Fabricating a Custom Aluminum Car Body | Boat-tail Speedster Pt.24 

You are one special young man, the world needs a lot more of your kind

Now days we need more young kids like you, and NOT kids that are seating in front of a computer all day. You are very talented . If I had my time over again , I would employ you as quick as a flash

FANTASTIC education of the use of the English wheel. I am 72 and you are teaching me a lot. We have 26 pre-1950 cars in our small museum. ½ of which need bodywork. I have subscribed to a dozen of the best channels of bodywork. Yours is right up at the top. Thank you for your time & efforts.

I’ve been watching your progress for a while now and I have to say that there is still some hope in this world with brilliant people like you that are not afraid to jump in there and do it. I am gobsmacked and can’t wait to see more. I once was a body man and if I ever had a body shop you sir would have a top dollar job waiting for you. hands down

This is nuts, went on the hot rod power tour and stopped at the indy car museum on the way through, told dad I wanted to build a modernish indy car style rod. Kinda spooky, surfing YT and this came up as a recommended channel! This is pretty much how I was planning on doing it too! Looking forward to watching more.

G'day from West Australia, 38yr career this end. Glad to see a young fellow, Doing what I got taught by some of my Father's old coach building buddy's. As an old school guy happily tack my hat off to you. Well done so far😉🙂👍👍

Found your channel by happenstance and am now a subscriber. I just have to see this thing through. As a carpenter, fabricator and all around dreamer, I absolutely love seeing a young man taking on such a daunting and challenging project. My hat is off to you Sir, awesome garage built project you have there.

Marco you are like Einstein . I have worked in this fabrication 35 years and you are good.

The instant I saw you laying out your cuts with a drywall square I knew that no matter where or who you are, we are brothers.

Just watching I can feel the cuts all over my hands. I can never getaway without wearing gloves, it must just be the way I work. It’s looking good, I love finding channels where projects have long been in the works, and not having to wait! BOL

I've been watching the progress from day 1 of the build you have done an amazing job keep up the great work you're an inspiration to all

Doing great at such a young age. You will be an awesome "engineer" with time and education. Thank you for sharing, and explaining what you doing, and why.

Very nice explanation of the english wheel and the rubber band to limit the spread. Fascinating! Subscribed.

Looking good! Keep up the good work. Can’t wait to see what the finished project looks like.

Thanks, as always for showing us this as I’ve been eager to see how you get on with creating this part of your project. As suspected it seems that this is something else that is not beyond your capabilities. Well done. Please keep up this great work. You’re doing a wonderful job

So much fun watching what you're doing !! You're an inspiration !!

Outstanding! A combination of skill, and determination. YOU are a madman! I'm blown away bro. Awesome video, keep up the good work man.

What a fantastic start, well done!

I like what your doing to your car and hope to see more of your videos soon. You take care and see you on your next one D.

Looks good. Nice to see some resurgence of these methods. Used to be nobody knew what an english wheel was, now you can pick one up at HF, and watch people operate it, and explain the principles online. Good times we live in.

Wow! That back end will be a challenge, but you will do it. It's really coming together. Well done.

Really nice work man, love this build! 👍🏻

Phenominal work, you are developing mad skills

You are "A Man of many talents !" From building Tanks to bending Metal... love watching your videos ....

Nice work, great channel. Good to see the old coach building skills still being used.

Good job. It's nice to see someone young developing skills like that.

You're doing it in a way that will keep me watching, so keep on😁👍

Good job. Thanks for demonstrating how its done.

Looks great. You really did a great job, for just working with aluminum for the first time. WOW I could never do that good. Can't wait to see it when it's done. Going to Florida on Friday. So have a great weekend.

It looks great. It's always fun to learn something new.

I am so glad that these days I can get an idea, look it up on RU-vid, marvel at the execution, decide that it’s too much work for me and settle for doing the body out of fibreglass, all in the span of 10 minutes.

Very impressive. Looking forward to see more.

Great job, that worked good on those panels

Dude! It’s starting to look nice!

amazing as heck , i would consider rivets and leather stitching and leather belts , a combo of all 3 , imo that would look killer cool

sweet job mate........its going to look great! please consider aircraft flush or domed rivets over welding to avoid epic warpage!! please post more when you have time!

looks amazing man.i cant wait till she up and runnin

looking really good. you make it look easy well done

Nice work 👍

Great job can’t wait to see it run

Looking good so far, keep it up! 👍

Looking good there 👍

Great work and skills. People at Morgan Motor Company (UK) must be proud.

