Shaping roadster panels

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That's very nice. Is there a way to put a low crown in a panel like your door with only hand tools?
 
That's very nice. Is there a way to put a low crown in a panel like your door with only hand tools?


You beat me to it...

Sorry if I am confusing anyone with the backwards pics. I am in no way saying this is how things are done, just the way that I tackled it..


Below is a pic after I cut the sheet metal for the door skin allowing 3/8 around the edge to lap over the inner door structure. As you can see there are markings on the metal going back and forth. These are the paths that I took with a hammer to shape it. The outside of the door is slightly convex. To get this shape I put the outside of the door down on my steel bench after I made sure was very flat and clean and started hitting all over the back with a slight radius hammer following these paths to make sure I hit every square inch about 10 times. This action slightly raised the other side creating the convex shape.

Forming_door-1.jpg



In the picture below you will see the door skin that has already been shaped. At this time the door skin is convex and looks like a door skin without a raised belt line. To create the belt line I clamped a 1/4" thick bar to my table and allowed the section that would become the belt line hang over. I then chased that 1/4" bar with a well rounded edge 1" flat chisel (The sharp edge is ground off) and a hammer. slowly beating the panel down to create the belt line.


Forming_door-3.jpg


Forming_door-4.jpg



Soon I will be starting the inner door structure..
 
I have a frame I have been building for another Model A project of mine. I sat this little beauty on it and now I am torn... It is going to be hard to keep with my original plans.


roadster_frame_1.jpg


roadster_frame_2.jpg


hand_fabbed_rpu.jpg


hand_fabbed_rpu_2.jpg
 

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