Working Saturdays with Rick

[v2cad]

I've been working with Rick Mullin on Saturdays helping him redo a fender for a 1937 Rolls Royce. I've been making panels for the steel inner fender. Rick already had the drivers side done so that is what I used for the patterns. I spent about 20 minutes shaping the first panel when Rick came over and said, "that's nice, but we need the opposite side. :oops: No problem just flip the panel inside out, shape is shape if you can flip the paper pattern you can flip the steel part." The nice thing about working with Rick is he explains to me what I need to do and then lets me work on my own. Every once in a while he'll look up from what ever he's doing and see how I'm doing. He can usually tell what the panel needs from across the shop. The first panel was done using a Pettingell power hammer, big Erco shrinker and finishing with the wheel. Panel2 was done with the Erco and the wheel. This method worked a little better for me due to my lack of experience. Things happened a little slower with the wheel and I was able to understand what was happening better. By the time I was almost finished with the second panel I could pick out the low spot and know just about how many passes and what pressure I'd need to fix it. A couple of wash overs and I had a finished panel!

J.
http://www.metalmeet.com/photopost/data/3141/22Paper_pattern.jpg?3588
http://www.metalmeet.com/photopost/data/3141/22Panel1.jpg?4692
http://www.metalmeet.com/photopost/data/3141/22Panel2.jpg?2593
http://www.metalmeet.com/photopost/data/3141/22Wheeling.jpg?3710

[Kerry Pinkerton]

Ricks ewheel looks to be made from a turn of the century jig saw frame similar to the red one I sold at MM. Does it have both an upper and lower adjuster?

nice work on the panels Jay.

[v2cad]

Kerry
Rick's wheel has a quick release on top. It's a spring loaded, over center setup. The lower adjuster uses standard pipe fittings for the up/down movement. I'm not sure what keeps it from rotating. There's something inside the pipe. The machine is very rigid. I thought my little bench wheel was pretty good with the braces and short arms, but this one is way better.

J.

[v2cad]

I've made some progress on the panels for the inner fender that I'm working on. Panel 3 went pretty smoothly but panel 4 has taken me about 2 and a half days. When I would get the sides to fit the arc was off. It took alot of shrinking, stretching and hand manipulating (and Ricks help) to get it to fit.

http://www.metalmeet.com/photopost/data/3141/22panel3_4.JPG?7789
http://www.metalmeet.com/photopost/data/3141/22panel4.JPG?2058

Next time I'll be welding the panels together and metal finishing the welds.

J

[Wray Schelin]

Hi J.

Looks like you're doing a very respectable job. :D You are referring to this panel as an inner fender. Is this a stone shield for the inside of the Rolls fender?

Did you roll in the center section with a bead roller or did you use a Pullmax? Did you make a flexible shape pattern off of an original panel? Do you have an original panel to copy? A flexible shape pattern would allow you to create the area needed for the panel first and then when you rolled or hammered the peak in you would not have to fight getting the right arc by having to shrink the edges.

Wray

[v2cad]

Wray,
You're right, this is to protect the real fender from stone damage. Rick is working on the aluminum outer fender while I'm making this one. I was able to use the bead roller on the smaller panel #3.
With the edges already shrunk on the larger panel it wouldn't fit so I did use the pullmax for that one. I'm working with the opposite side inner fender that Rick had already made a while ago.
We talked about how the flexible shape patterns would be perfect for this job since I would be making the mirror image but, we didn't have the right materials to make the flexible shape pattern when we started so we just made paper patterns. Next time we will be trying that.

J.

[Wray Schelin]

Hi J,

After working on a Rolls you might not want to finish your Firebird. :wink:


Working with aluminum is the perfect time for flexible shape patterns because they stick right to the panel and capture all of the surface information needed. If Rick tried them once he would adopt the method in a heart beat.

You're lucky to have the opportunity to work with Rick.

Wray

[v2cad]

I hope I'm not boring you guys with my story, but this stuff is exciting for me. I showed up at Rick's on Sat all set to weld up the individual pieces I've made in the last couple months into one panel. Rick had other ideas. He handed me a flexible shape pattern and a couple of cardboard template guages and asked me to make this piece. Oh yeah, he says, You've got one hour to make it. Now, I'm thinking ol' Rick's been watching too much
Discovery Channel with all those unreasonable deadlines and all. How in the hell am I going to make this in an hour. Then I remembered what happened to the guy at Boyds shop when he
pissed off the shop supervisor and the boss went and started chasing & shootin' him with the paint ball gun.So I figured I better get to work. Now you guys will probably notice that I didn't take too many pics of the start of this whole process 'cause I figured I didn't have too much time. Well, things went pretty well, somehow. I was able to get the part done in about an hour and ten minutes. The thing is, I don't even know how I got it to fit so good. I mean, I've been paying attention to what you guys have been saying, but I still don't feel like I know what I'm doing. I'm still waiting for that big moment when all of a sudden you
realize "Ohhh! that's how it works". Anyway, Rick said the piece fit real good and that I can come back again.<g>

J.


http://www.metalmeet.com/photopost/data/3141/22frnt_panel-med.jpg
Front Panel
http://www.metalmeet.com/photopost/data/3141/22flex_ptn-med.jpg
Flexible Shape Pattern
http://www.metalmeet.com/photopost/data/3141/22test_fit-med.jpg
Test fitting
http://www.metalmeet.com/photopost/data/3141/22comp_patch-med.jpg
Finished piece tack welded in

[Kerry Pinkerton]

Nice Work Jay!

