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All set to implement my plan to start on the sheet metal that covers the buck, I went to the metal supermarket to buy what I needed.

The plan was to cover the back in 9 sections. Each section would be bent to follow the buck from bottom to top. Each section would overlap, and the overlap would be cut through to allow for a perfect fitting butt joint for welding.

That was the plan at least.

I still bought the 9 sections. I also had them cut each section 7" x 28". (9) 18 ga. sections, cut to size ended up costing 64 bucks.

When I got home, I bolted my handy-dandy HF sheet metal brake to the work bench, and went about bending the first piece. Not really having any sort of guide to follow, I just winged it.

4A01D975-6D0C-4488-B0BA-27DB4165B93E_zpsghixm00a.jpg


The "bump" in the middle was a real pain in the ass, and could not be completely bent on a brake. That short little piece between angles was the problem. Consequently, it meant that one of those angles had to be bent by hand over the corner of the bench.

And while it fit pretty damn good considering....
CE7A2257-3898-4060-AAF1-BEA19649C1FB_zpsjvllmkcw.jpg


I couldn't duplicate it. I soon realized that there was no way I'd be able to duplicate the others closely enough to even have a prayer of using them as planned. The very next piece I bent was different enough to not even be usable. Because of that hand bent angle in the middle of the thing, there is no real way to clone the things over, so I'm gonna have to come up w/ an alternate plan.
 
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All set to implement my plan to start on the sheet metal that covers the buck, I went to the metal supermarket to buy what I needed.

The plan was to cover the back in 9 sections. Each section would be bent to follow the buck from bottom to top. Each section would overlap, and the overlap would be cut through to allow for a perfect fitting butt joint for welding.

That was the plan at least.

I still bought the 9 sections. I also had them cut each section 7" x 28". (9) 18 ga. sections, cut to size ended up costing 64 bucks.

When I got home, I bolted my handy-dandy HF sheet metal brake to the work bench, and went about bending the first piece. Not really having any sort of guide to follow, I just winged it.

4A01D975-6D0C-4488-B0BA-27DB4165B93E_zpsghixm00a.jpg


The "bump" in the middle was a real pain in the ass, and could not be completely bent on a brake. That short little piece between angles was the problem. Consequently, it meant that one of those angles had to be bent by hand over the corner of the bench.

And while it fit pretty damn good considering....
CE7A2257-3898-4060-AAF1-BEA19649C1FB_zpsjvllmkcw.jpg


I couldn't duplicate it. I soon realized that there was no way I'd be able to duplicate the others closely enough to even have a prayer of using them as planned. The very next piece I bent was different enough to not even be usable. Because of that hand bent angle in the middle of the thing, there is no real way to clone the things over, so I'm gonna have to come up w/ an alternate plan.
You can make a die from very hard, very thick wood, and use it to shape the odd bend. Some 2x12 sections or even plywood laminated together to get the width you need to make a single piece die would work nicely. You already have part of the setup done when you made the form for the ribs.

OR even better:

You can get really fancy and make 2 dies, a male & female die .Then press the part to shape all in a single pass. That would be my recommendation; all the parts will be identical. The wood would be OK for a die material since you aren't going to make more than a small batch and not at a high speed.

The other alternative is to make a mold out of laminated sections and then do a fiberglass lay-up and build the section as a 1 piece, full width part.
 
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The back and forth talk between madmike and 95bluestallion reminds me of this.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ov-1S8Xxd94


Oh C'mon!, I don't slap Nick,..... (Well,.....at least not "physically")
As a side note, Looney Tunes were absolutely brilliant cartoons. I would watch them on every Saturday as a kid, and maintain that nobody has ever managed to make a better "toon" than Chuck Jones,w/ Mel Blanc's voicing.

Is there a sheet metal shop that can replicate your small piece, but on a large single sheet? I'm not sure how costly that would be, or if it's even possible because of those complex bends in the middle.

I can't. The rear crowns from the outside to the center.

