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Wed Oct 08, 2014 5:00 pm

Need some tips on how to recreate the curve on the on the bottom of the apron of my 55. Need to repair where someone shoved a pea shooter motor in a early car. Metal there, is insanely hard and brittle, lots of cracks. Wont even weld very well.
folding the lip isnt an issue, but creating curve while bent, im not sure the best way to do that with limited tooling i have.

Wed Oct 08, 2014 7:37 pm

I did an apron for Cal-Look and eliminated the pea-shooter holes . . . about the same thing you will need to do.

1st, removed the inside panel
2nd, cut out the pea-shooter holes beyond the radius areas (in your case, beyond the bad metal)
3rd, made patch panels to fill the pea-shooter holes and butt-welded them and hammered them flat
4th, made a pattern from the bottom of a good apron and created a hammer-form from 1" MDF
5th, clamped sheet metal to hammer-form and made a new bottom panel
6th, welded new bottom panel to apron
7th, re-welded inside panel to apron

I did not use any special tools, and it turned out very nice.
I have seen what you have done on yer Oval . . . I am sure you can do this also!
Just a bummer that you have the rear clip welded already . . . It would be MUCH easier with the apron off, but it can still be done.

I took pics. If you really need them . . .

Wed Oct 08, 2014 7:46 pm

Get yourself a set of body hammers and anvils and have at it :D

Wed Oct 08, 2014 9:03 pm

I have a set of hammer and dollies. Im just unsure how to go about getting the correct curve. I tried playing with a piece of scrap but wasnt much luck.

Thanks blitz. I wouldnt mind pictures, having a hard time picturing the hammer form, and kinda lost me at welding up pea shooters, but then welding bottom panel? I dont have to cut out the rear panel because there isnt one on a 55 and earlier car. I will have to make one up, or cut one out of a late car to add on, big motors burn paint on early aprons.

Wed Oct 08, 2014 11:06 pm

1badride65 wrote: Get yourself a set of body hammers and anvils and have at it :D
You must be better with the "body hammers and anvils" than I am!
I was able, however, to go from this beat-up old apron . . .

. . . tore-up "pea-shooter openings . . .

. . . To This apron with filled "pea-shooter" openings . . .

. . . and a fresh new, smooth, one-piece bottom section . . .

If you can do this with nothing but "body hammers and anvils", you get PLENTY of respect from me!!
I "cheated" and used what I call a hammer-form.

Wed Oct 08, 2014 11:50 pm

Looks good. Thanks man, hopefully pics will work at some point

Wed Oct 08, 2014 11:56 pm

I think i see, you cut the whole bottom lip off and made a new one?

Thu Oct 09, 2014 1:06 am

That's correct. I cut the bottom off and I also cut out the openings for the "pea-shooters" and filled them with patches.

CREATING a HAMMER-FORM
I started by making a pattern from a good apron using a large piece of corrugated cardboard. I held the cardboard horizontally against the bottom of the apron (in the same plane as the bottom of the car . . . easiest to do when the engine is out) and I marked the shape of the rear edge of the apron onto the cardboard with a felt-tip pen.
I cut out the cardboard pattern and transferred the shape to a piece of 1" thick MDF board that was just slightly wider than the apron. In order to make the hammer-form's shape symmetrical, flip the cardboard pattern over and line it up to the previously drawn mark, and mark another line. The two lines should be directly one on top of the other . . . if not, you need to average the two lines by cutting in between them.
After cutting the MDF, radius the corner to match the bottom of the apron panel . . . the radius gets larger towards the middle of the apron. You can use a sanding block with 100 grit sandpaper to do this.
I also cut a piece of plywood to use under my "C" clamps, then I clamped a piece of sheet steel between the two pieces of wood . . . Here's my "sandwich" . . .

Using the dead blow hammer, I gently tapped on the sheet metal from one end of the form to the other and back again. It looked like this after the first pass . . .

Several more passes and it looked like this. Lots of small taps work MUCH better than fewer big hits! The soft face of the dead blow-hammer prevented dents from forming in the curve.
Note that waves will form along the edge of the sheet metal. The waves need to be shrunk, so now concentrate the hammer blows to the high points. The dead blow hammer does not work very well at this, so now is the time to start using your body hammer . . . the one with a large face.

Working the highs with the body hammer will get you to this . . .

Remove the clamps and your careful work should be rewarded with something like this . . .

Carefully trim away everything that does not look like the bottom section of an apron panel . . .

By using this continuous section, the bottom of the apron will be nice and strong to resist cracking and other problems that can otherwise occur, plus the apron will have a beautiful curve again!

Hope this will be of some help to you!

