup:

 

[BIGYIN]

Wayne, They are additions to stop the spring parting co with the chassis, there slipper springs so just slide in and out with no phyisical attachment to the forward mount. other than tension.. and a wee prayer.. Those bars answer the prayer and ensure that the axle remains part of the chassis... well thats the theory apparently, failing that on the first application of the brakes the axle stops the chassis continues and we call it a tail dragger...

 

[mikey d]

I love it whatever it is :tup: Reminds me of the old ERA's. And so easy to throw together (if your posts are to be believed:incheek

 

[LUCKY777]

I like this a lot , very cool

 

[chris]

lovin it - very cool :tup:

 

[Survivor mike]

Nice work.. that ruby red on the chassis looks really cool!

 

[Mark H]

That's some cool shit there,Ian!
Keep us posted.

 

[MikeS]

I love it 8)

For me this is the very basis of hot rodding; bigger engine, custom made body. Of course with this definition we British were building hot rods before the Americans with coach built bodies on Bently chassis; but maybe that's a different debate

 

[Skcollob]

Love it, great stuff. Looking forward to pics & info on the ally bashing especially:smoke:

 

[simon g-s]

I'm particularly impressed with your louvre press. I cut some by hand,a real balls ache and a bit wobbly. just missed out on a pulmax so a home built job is on the cards. Would appreciate more pics and info if your inclined to share.
I have some big ass air cylinders, 2" pistons set aside. I think they will be man enough.
Thanks, Si.

 

[BIGYIN]

Simon, no problem .

The frame is made from 100x100x6. 1 full legth was just enough.

the throat is 36 inches deep.

There are 2 mount plates. 1x plate is welded to the face of the frame and drilled and tapped for the 2nd face plate.

The 2nd face plate carries the 2 stage high pressure ram ( which has return inbuilt) Im pumping fluid manually via a 2 stage high pressure hand pump.

The tool ram is just a lump of solid square bar stock with a 1inch diam hole drilled in the bottom to take the upper tool, It wil also take standard fly press tooling .

The lower tool bed is jut a lump of plate drilled and tapped to suit the lower tool.

The tooling I have in it will punch 4 inch louvres.

the tooling is mounted so it can be orientated in any possition, so you can punch into the throat for short work or accross the throat for really long stuff.

I made the front face plate removeable so I can mount other tools, at least that was the idea, but really its just a designated louvre press.

Ive got a TRUMPF similar machine to the pullmax but no tooling for louvres... thats soon to change though, setting up for the trumph is a pain in the but and is kinda like punching louvres free hand so far as length and straightness.

The louvre frame is easy to use, the tooling is self spacing, all you have to do is mark the centre line for your row of louvres, I centrepoped the upper tool so I only hve to line the pop mark with the centre line on the job and were away.. I can easy do 60 louvres in 30mins, thats single handed...

The tooling cuts 1.6mm ally no problem 18g steel is tough but 20g is a breeze.

 

[BIGYIN]

It was a wee bit slow to return without additional springs so I mounted 2 springs from a massey fergusson bailer to help out ( £18 each YIKE )

oly one spring mounted in pic but for the benefit of my OCD I had to fit another to ballance it up.

The pic of the louvres was a simple test piece to ensure the dies were aligned. I wasnt fussed about the louvres being in line...

Then it was on o the job, I built the machine to do this job.. It was cheeper than getting them punched at a local metal shop..

I bought the tooling from a company on the net www.hartleige.co.uk who do a range of louvre sizes, take a seat before seeing the price though..there not cheap, but if your doing stuff for other folk they will be paid for on first job.. I just built it so I can do stuff for myself without having to rely on any body else..Next thing is making some tooling for the trumpf..would be usefull for some of the stuff on th special build..

 

[BIGYIN]

okey dokes, managed to get a few wee bits done in between pickin fluff from my belly button an sratchin my arse.. ( with the added finger sniff accident detector)

Pretty much all the major component bits are made, rivets are ordered ( what a headache that was) and there is some ligh at the end of the tunnel.

Tempting fate here, but by next week the body should be in the assembly stage.

Looks like Ive got to make new grille shell as the original is made of nickel and not easy to weld ( for me at least. I could solder it but decided to make it from scratch the proper size..

Time to hunt some toe cheese....

 

[BIGYIN]

a couple more.. the blisters take about 15minutes to get to the stage in the pic. and will be riveted like most everything else.