Nice work.

Very impressive. Good luck.

WOW, good job for first time.

Very cool. Looking great!

In a world full of Kardashians this awesome young man is a massive breath oif fresh air, keep up the great work!!

You'll have a unique car, and I hope it gets a special paint job. I'm looking forward to see what you do for a gas tank and a radiator.

love the old school approach. wish I had the time and patience to lean the english wheel.

I agree whole with Pretonesfpv a 110%. Sugguestion: Why not use aluminum tubing instead of steal, that way you make your body frame lighter. One other thing aluminum rivets like they did in the old days . It would be quicker to assmble the body and quicker than trying to TIG weld the panels. They did aluminum to save weight, which I was thinking what you would want. Also with your frame or the back end of it. You might want to think about narrowing it to fit your dove tail. Love your channel and keep up with the great work.

Woo looking good. Keep that English wheel wheeling 🇬🇧

I agree with the post further down, do not weld these panels, apart from warping the material, these types of bodies were riveted, old style rivets that you peen over with a hammer and rivet tool. Take a close look at a Lago Talbot, or a 250f Maserati for inspiration. FANTASTIC WORK SO FAR!!!!! My fav build on you tube at the moment. Thanks for keeping old skills alive

mate as a sheet metal worker i would advice you to not weld the alu sheet. the warpage will drive you mental.rivet or bond your panels

This looks great, you have a lot of talent for sure and I've been into old cars for 40 years, I'm building a couple of MG YA specials based on the chassis of the MG YA saloon from 1947-52. I've picked up a lot of tips from watching Ron Covell, a great teacher. On your boat tail, I would say make it in sections and join them together as this is likely what someone like Ron would do (see his building a fender video) I think a lot of people make the error of thinking they can form a panel from a large sheet, its very difficult as the metal has to move in different ways. One of my projects will have the slab fuel tank like the early MG cars MG TC, TD and before, one will have the 'boat' type tail like the MG Q type from 1936, check out the MG QT which is an MG T type special usually a TA (1936 -39) or TC (1946-49) chassis base with a Q type style body (its a re-creation of the Q type on a later T series ladder chassis), Steve Baker in the UK has done a lot of these. I am considering using a 'top hat' shape metal section for making some of my framework and seeing if I can then run it through my small English wheel so that it curves it, like an aircraft fuselage frame is built. I may have to stretch the outer edge flanged surface so it follows the shape properly. I have seen a pop rivet 'dimpler' which stretches the metal and allows a pop rivet to be hidden flush with the surface metal, I am going to experiment with this method making some tooling to use on the frame sections too so I can use say 1/4 inch or 5/16 rivets which will sit flush with the sheet metal. Check out Ron Covell's Bomber Seats videos, he uses a bead roller machine to make one. This project looks great. I have come across some Aluminium soldering sticks that work with heat from a propane torch, it melts the solder and bonds very strong, it is used to repair castings, an alternative to TIG Welding which can distort.

Great job 👍👍 congrats

Looks great!

Looking great. Seems like you are getting the hang of the English Wheel.

Could hardly wait to see the metal forming. It's gonna look awesome. I always wanted to hand fab a 32 coupe in aluminum, maybe someday, I have all the tools and a complete 283 I just need the time. I love your work, keep it coming!!

I’m Impressed!

Amazing!

Beautiful car 👌👌

That would look even more sick with wider tires insanely good job for first time manipulating aluminum.

You're doing great! A tool you'll find invaluable for shrinking high spots/blending areas is a slapper made from an old car spring. Don't hit too hard and keep the face flat to the workpiece. Work on your sand bag as the dolly. Also you will need to anneal (soften)the metal when it has hardened from working. Mark the area needing annealed with a sharpie, heat with any flame torch (oxy acetylene or a propane burner) until the sharpie ink is burned off. Will make the ali soft for easy shrinking, working, etc. Good luck...

Impressive!

Great work, definitely use rivet for the same reason as mentioned below and also it will look much better.

Parabéns amigo ótimo projeto ,sucesso!👍👍👍

great video i been looking for something like this

I did enjoy this video!