You can make a die from very hard, very thick wood, and use it to shape the odd bend. Some 2x12 sections or even plywood laminated together to get the width you need to make a single piece die would work nicely. You already have part of the setup done when you made the form for the ribs.

OR even better:

You can get really fancy and make 2 dies, a male & female die .Then press the part to shape all in a single pass. That would be my recommendation; all the parts will be identical. The wood would be OK for a die material since you aren't going to make more than a small batch and not at a high speed.



The other alternative is to make a mold out of laminated sections and then do a fiberglass lay-up and build the section as a 1 piece, full width part.

While there is definitely a pattern formed via the spars, I'd have to make at least another ten pieces out of 3/4 plywood as a male die, then alter that to create a female receiver and make another 10-12 for that part. Then, when all said and done,...what would have to be used as the "compressor" to force the two pieces together to press the part?

I've got a plan B,.......Plan B will be to take the 9 pieces to a local tin shop where I do business and see if they can commit to being able to duplicate the other 8 pieces. If he cannot, then I'll buy a new piece from him to form the bump out of that'll span the entire rear fascia, and I'll only have to bend a top, and bottom that'll butt up to that piece that covers the bump. The problem is (for me at least) is that there are too many angles that have to be exact and my little 60.00 HF sheet metal brake is the limit to my coach building equipment.

When everything is cut and fit from there, I will try and tig that Frankenstein hodgepodge together to form one single piece,...(I cannot even allow myself to think about the grinding, and panel work that's gonna come as a result of that)
 
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If not for this build I am sure that the world might witness a new and improved Neutron bomb, you know, the type that would rid the world of idiots and politicians, that kind of thing. I wait with baited breath..............................
 
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While there is definitely a pattern formed via the spars, I'd have to make at least another ten pieces out of 3/4 plywood as a male die, then alter that to create a female receiver and make another 10-12 for that part. Then, when all said and done,...what would have to be used as the "compressor" to force the two pieces together to press the part?

Undoubtedly you have a or have access to a hydraulic press that you use to press bearings and gears off of shafts. That is the first choice to press the wooden dies to form the metal pieces.
 
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There are a few things i don't like to be told.

#1. You can't do that.
#2. It's gonna cost alot of money.

People compliment my "skills" all the time and I appreciate that. But the simple fact of the matter is, I have those skills because I'm cheap.

In the whole wide world, I'm sure that I could have taken the car somewhere and had that rear bumper buck scanned. That process would've allowed me to have it made as one piece, and it would've probably looked amazing in it's unfinished, raw state.

But that would cost alot of money.

I talked to my sheetmetal guy and asked if he could perfectly clone over the other 8 pieces from the one that I already had bent up.

He said he couldn't do it, and I'd have a hard time finding somebody that could.

There's two things I don't like there again: He more or less said it couldn't be done, and in the same breath told me if it could, it was gonna cost alot of money.

Patience isn't one of my strong suits either, and I hate being backed in a corner w/ very few options to get out of it. Now that you know a few of my personality flaws, maybe you can better understand why I do all of this junk myself.

Not able to bend those pieces myself w/o alot of trial and error, and hence, alot of money wasted on that learning curve, I went with what I know how to do.

While it takes alot of practice, and I certainly coulda come up w/ a better solution to bend those pieces as a single unit, that was not to be. Every solution to make that center bend either required I spend days fabricating some form of flanging die, or literally make a laminated male and female mold to press the part just like Ford stamps out a fender.

Do I have to say it?

The dash is built out of tubing that had to be bent, cut, sectioned and welded back into the shape that you see in the earlier posts. Again, If I was a perfectionist, I probably could've set down and mapped out a perfect solution to bending the bars as a single piece so I wouldn't have to do all of the cutting, fitting, welding, grinding, and sanding that had to be done instead. But I'm impatient.

Learning how to make a perfect bend would've required a bunch of time, and alot of wasted DOM tubing that just happened to cost alot of money and I didn't want to waste either.

