As 911 owners know, an area that often gives problems rust-wise is ahead of the battery boxes, where the front bumper mounts.
I have to do this area on almost every car, and have always 'free-handed' the repair sections.
I was then appproached by a 'name' in the business who was doing an RS, and needed the same area. He supplied the old parts, and I thought this would be a good time to have a play with some hammerforming.
I won't put the picture of the forms up (being mean), but thought it was about time I did another batch of Macmillan sheet metal courses. I'm working on the course content at the moment, but have it in mind to reduce the welding content (as everyone, (even first-timers) got the hang of welding so quickly, and change the focus slightly towards practical restoration work, so welding, metal-shaping, hammer-forming, folding, flanges etc etc.
Details will follow on a 'proper' thread, at which point people will be able to register. As before, it'll be first-come, first-served. As I say though, this registration will be via a dedicated thread (assuming any interest of course
), rather than here.Back to these chaps: made from one piece of metal each, with no welding at all (other than a couple of corrective welds, one to help one small area on one of the inner wing sections to sit down tight on the fixture, and the other to rectify a tiny split in one place). To give an idea of the capital involved: materials for fixtures, £9. Grinding and cutting fixtures: £20 (apprx), materials for panels £8. Specialist tool for forming the metal over hammerforms: £.50p. All will be revealed on the courses, suffice to say there's no trickery, just a bit of method and a lot of hitting
. They're not perfect, but do fit quite nicely, and are easily good enough to weld into place and fettle / tweak as required. The orginals fitted the hammerfomed so they nearly sucked onto them, as do these reproductions, so I'm pleased, as was the customer.By the way, I'm not advertising these for sale (these have gone, but I'll do a pair for the course which will go into the next car), just posted as a way of flagging up my little Macmillan £10K in 10 contribution
.
wish I lived a bit nearer...
