1952 Chevy Tailpan

MP&C

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Spent today hosting a Pullmax Workshop for some of the guys from the VA HAMB. OJ Higgins recently took delivery of a gargantuan Trumpf universal machine (a Pullmax on Steroids) and wanted a down and dirty on how these machines could be put to use. So OJ and a few other VA guys stopped by today and for a sample to use, ClutchDumpinDan brought by a tail pan from his 52 Chevy that was in dire need of rust repair.. We found a piece of 18 gauge cold rolled steel large enough to do the trick, so Dan cut it in half just in case we needed to do this twice...


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Dies made for the universal tool holder in the Lennox Nibbler


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Profile check...


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Test sample...


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Our new panel ready to run through the dies...


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Step detail


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Tipping the leading edge..


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Dan takes a twinkie break


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Videos....









Comparing new to old...


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Rusty seal joggle on the old panel...


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The new one...


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Adding some bead details to change things up a bit...


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Comparison....


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Fancy tool for finishing the bead ends...


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In my life time I have spent about two weeks at metal meet, it is just unreal what these guys can do, like make a complete Jag body one made a Ferrari body, a 40 for front end and best was one guy told me, it is not done unless any imperfection can be filled with 2 coats of primer.
Really makes you feel incompetent.
 
In my life time I have spent about two weeks at metal meet, it is just unreal what these guys can do, like make a complete Jag body one made a Ferrari body, a 40 for front end and best was one guy told me, it is not done unless any imperfection can be filled with 2 coats of primer.
Really makes you feel incompetent.

I know how you feel, I see that craftsmen ship and think (to myself) "I suck". That kinda work is totally bad ass, nice job.
 
Sorry I couldn't make it Robert, I would have loved to be there. My beloved Pit Bull is/was suffering from kidney failure and I wanted to be around the house cause she didn't have much time left. Actually just got back from the Vet and having to put her to sleep. One of the hardest things I've ever had to do.
 
Thanks for the comments guys.

Chris, sorry to hear about your Pit, I didn't give you much notice and wasn't sure about the long drive as it was.
 
Sorry I couldn't make it Robert, I would have loved to be there. My beloved Pit Bull is/was suffering from kidney failure and I wanted to be around the house cause she didn't have much time left. Actually just got back from the Vet and having to put her to sleep. One of the hardest things I've ever had to do.
Yes it is one of the hardest things you will ever have to do. They are one of the family.
 
Like the new pan better than the old. Pretty cool what you can do combining some nice machinery with skilled work.

Also good that you post some use of safety equipment here. Eating a twinkie without proper eye safety equipment could cause temporarily blurred vision.:rolleyes::rolleyes:
 
Yeah, they seemed to be protecting his forehead until I went to take the twinkie picture. Hold on, he says, need to be safe! What characters!

Had some questions about how we did the "J" detail for the bumper seal..


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I missed getting some of the pictures of the dies, so had to go back afterwards...


These are all the dies used, I had three different lower dies to progressively fold the sides in. The location is set by using a backstop on the first pass, using the die show on the right..


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This is the final die shown with a sample run...


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Doesn't seem like much got done this weekend, but here's what we did..


Stopped by the local CNC router facility to get some generic guides made for bead detail on the Lennox Nibbler...


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Also had some blanks cut out over there to the right side. These were to form stops so we can adjust length of our pattern shorter as needed..


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It has a snug fit like so:


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Next was to turn up a new die with less crown than the other we've been using, just to have a different look, a flatter bead..


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Setting up for some practice runs...


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Here's a comparison between the new die and the fuller radius we've been using..




Thursday night headed over to Virginia, the 52 Chevy tail pan now resided in Fredericksburg and I needed to borrow the original and new one for the Coming Out car show in Charlotte Hall, being held Sunday (today). I had been dragging my feet about even going to the show, but the weather forecast promised beautiful weather, so I went ahead and reserved a vendor spot to show off our fabrication work. Friday night started gathering some samples to take and a put some pictures together for an album..


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We still had all the original pieces for the lift gate repair, so that was a good sample..

Set up at the show, I figured parked next to the Ice Cream truck would be easier on my will power than the smell of three BBQ trucks on the other side...


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Got these pictures right after we set up and before all the crowd showed up. Had a blast, talking metalshaping, rust repair, etc. for most of the day.. I guess I've got to get back to work now...
 
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We don't always get to see installed pictures of some of the smaller fabrications we do, so when it does happen it's nice to share them. The tailpan we made in this thread has been fitted up to the car, and finally got a picture!

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