Guy I know in the States saw an article in Street Rodder magazine about this, and pointed it out.
I thought I'd give it a go, basically it involves using something like an arbor press to shape the sheet metal and not a hammer.
You could use a fly press, or a hydraulic press, or you could build a box section frame and use a bottle jack.
First I made some nylon tools for the arbor press...
These are basically slices of nylon bar with a hole drilled for the 3/4" rod, and then I mounted them in the lathe, spun them up and shaped them with a sanding disc on the grinder.
If I'd have drilled them 5/8" for some 5/8" rod, I could have spun them up in a drill instead...
After a little messing around using rubber car mats as a substitute for a sandbag, I just holesawed a piece of MDF and used that to shape the metal.
Which looks pretty horrible if you've never done this sort of thing before. But once I'd got something like the right shape and planished it out using the lower crown tools, I had a front mudguard...
Not bad, I thought.
I thought I'd give it a go, basically it involves using something like an arbor press to shape the sheet metal and not a hammer.
You could use a fly press, or a hydraulic press, or you could build a box section frame and use a bottle jack.
First I made some nylon tools for the arbor press...
These are basically slices of nylon bar with a hole drilled for the 3/4" rod, and then I mounted them in the lathe, spun them up and shaped them with a sanding disc on the grinder.
If I'd have drilled them 5/8" for some 5/8" rod, I could have spun them up in a drill instead...
After a little messing around using rubber car mats as a substitute for a sandbag, I just holesawed a piece of MDF and used that to shape the metal.
Which looks pretty horrible if you've never done this sort of thing before. But once I'd got something like the right shape and planished it out using the lower crown tools, I had a front mudguard...
Not bad, I thought.