If you want to get better at anything you need to practice and push yourself to try things a little out of your skill/comfort level. Metal Shaping is 100% one of those things that you need to practice and work to get better at, even if it means wrecking a […]
Tag: Metal Shaping
Smoothing the Back End- Frenched Taillights on Pile House.
I will admit that I tend to over think things when I am building a custom car and sometimes I mock something up and I don’t like it or decide I need to tweak the original idea. A while back I decided on a set of ’62 Oldsmobile 88 taillights for the back of the truck. I liked the lens shape and chrome trim on them, but the bezel had peaked ends that made it tough to sink them into a relatively flat panel. For the sake of getting “something” in the rollpan I temporarily made brackets to slide them into the panel. At first I was “ok” with how they looked, but the further I got with building the tailgate on the backend I knew in the back of my head I needed to revisit how they were sitting.
Grand National Roadster Show 2015- The year of Bare Metal?
Our main focus here at Eastwood is to make products that the DIY guy or gal can afford and can produce pro quality work with. In order for us to be sure our products are good enough for you at home, we like to get our products into the hands of high end shops so they can put them to the test. This means our Eastwood “stuff” get used on some pretty high-end vehicles built by these shops. This year the Grand National Roadster Show was chocked-full of EXTREMELY high end vehicles, many of which had Eastwood products used on them! We decided to post up about our three favorite cars by some shops that we’re honored to say use Eastwood products in their builds!
How to Build Motorcycle Gas Tank Sides with Ron Covell
This year he showed how to make a motorcycle gas tank side with a voluptuous compound curved shape using some of the most basic metal shaping tools. In this demonstration he shows how to make the left side of the tank.
How to shave and metal finish your firewall with Empire Fabrication
Shaving or smoothing the bodywork on a custom car has been one of the most popular modifications since the beginning. Shaving door handles and trim or side marker holes are the most common things to shave on a project car, but close behind that is smoothing or shaving the firewall. Sean of Empire Fabrication has gotten REALLY good at shaving and smoothing cars. So much so that his finished projects require basically no body filler at all and can be primered and block sanded straight away. Sean recently took the time to snap some photos and give us the rundown on how he tackles a firewall shave project. The donor vehicle is a VW Eurovan that he has already drastically customized. So grab a drink, sit back, and watch how to do the job right with Empire Fabrication.
Scratch building a Ford Hot Rod to Scale- Building a skeleton
Recently product developer Mark R. decided to build a 30’s Ford Hot Rod to scale. The process would be fun and it’s going to allow him to test a number of the new Eastwood Metal Fabrication tools and accessories we have coming down the pike. We figured we’d document the process and give you some sneak peaks at new products along the way.
Beginners Metal Shaping Project- Making a panel blister.
Metal shaping is one of those things that seems like black magic to beginners. There really is a science behind the process that takes quite some time to learn and understand. The quickest and easiest way to understand how metal shaping works on the granular level is by comparing it to pizza dough. The more you stretch it out, the thinner it gets and the excess material has to go somewhere (in the pizza’s case its the rolled up crust) and the more you shrink the metal the thicker it gets and again it has to “go somewhere”. I decided to demonstrate a great beginner project for gaining experience in metal shaping by making a panel blister out of a 12″x12″x12″ piece of 5053 .035 aluminum. This process is great to help you understand the process and is pretty straight forward.
Custom Scratch Built Bed DIY for Project Pile House
Project Pile House has been an ever-evolving project and like many projects, things start small and spiral out of control and next thing you know you’re detailing the inside of your glove box hinges! Luckily I’m not quite that OCD about my vehicles (yet), but Pile House is now more than just a thrown-together junkyard parts runner like I originally planned. It’s turned into a full blown custom and not much on the truck is original or untouched. After getting the cab, dash, hood, etc. all smoothed out and “roughed in”, the original patched together bed and fenders was bothering the crap out of me every time I looked at it. The fenders looked like boat trailer fenders and were more roughed up than a boxer after a title fight, while the bed itself wasn’t much better. I decided to start dreaming up a subtle custom bed.
5 Tips to Make your Bead Roller work Better
Bead rolling is one of those sheet metal fabrication tools that looks easy to use, but there are countless tricks to get good looking, consistent beads. On Project Pile House I have over a hundred feet handmade panels rolled in bead roller (Easily!) and I’ve picked up a handful of tips along the way that make life a LOT easier!