I can't believe it has been this long since I last posted. I had a few family things happen and have not had time to work on the car other than finishing up the welds on the rear section of the roof and planish them out as well as start on some stuff on the front cowl.
Over Christmas I had some time off and got back at it.
You can see the "Jog" in the firewall and how the bead and the firewall do not align. In this picture you can see that I already had started cutting before I went, "Hey buddy! Get your phone out and snap some pictures!"
I pulled out the body saw and cut the ends into curves thinking that I may be able to align it with the other bead easier. I left a slight tab in the bottom and used it to hold it in place, leaving it thin enough that I could bend it to the side and have it stay.
I cut the inner part, over lapped it for alignment then pulled out the cleco clamps and eyeballed it
Then used a yard stick to align the bead
Here is the view from the side. You can see that where I cut it and moved the bead forward, it gained a slight curve that lines up with what was there from the factory.
Speaking of alignment, I dont show it here, but I used a body sweep to make sure that the cowl pieces align. I used a number 6 (which shows up in a later post)
Now for the cowl patch panel. I ran the strips I made through the english wheel with a 12 inch radius lower anvil, until I reached my number 12 sweep (the sweeps and the anvil radii do not interchange, but it allows you to reach a measured tolerance)
Once I had my pieces made up, I put the reverse curve in by bending it over my knee to give it some form and planishing the edges a bit to stretch it and go back to the shape I wanted. I then broke the window jog into it with my benchtop brake.
here is the number 6 body sweep showing up
Man, so cool to see this on Page 1 again!
What is a body sweep?
While I had all the tools out, I made the cowl filler for the other side as well
I stopped by the local machine shop to make a lower die for my bead roller so that I can make my bead in the filler piece. I also dropped off a few little goodies at the machine shop so that I can finish the tilting mechanism for my bead roller to gain clearance from the floor doing large curved like fender (I will post pics once its complete) as well as a lower die holder for a hand held planishing hammer I am bending some hoops up for. As of now, the filler piece in the roof is at a stand still as I have been trying to planish it out, but I am holding my hammer at the tips of my fingers.
AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) said:
Man, so cool to see this on Page 1 again!
What is a body sweep?
Thank you! I am pumped to work on this again!
very good question. A body sweep is a graduated curved template. Mine go from 0 (straight) to 100, which is a large curve, developed in GM design studios in the 30/s. It has become one of the standards in metalshaping. From what I understand is they are a measurement of a cord section (math is not my forte, so I cant answer that, but if you look early on in my posts, I have a grid drawn on the roof with corresponding numbers to a body sweep.
I'm glad you were able to get back to this.
In reply to RandolphCarter :
Thank you! Me too!
I missed this the 1st time around. This is amazing!
Moar!
NOHOME
MegaDork
1/8/25 6:21 a.m.
AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) said:
Man, so cool to see this on Page 1 again!
What is a body sweep?
They are a sign that you are way deep down the sheet-metal forming Rabbit-Hole!
In actuality, they are a template used to create or measure a repeatable curve. They represent an arc or "chord" of what would be a very large circle. I did not know that they were a GM invention/adoption, but can certainly see why they would adopt such a measurement method; how else could you document "swoopy" lines between engineers?.
REALLY sweet build and great to see a fatso being reworked in this way. I owned a Hudson Terraplane as a teen and just love it ! ! Me and my girlfriend fit in the car just fine, but our total combined weight was only around 230. My father had a 1906 Maxwell at the time, owned it until he passed at 93, we were definitely a Sunday Antique Car Show family. He died a few years ago, we sold the car a year later, like losing him all over again.
Is there any chance at ALL that you could possibly add something "Miata" to your build? This IS Grassroots Motorsports after all . . .
In reply to MuSTANK :
Super cool on the 2 vintage cars!
Hmm, I don't know much about Miata's, but I am willing to take some suggestions
Piguin
Reader
1/9/25 2:34 a.m.
TIL: Body Sweeps are a thing and they are awesome.
Echoing everyone above: So, so good to have this back.
I kept wondering what had happened to this build, but for the life of me couldn't remember the name of the thread to bump it.
In reply to Piguin :
Thank you! I had to temporarily re-prioritize life things for a bit. Hopefully we can see some progress over the next few months
In reply to Magna_Machine_Works :
"Hmm, I don't know much about Miata's, but I am willing to take some suggestions"
Careful what you wish for . . . ! !
In reply to MuSTANK :
Haha! Let's see where this goes! I am usually "All in" on anything I do
Wow, helluva build ! Are you going to channel the body also?
I got intrigued with a 1983 Pontiac build then opened this and remembered this awesome adventure. Not disappointed at all.
In reply to 914Driver :
Thank you! I don't think I am going to channel the body, likey Z the frame to maintain a stocks ride height