Are we starting to see the pattern here?

Which brings me back to the rear bumper.

Now to qualify this,......I can see the end result. It's in a mental Polaroid floating around inside my head. You, on the other hand probably cannot. No matter, I'm gonna show you this anyway.

CDC5E39D-D6CC-41DD-9BD4-BAF8DD5F55E9_zps3vzhvx0g.jpg

Frankenbumper, Dude. Dude, Frankenbumper.

Now that you've been formally introduced, I'll say this about that.

It was the only way I could guarantee that the pieces would fit, and follow the buck. Even if there was somebody out there that could've bent the whole thing out of one piece, I still don't know how he'd bend it and get it to follow the crown. (And there is a pretty significant crown, one that deviates about 3/4" from center to end.)

By cutting the bend up into smaller pieces, there was no longer any issue that stopped me from using what I had. The HF bender, as lame as it is can easily bend a 7" wide piece of 18 gauge steel. However anything wider than that (and believe me I tried) and the thing fails miserably. I tried to bend a 14" span so I could cut the pieces down from 8 to 4, but after attempting the first bend, that almost broke the bender, I relegated myself to sticking w/ the 7" wide pieces.

ED6BAE36-4B30-4F22-BDA0-9288B672B8F2_zpsrmvxrmyd.jpg


Can you see the bumper cover yet? Or is it still too far off to imagine?

I'm gonna also go w/ what I know, and I'm gonna mig this turd together. Since I can get to it, I'm gonna do that from behind. That'll minimize the grinding I have to do on the front to get it ready for paint. You can already see the parts where I tested out that theory on the one end.

That is along way off however. The HG will be here mid week next week,and the engine will again be the priority. Besides that, The tail lights and license plate frame will be recessed in that bumper cover.

Until that time, I put the thing back on the buck and I'll probably slide it under the car for safe keeping.

F266EA56-A8DE-44D5-ACA0-D33F15C1ECD3_zpsgrm3hyrk.jpg


This pic is the only one that you can see the crown I believe, Look at the first bend (the lowest one) and see how it curves.
 
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I really didn't do much today. I spent too much time in a customer's attic, and the last thing I had any energy left for was welding, and grinding.

So I piddled.

Cometic called me yesterday to get my CC number so they could ship my HG. 123.00 for what is essentially a stock HG. (That's not exactly true, the HG is supposed to be a kevlar outer surface w/ a steel shim sandwiched in between, w/ a SS fire ring sealing the chamber)

So in anticipation of that, I kept the garage door down (because it does get pretty cool down there w/ the whole house AC evaporator down there) and dinked.

This is what you find when you dink:

CD627837-5F32-4365-B5A2-120F8C0AAA7D_zpsmddpoj5n.jpg


What you're seeing is a shooter screw that penetrated the floor that is holding a clamp for the battery cable in the passenger compartment. You'll notice the exhaust at the bottom of the pic. The down pipe goes between that and the turbo. That screw was ran right through the top of the down pipe.

So I welded that little hole shut, and moved that clamp.

5332D27E-4B7B-4221-8BE7-46BA980C6DF6_zpstnquxhtb.jpg


Hmmmm. These two pipe plugs were not even installed in the rear waste gate. when I took them off this time, I noticed that I had omitted plugging these extra holes. Bolted on to the exhaust, those holes were completely in accessible. Matter of fact you couldn't even see them. They would've made for a real headache when it came time to put some boost in the engine, and at least one of the holes probably was causing a vacuum leak as well.

I fixed the leaking rear water inlet (hopefully)

826EB047-446C-4728-A8EE-E68D90659041_zps2ry0bnsy.jpg

I had to remove the fitting from the plug that was bolted into the side of the engine. Aluminum fitting, force screwed into an aluminum plug. Guess what happened when I tried to unscrew it? Seized.
It came out, but it came out minus all of its threads. The plug was pretty mangulated as well. I was able to tap the hole back to a work-able condition, but the fitting was trashed. Fortunately, I had another. This time I did like I did w/the other two, and epoxied that bitch in there. Any abnormality in the threads was just filled by doing so.

