1952 Chevy tail pan fabrication

[MP&C]

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...








Dies made for the universal tool holder in the Lennox Nibbler





Profile check...





Test sample...





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





Step detail





Tipping the leading edge..





Dan takes a twinkie break





Videos....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BB8wdKQHwqE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbrMeTq0HXE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWELebyXNF0

Comparing new to old...





Rusty seal joggle on the old panel...





The new one...








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








Comparison....





Fancy tool for finishing the bead ends...

[DanStokes]

More magic!

Dan

[MP&C]

Thanks Dan, we try! I'm still a lowly muggle though....


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





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..





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

[Loren]

I dooo love the work you guys do with that machine. Nice!

[AndyB]

Seeing work like that makes me really feel bad about the stuff I can do. You need to make it look more difficult, so the rest of us mortals can feel better about ourselves!

[MP&C]

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...





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..








It has a snug fit like so:





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..











Setting up for some practice runs...








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


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMi7...ature=youtu.be


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..





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...








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...

[DanStokes]

But do you NEED more work? With the quality of work you guys do I'd think you would have all you can handle. Still, it's cool to let folks see what's possible.

Dan

[gotboost495]

Wow very nice

[MP&C]

But do you NEED more work? With the quality of work you guys do I'd think you would have all you can handle. Still, it's cool to let folks see what's possible.

Dan

Glutton for punishment I guess ! Thanks for the comments guys

[MP&C]

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, looks rather spiffy!