Parabéns! Está ficando lindo.

Pretty good

Most impressed !

Very nice work; amazing for a beginner. Please put on the safety specs and gloves when using the nibbler, though. Sharp little bits of swarf can fly around.

bery nice job,exelent .

Been waiting.

Wow, that is looking like it will be a sick ride. I bet it's gonna rip with that flat head V8.

I love this project but I would advise you hem the exposed edges of the sheet so later on it don't become an issue.

Looks awesome! Just a suggestion: I think the body would look really coo if you riveted the panels together.

je pensais que parfait c"était pas possible, j'ai 60 ans et je me suis trompé .bravo.

Nice 👍

When I make a hood top, I just use an acetylene or oxygen cylinder, it's faster than the E-wheel. To make the compound curve of the top cowl you should take your part upside down and perpendicular to your first round of rolling. I don't know if it's understandable but I believe Lazzee did a quick vid on how to do a compound curve a long time ago. It looks to me you're using 1mm aluminum sheet, if you plan on driving the car you will regret it, any gravel that will hit the body will leave a dent, if you do shows, there will be a numbnuts who will press with his thumb on the body and leave a nice round dent on it. 1mm is good for racing not a street car.

I would love a Kirkham Cobra but I can’t afford the asking price. This has got me thinking.

Killer build man. I agree with a few of the comments that you should hem the edges and rivet the panels to the substructure. The aluminum will soak up the heat from the tig and move all over the place. Likely never fitting again.

Are you going to louvre the hood? It would look awesome. Great work on this project. Nice to see younger people taking on something like this

Might want to look at how aircraft are built. How inner support and structure is made out of aluminum. Even the best welds will create stress fracture due to vibration. And steel and aluminum in contact react badly. A steel 6-8 point roll/cockpit cage welded directly to the frame will help with stopping frame flex. This frame twist/flex will create havoc whatever seems you use for the aluminum panels. Be amazed on how a flat sheet of aluminum with the edges bent 90ish degrees. And center area punched with tapered holes can make a stiff structure to rivet the outer panels to. Study how old aircraft wings and bodies had been made.

Drawing the boxes is for a compound shape like a bowl the shape u need for the steering wheel section is what we call a reverse curve or convex u need to stretch the top and bottom edge but more to the top edge where the steering wheel is and don't wheel in the middle where u drew the boxes it will make the front and back flare up and the centre stay down then start to bend it by hand in the other plane but when u bend it all the shape will come out so keep wheeling the front and back edges of the panel until it fits and holds it's shape when u bend it over hope that makes sense it can be quite confusing at first but your doing really good keep up the great work.

I thought about using a Y block in mine but the flathead looks nice.

You look a natural

My first attempt with sheet aluminium would have looked like a dogs dinner, impressive work. The advice about jointing the panels is sound. You know you are going to have to brush that alu rather than paint it!

Very nice design. Maybe flush rivet fastening?

Muito bom trabalho parabéns.....

WOW....you are truly a gifted young man. Good for you...!!! You're doing an EXCELLENT job. -- I do have one question... could you please provide a link to where you found the Anvil Set for the Harbor Freight English Wheel? Harbor Freight no longer carries them making the wheel somewhat worthless. I'd like to know where you got yours so I can purchase a set. I've seen some sets that claim to work on the HF English Wheel, but the question is .. . how well do the really work. - Thank you and keep up the GREAT work.

Awesome - THANKS! Please tell us WHERE you got the rubber band that fits your top wheel? I can't find one anywhere for that 8-inch wheel.

In my experience osb doesn't hold up very well to moisture. Are you concerned about that?

Love It! how much for a sheet of aluminum??

This is way better than any videogame eh?

I'm new, was just wondering what you plan on powering it up with? Amazing work, you know in the early days of the auto people would just buy a driveable chassis brand new and take it to some one to let them build a body for their car. Case in point, there was a family who immigrated from germany and had a farm. The two boys didn't want to grow up as farmers so they took in building bodies for peoples cars in their barn. They went on to what we all reconize today, their last name was Dusenburg. You seem to have it together, good luck.

yayy English Wheel! :D

You are just amazing young man. Most people practice this are their whole life and not be that good. Oh and you better slow down you're gonna hurt yourself going that fast lol. I just made a funny lol.

Nice work dude where did you get the tire for the upper wheel?