Quote:
Originally Posted by mcbassin
Very nice work! I'd like to see exactly how you shaped these pieces. I'm lost when it comes to sheet metal fab. More pictures please
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Sure thing, Mike. I used a shrinker and stretcher to make the curved piece I grafted onto the cowl. The first picture below shows the shrinker on the left and the stretcher on the right with the jaws open. They each have four dies that move when the handle is depressed. There are serrations on the dies that grip the metal being formed. The second photo shows the jaws closed. You can see the shrinker starts out in the open position and ends up closed, while the stretcher is just the opposite. So when you place material in the gap, the shrinker squeezes the metal together slightly and conversely, the stretcher pulls it apart.
Where you grip the metal is important. The closer to the bent edge, the less "action" there is on the metal. The further away causes the metal to move more, but can result in tearing or wrinkling. Next post I'll show the results.