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Great work, my friend. Really makes me want to pick up a project carLeave a comment:
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So I have some good news and some bad news. For the next month or two, I'm afraid progress on Fiona is going to slow down quite a lot. As much as it pains me to admit, the truth is I'm just not going to have that much time to devote to her.
That's the bad news. The good news has to do with what will be taking up a majority of my free time for the foreseeable future.
Drum roll please.....
Meet Heidi, a 1988 E28 M5:
I won't get into to much detail in the thread, but she's a very original, very special car that needs some TLC. She sat for about 7 years before I picked her up last night. A few panels have some surface rust like the trunk edge you can see above, but there is nothing cancerous (thank god). The whole body is very solid, and I just need to start sorting out the mechanical systems to get her back on the road.
Only 1344 E28 M5's were brought to the states, and '88 was the only year. Because of how rare they are, and how original this one is, it won't be the same type of crazy off the wall build that Fiona has been (and will continue to be). Heidi will be brought back to her former glory, and then driven hard like she was meant to be. This was the first super sedan ever made, and is a piece of BMW's history. I'm really very thankful to have it in my care, and I'll do my best to get her back to where she deserves to be.
I'll be starting a new thread to follow her progress, and while it won't have the custom fabrication and modifications seen in the thread, it will keep with my style of lots of pictures and thoughtful explanations. So if that seems like something you would enjoy following along with keep you eye's open for it!Last edited by TinkWithanR; 02-05-2014, 12:57 AM.Leave a comment:
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I do know what you mean, there's just something satisfying about take a flat sheet of metal and forming it into a completely different shape with your bare hands (and some tools lol). It's going to be a lot of work to get to where I want it to be, but in the end I think it should be worth it.Leave a comment:
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VERY cool, I am really excited to see what you come up with. Isn't metal working a blast? You're making me wanna head to my shop right now and start creating something haha. I don't know about you, but to me there's something about the permanency of metal that makes it feel so much more proper for grafting into the original body, as opposed to plastic/fiberglass stuff. Good luck on your design and I have a feeling it's going to look bitchin when it's all done.Leave a comment:
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So knowing what my wheels and tires were going to look like, I've had the idea in the back of my mind that the turbo flares weren't really going to cut it anymore. So I've been slowly adding to my metal working capabilities in case it came to coming up with something on my own. I'm also going to need to make up some parks for the cb350, namely an aluminum tank and seat pan, so I should get plenty of use out of the equipment.
I put this planishing hammer together a few weeks ago. This is used to help rough out more drastic shapes, and then you can move on to the english wheel to smooth them out and fine tune them:
I've had this bead roller for a while now. It started off as a Harbor Freight cheapo model, but then I added a LOT of reinforcement and some style:
Next up is a Beverly Shear. This is used to cut the sheet metal into shape, and it is especially good at complex curves and tight bends that would be much harder with air shears.
Then we have a cheap metal brake. I found it for sale locally for dirt cheap, so I picked it up a couple months ago. The plan is to beef it up much like the bead roller, as well as add fingers to make it a true box brake.
With the English Wheel pretty much complete (of course I forgot to take a picture with the wheel and dies in place, I'll grab one next time), I wanted to start figuring out what the flares might look like. I'd done some CAD renderings, but they never really did it justice. The best way to judge something is in the real world. So some TIG welding rod and a lot of blue painters tape later, I had a VERY rough idea of what it was going to take to contain the tires.
They are a bit hard to really capture with just a picture, which is one of the reasons the CAD renderings never made me that happy. I will say that I'm much more confident now that I've 'seen' the idea on the car.
Overall I think these should be pretty original on a 2002. All the flares I've seen before, whether they were pig cheek, box flare, gruppe 2, or turbo flares, is that they always stay below the beltline trim. Which always leaves an awkward transition between the upper and lower sections of the body. My idea with these flares is to keep the main design cues and body shape (the indent that runs below the stainless trim along with the sloping curve that follows below that) while pulling the whole body out to cover the extra track width. The majority of the extra width will be carried by the section of the body directly above the beltline trim, which includes the hood, trunk, and body below the rear windows.
There is still a lot of design work and details to work out, including how to mold in the rear bumper, rocker panels, and come up with a new front air dam. But hopefully this design will end up being somewhat unique, while still carrying a strong period/motorsport vibe.
I mean honestly, how hard can it be??Leave a comment:
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I thought it was a fission machine or that thing in the spiderman movie with dr. OctopusLeave a comment:
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did you make that? It looks like one of those pneumatic hammer things that help you shape sheet metal. Have no idea what they're called. I have a feeling you're going to shape your own metal fender flares.Leave a comment:
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Always a good call.
Not to give away too much, but I came to the conclusion I'll be needing this in the near future for "things". Kudo's to those that know what it is and what it does.
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