Any sheet metal part for any car, no dies used
 

This is aluminum but in the future mild sheet steel may be able to be formed. Although I think aluminum sheet metal parts for a Model A would be a good idea to save lots of weight. The sheet metal part is a CAD model and then a machine forms it without the use of a die. The cost is probably high but that may come down in the future. It is the machine time that eats up the money.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bD6zyEhrYfU

Re: Any sheet metal part for any car, no dies used
 

That is cool. Guy says he has 19,000 hours into the car they are forming. I feel like I have 19,000 hours into one fender doing it by hand (but I'm a crappy sheet metal person and an even worse welder).

Re: Any sheet metal part for any car, no dies used
 

Huuuum
19000 hrs x $100 hr…= $1,900,000 !!
Couldn’t do much on a Model A!


It pays to have $700k+ in equipment…and know how to use it.

Re: Any sheet metal part for any car, no dies used
 

There was a thread on this a year or so ago. Still too expensive unless it's a Duesenberg. It's slow if you want 100s of parts. Of course it will produce a repeatable part. In the 1960s Cobras were hand hammered on wooden bucks in England by true craftsmen. Today Kirkham has them stamped out on permanent dies in a Polish aircraft plant. You can get one from them or Shelby American who will add $40,000 to the price to put a serial number plate that says it's a "real" Cobra. Pete Brock made the first Daytona Coupe here in America. The other 5 were hammered out in Italy. He can look at each one 20' away and tell you the serial number by how badly they followed the original.

Re: Any sheet metal part for any car, no dies used
 

It's still too expensive for a Duesenberg, it's just not as big of a cost loss for a Duesenberg. Duesenberg and other high end car restorations are mostly unprofitable for the car owner, just like Model A's. The scale at which you play often has a few more zeros at the end 1,000,000 vs 30,000.

Re: Any sheet metal part for any car, no dies used
 

I have enough swage tools to do a lot of forming. I had to make bucks for specific parts on a few cars I've made patch panels for. My Mercury cars are not ones that a lot of parts were reproduced for. Townsend Customs made my inner & outer rockers and my tow boards for my 51 but I formed my own floor panels. It's a lot of work but most of the cost was the 1008 deep draw steel sheet stock. I learned a lot from one or two professional metal fabricators both here in the states and in the UK. I've always had my own oxy acetylene welding rig and I use it a lot.

Re: Any sheet metal part for any car, no dies used
 

Hard to believe this topic has not gotten more responses. This is amazing tech, would love to see the finished product in hand. The redhat guy is a dick but the video is well worth seeing. As the painter said, he looks like he's inbred.

Re: Any sheet metal part for any car, no dies used
 

There's a shop in our area that cranks out some amazing automotive creations and he does it without the use of expensive special dies or exotic machinery, digital or otherwise...they make them all by hand. Any panel, any car, or a complete car; whatever you want!

https://www.facebook.com/mcautocreationsTX/