Thu Oct 09, 2014 1:22 am

Pretty neat. I must be tired at 1:30am kinda confused on marking 2 lines? And radius of thr corner of wood is bigger than outer sides? How bout you just let me borrow it ;)

Thu Oct 09, 2014 1:34 am

kielbasa wrote: . . . kinda confused on marking 2 lines?

Just a way to make sure that the right and left sides are the same. However you end up making your pattern, just make sure both sides match!

kielbasa wrote: And radius of thr corner of wood is bigger than outer sides?

If you look at an apron, notice that the bottom edge has a smaller radius at the sides where it meets the fenders . . . compared to the center of the apron , , , the area between the "pea-shooter" cut-outs has a larger radius.

kielbasa wrote: How bout you just let me borrow it ;)
If I weren't a long ways away from O.C.!
But anyways, creating a hammer-form for this part of your project will take just an hour or so! It took me WAY longer to post these photos than it took to me to make the Hammer-form!!
For me, making this panel was good practice. The next hammer-form I made was for making the piece to repair the rusted lower edge of a windshield opening!

Thu Oct 09, 2014 8:27 am

Nice picture set with explanations, 57blitz!

Thank you!

Thu Oct 09, 2014 10:28 am

X2 57blitz nice demo. I have been telling people to build or buy the right tools for the job for years & you do it in 5 pictures. Very well done. =D>

Thu Oct 09, 2014 11:01 am

Blitz, did you sand the corner by hand? Or used a router, and feather in a wider curve in the corner towards the center

Thu Oct 09, 2014 2:44 pm

I did this . . . kielbasa wrote: . . . used a router, and feather in a wider curve in the corner towards the center . . .
I do not recall what sized round-over bit I used . . . sorry!
You want one smaller than the radius of the outside of your apron as it will be forming the inside of the panel.

Thu Oct 09, 2014 3:06 pm

Cool, thanks buddy. Prob wont get to that until the body is off the car. That way im not on the floor on my back cutting grinding measuring.

Mon Oct 13, 2014 10:02 am

Is apron lip suppose to be bent at a 90 degree angle? Or should it be folded over more? Seems aprons ive seen are folded over a bit more, could just be from getting banged around though.

Mon Oct 13, 2014 9:45 pm

kielbasa wrote: Is apron lip suppose to be bent at a 90 degree angle? Or should it be folded over more?
I'm takin' a guess at where yer goin' here . . .

I formed my bottom repair section with a 90 degree bend, but the lip WILL be horizontal, that is in the same plane as the bottom of the car, when I finished.
In the photos above, it is still a rough trim . . . I trimmed more . . . trimmed right to the point where the radius stopped. The rest of the radius is on the apron.

Maybe another few photos will help.
Notice that the junk has been cut out . . . on mine, that was the pea-shooter holes, but on yours it will be those nasty work-hardened, dented areas. Now is the time to work-out any dents, etc. with a hammer and dolly. The apron will be quite flimsy at this point . . . make sure everything is lined up and not twisted before proceeding . . . then the new panel is clamped to the apron along the bottom lip.

I Fitted the patches I made to fill the holes . . . notice I tried to keep the gap as small as I could. I butt-welded the patches, knocked down the welds, and again I worked the apron with the hammer and dolly. I marked a trim line on the apron, removed the new panel, and trimmed the apron.

After welding the new bottom panel the entire length, I trimmed the extra length off of the new bottom lip leaving just enough to hammer over and replicate how the original apron was formed in the lower corners. Also, my apron had a couple cracks that I had to repair . . . I welded the cracks and ground the welds . . . You can see one of them here.

After grinding the welds, I marked the locations and drilled these drain holes to add some realism . . .

My apron probably should have been tossed into the scrap heap, but I am glad I did this . . . a very valuable learning experience for me!

Hope this helps! Did I answer yer question?

Also . . . I want to thank Danny Gabbard for sharing the AWESOME metal work he does and Inspiring me to try stuff like this!!! 8)

Thu Jan 21, 2021 11:14 am

This is what I've been working on for some time now.
What I started with:

Where I've gotten to with the hammer/dolly, head scratching, what do I try next method:

Having a paper pattern for the curve would be a great starting point for a hammer form. I don't have a stock apron to trace from so I'm trying to get it close and then maybe try to make a hammer form that'll fit inside to work the final lines out with. Learning curve....literally

Thu Feb 04, 2021 7:39 pm

tehillah1 wrote: This is what I've been working on for some time now.
What I started with:

Where I've gotten to with the hammer/dolly, head scratching, what do I try next method:

Having a paper pattern for the curve would be a great starting point for a hammer form. I don't have a stock apron to trace from so I'm trying to get it close and then maybe try to make a hammer form that'll fit inside to work the final lines out with. Learning curve....literally

You need a new rear apron or you need to basically fabricate a large repair panel similar to the OP, who did a nice job BTW.