Chris_Hamilton
Trying to be the best me, I can be
Fellow Forum member MikeGee contacted me on the forum in August about painting his 74 MG Midget. I'm going to start a thread on the car, but I thought I'd share this part now. Maybe some of you will find it interesting.
The front valance was really beat up. Figured this would be a good chance to practice a little and hopefully make the panel. Here is what it looked like once I got most of the paint and filler off. Had about an inch of filler on it, along with brazing, stretched bumper bracket holes etc.
Started by making a paper pattern. I ended up making a second pattern as I wasn't satisfied with the fit of this one but I didn't take a pic of that one.
Picture of the profile gauges I made out of 1/4" MDF. Because of the damage, I could only make profiles of the end sides (up and down) using the edge of the fender and the middle (up and down). The top (side to side) and about 2 inches from the bottom (side to side). I used a contour gauge and transferred it to MDF, then cut it out with a Jigsaw.
Some the tools I used.
Some blocking hammers. Blue one is my Peter Tommasini "HandBuilt" hammer that I used for this job. Red one is one I made from a broken F250 rear axle. One on the left is a Picard.
So after making the pattern, I then transferred all the markings like the edges, middle of the radius of the top fold etc over to a piece of 20 gauge cr steel sheet. I used 20 GA because that is the thickness of the original part. I laid the pattern over the sheet and used a scriber to mark out all the info. Then using an assortment of French Curves I connected all the scribe marks into lines
Once I had all the info on the sheet, I cut it, filed the edges, and started blocking. Blocking refers to hammering into a sandbag to put shape into a panel. I choose to block instead of wheeling the shape in because blocking doesn't thin the panel as much when there is a lot of shape.I used my smaller bags instead of my large sandbag because when filled it weighs a lot. Probably well over 200 pounds. More than what I can lift. I didn't want to have to get someone to help me lift it on and off the table. I used 2 18x12 bags and several other 18" bags to help anchor the panel during various stages. After each round of blocking, I would open the panel up and then wheel it with no pressure to smooth out the lumps. Then check my progress with the profile gauges
I'll continue posting later today. Didn't document everything like Robert does, but I did take pics of many of the steps.
The front valance was really beat up. Figured this would be a good chance to practice a little and hopefully make the panel. Here is what it looked like once I got most of the paint and filler off. Had about an inch of filler on it, along with brazing, stretched bumper bracket holes etc.
Started by making a paper pattern. I ended up making a second pattern as I wasn't satisfied with the fit of this one but I didn't take a pic of that one.
Picture of the profile gauges I made out of 1/4" MDF. Because of the damage, I could only make profiles of the end sides (up and down) using the edge of the fender and the middle (up and down). The top (side to side) and about 2 inches from the bottom (side to side). I used a contour gauge and transferred it to MDF, then cut it out with a Jigsaw.
Some the tools I used.
Some blocking hammers. Blue one is my Peter Tommasini "HandBuilt" hammer that I used for this job. Red one is one I made from a broken F250 rear axle. One on the left is a Picard.
So after making the pattern, I then transferred all the markings like the edges, middle of the radius of the top fold etc over to a piece of 20 gauge cr steel sheet. I used 20 GA because that is the thickness of the original part. I laid the pattern over the sheet and used a scriber to mark out all the info. Then using an assortment of French Curves I connected all the scribe marks into lines
Once I had all the info on the sheet, I cut it, filed the edges, and started blocking. Blocking refers to hammering into a sandbag to put shape into a panel. I choose to block instead of wheeling the shape in because blocking doesn't thin the panel as much when there is a lot of shape.I used my smaller bags instead of my large sandbag because when filled it weighs a lot. Probably well over 200 pounds. More than what I can lift. I didn't want to have to get someone to help me lift it on and off the table. I used 2 18x12 bags and several other 18" bags to help anchor the panel during various stages. After each round of blocking, I would open the panel up and then wheel it with no pressure to smooth out the lumps. Then check my progress with the profile gauges
I'll continue posting later today. Didn't document everything like Robert does, but I did take pics of many of the steps.