[jlrussell4]

Hi J,

I hope I'm not boring you guys with my story,
No J. you are not boring me :wink: I am enjoying this series very much. Thanks for sharing. :D

Jim

[v2cad]

I've got some updates on my progress on the inner fender. This Sat. I was able to weld up the side panel to the top panel. I only have pics of the finished piece this time, but will take more progress pics on the next side. I also have pics of the tipping wheel I made for my bench top ewheel. Rick & I used this to set the edge on the center panel. It worked real good. The lower wheel is a ureathane roller I found at work and the upper is two pieces of stainless I had laying around.

http://www.metalmeet.com/photopost/data/3315/22TippingWheel4.jpg

http://www.metalmeet.com/photopost/data/3141/22I_Fender3.jpg



http://www.metalmeet.com/photopost/data/3141/22I_Fender2.jpg

[v2cad]

It's been a little while since I've been to Rick's due to yard work & family vacations, but I went back this Sat. and Rick worked me hard to make up for lost time. I wanted to mention first that while on vacation I was able to stop by and visit with Jay Hayes. What a shop!! Jay was nice enough to spend a few hours talking to my brother and I about all the stuff he's worked on. I also got to check out one of the Kerry & Son Ewheels. Nice job you guys. That thing was solid and Joe's anvils were top notch.

The first couple of pics are the Alum fender that Rick's doing
http://www.metalmeet.com/photopost/data/3141/22RR_Fender10.JPG

http://www.metalmeet.com/photopost/data/3141/22RR_Fender11.JPG

These pics are of the steel inner fender that I'm working on. I learned something about welding this stuff. Now I've been TIG welding almost 2 years now and I'm not too bad, but it's not enough to be able to run a bead and not burn through. You also have to be careful about how much heat you're putting into the panel. What I mean is you need to be consistent. I ran a pretty good bead on the other side , but paused a little and at those spots there were a couple of knots or high spots in the panel. A little work with the torch and a little more with the shrinking disk and the spots were gone, but it added about a half hour to the job.

http://www.metalmeet.com/photopost/data/3141/22inner_clamped2.JPG

http://www.metalmeet.com/photopost/data/3141/22Inner_tacked.JPG

Next time I'll weld this one early and watch my heat.

[Wray Schelin]

Hi J.

You keep getting better with each visit to Rick's! :D Keep sending in the reports.

Jay's shop is a trip. :shock: I don't think anyone will ever top Jay in the space and tools race . He has won that contest years ago. :lol: :lol: :lol: He is in the top of the skills level too. Too bad we can't get him to post more here. He has to get off that **** dial up connection...... :D :D

Wray

[v2cad]

Well, the inner fender for the Rolls Royce is almost done. It just
needs a small panel in the back. That needs to be added last to
make sure it all fits. Rick brought the fender in all marked up where the finished edge will needs to be. We ran the green 3/4 masking tape up to these lines. Then we used the 1/4" blue plastic tape to make a offset from this line. This is the line we cut to. This allowed for a 1/4" folded edge. Remember this is an inner fender and the "show" part is the inside surface. The first pic shows the tape lines we used to trim the panel.
http://www.metalmeet.com/photopost/data/3141/22tapelines2.JPG

We then used the bead roller to "set the line" around the perimeter of the fender. I didn't get any pics of that because with the size of the panel it was all Rick & I could do to keep the thing straight and crank the handle. It wasn't a pretty sight. The next pic shows Rick using a hammer & dolly to bend the edge over by moving back and forth, a little at a time. We took turns with that. It's a pretty tiring job especially if you're used to sitting at a desk all day behind a computer. :wink:

http://www.metalmeet.com/photopost/data/3141/22dollywork.JPG

After getting the edge done with the hammer &
dolly we ran it through the English wheel to flatten it and make everything uniform. This really gave us a clean edge. The next step was to clean the panel using phosphoric acid and water. After cleaning we sprayed it with wax & grease remover and while still wet we looked closely for any waves or hi/low spots.

http://www.metalmeet.com/photopost/data/3141/22wetcheck2-med.JPG

The final step was to clean the welds on the inside and fill any voids with lead. This step wasn't really necessary, but Rick wanted to show me how it's done.

http://www.metalmeet.com/photopost/data/3141/22finishedseams.JPG

http://www.metalmeet.com/photopost/data/3141/22underside.JPG

This has been a great learning experience for me. With Rick showing/helping me along the way, my fear of screwing up is going away. I now find myself thinking more about how to do a job rather than what tool could I build to help me make a part. This is really helping me to move up to the next level.
The next project Rick & I will be working on will be making a complete aluminum door for a Ferrari race car. Hopefully I'll be able to document this build a little better.
J.

[Prostreet]

Hi V2
how lucky can one be to have a shop in your area to hang out and shape fenders and doors on cool cars . nice job V :D

Steve

[Wray Schelin]

Hi J.,

It's obvious that under Rick's guidance you have mastered the craft of sheetmetal shaping and now the possibility and challenge of any shape awaits. :D :D


Great job!!

Wray