Lastly, I drilled out the epoxy that I used to plug that leak I had when I first filled the engine w/ water, and tapped it for an 1/8" pipe plug.
Now that is one less thing to worry about as well.
mm.jpg



So, I guess this is one of those "things happen for a reason" lessons. If I didn't take that thing apart I'd have never known about the missing pipe plugs, and a dual wastegate system like this one would've had all kinds of issues because of the missing plugs, Because the two wastegates are tied together, neither of them would've worked.

The hole in the down pipe would've been a small inconvenience, but I'd probably been cranking on the V band trying to stop a leak that I wouldn't have been able to see either.

The exhaust manifold was flaking as a result of the paint that got put on the silver and looked like hell because of it. It had to come off anyway.

So in hindsight, I guess I'm somehow lucky in a bizarro world kind of way that the sorry assed copper HG failed at this early stage in the start up.
 
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Interesting, you are having some of the same problems that I have had trying to post pictures. There is a bunch of gibberish text but no picture for two of your pictures.

When you right click on 6D9BC9BA-944F-4908-88D0-7A3E586888F0_zpsvjyg0pgg.jpg and select Properties, that is supposed to give the link to the picture. Instead you get http://www.stangnet.com/mustang-for...908-88d0-7a3e586888f0_zpsvjyg0pgg-jpg.536952/.
If you copy and paste that link into an open Internet Explorer address bar, you get a message that says "Mustang Forums at StangNet - Error"
It is time for @Noobz347 to get to work and fix these glitches.
 
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I'll say it. I saw frankenbumper coming. Without a really wide brake I saw it as the only option. How scary is it that I think like mike in that aspect? :eek:
 
Interesting, you are having some of the same problems that I have had trying to post pictures. There is a bunch of gibberish text but no picture for two of your pictures.

When you right click on 6D9BC9BA-944F-4908-88D0-7A3E586888F0_zpsvjyg0pgg.jpg and select Properties, that is supposed to give the link to the picture. Instead you get http://www.stangnet.com/mustang-for...908-88d0-7a3e586888f0_zpsvjyg0pgg-jpg.536952/.
If you copy and paste that link into an open Internet Explorer address bar, you get a message that says "Mustang Forums at StangNet - Error"
It is time for @Noobz347 to get to work and fix these glitches.
It has happened several times now,and I've tried even going as far as deleting the entire post. I don't know what the hell is going on.
I'll say it. I saw frankenbumper coming. Without a really wide brake I saw it as the only option. How scary is it that I think like mike in that aspect? :eek:
It just goes to show that there is help for everyone.:cool:
 
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Interesting, you are having some of the same problems that I have had trying to post pictures. There is a bunch of gibberish text but no picture for two of your pictures.

When you right click on 6D9BC9BA-944F-4908-88D0-7A3E586888F0_zpsvjyg0pgg.jpg and select Properties, that is supposed to give the link to the picture. Instead you get http://www.stangnet.com/mustang-for...908-88d0-7a3e586888f0_zpsvjyg0pgg-jpg.536952/.
If you copy and paste that link into an open Internet Explorer address bar, you get a message that says "Mustang Forums at StangNet - Error"
It is time for @Noobz347 to get to work and fix these glitches.


That's not a glitch, It's exactly how it's supposed to be. Remember that you chose to not use the rich editor in your user options.
 
That's not a glitch, It's exactly how it's supposed to be. Remember that you chose to not use the rich editor in your user options.
If this was a consistent problem, I would agree with you. However the poor editor works for me 90% of the time or better. It comes and goes, and now it has landed in madmike1157's court. He probably is using the default rich editor, and has had the same problem. Something isn't right and it isn't just the peculiarity of the way that I choose to use to post messages with pictures.
Please fix...
 
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