My 1970 Mustang project - Frame/Floorpan/Subframes.

my72mach1 · Apr 10, 2007

Wow, car looks like it is going to be great. I've been reading through your thread and have a dumb question. What does the bead rolling do for the sheetmetal?

BlackGMC · Apr 10, 2007

my72mach1 said:
Wow, car looks like it is going to be great. I've been reading through your thread and have a dumb question. What does the bead rolling do for the sheetmetal?

I am not expert but it basically makes the sheetmetal a little stronger. Try this example take a sheet of paper and hold it by one end and try to make it lay straight, well the paper will fold right at the spot your holding it. Now fold the paper int half making a good crease in the paper. Now open it back up and try to hold it out again. More than likely it will stay straight.

It is basically like welding a piece of C-Channel to the back of the sheetmetal, it provides extra bracing and strenghth without adding wieght.

BlackGMC · Apr 12, 2007

I finally finished modifying my bead roller, but I am still trying to find an electric motor so it can be a powered instead of having to turn the crank. I canabalized an engine stand and I had some scrap steel tubing and angle iron laying around, so basically all it cost me was 2 cans of spray paint.

Before

After

Sample bead, notice how straight it is, I am very happy now!!!!

67coupe351w · Apr 12, 2007

BlackGMC said:
I am not expert but it basically makes the sheetmetal a little stronger. Try this example take a sheet of paper and hold it by one end and try to make it lay straight, well the paper will fold right at the spot your holding it. Now fold the paper int half making a good crease in the paper. Now open it back up and try to hold it out again. More than likely it will stay straight.

It is basically like welding a piece of C-Channel to the back of the sheetmetal, it provides extra bracing and strenghth without adding wieght.

Not only is the change in geometry making the steel stronger like you are describing with the paper analagy you are also strain or work hardening the metal.

When you deform the metal it strengthens it. At the same time it makes the metal less ductile meaning it won't deform as much any more before it breaks (basicly more brittle). If you want to get really techincal on the microscopic level in the metal, defects called dislocations build up on each other as you deform the metal and interfere with each other's movement and thereby increase the metal's strength.

A good example of this is to take a peice of your steel welding wire and put a sharp bend in it. Now try and straighten the bend back out. The metal at the bend has been work hardened and is now much stronger than the rest of the wire.

This process (deforming metal with no heat) is also used in "cold rolled steel" to make it harder/stronger.

Anyway all geekyness aside this is a very cool project! Now quit working on your tools and make some more progress on the car! Fab work like this is veeery inspirational for me.

BlackGMC · Apr 12, 2007

Thanks!!

67coupe351w said:
Now quit working on your tools and make some more progress on the car! Fab work like this is veeery inspirational for me.

I still need to build a metal brake so that might be this weekend, cause I don't really want to start installing the actual floors until I can bend the edges to butt up against the other panels. Before that I still need to build seat riser and the mounting plates for the main roll bar hoop.

NeverEnding....... That is what I should call this project...

BlackGMC · Apr 13, 2007

The new beefed up bead roller made such a difference today. The beads were nice and straight, almost most makes me want to redo the previous panels. Can you tell the difference??

BlackGMC · Apr 14, 2007

I got one of the seat risers built and installed today. I went a little crazy with the bead roller but I think it turned out great. I still have to finish boxing it in and tie it to the tunnel and rocker panel.

Pbum5 · Apr 15, 2007

Looks good.
Maybe this is a dumb question, but shouldn't you put the floor in before you weld in the seat risers?

351w_swap · Apr 15, 2007

I spent half of the day yesterday building my seat pans too. They look really good and they make the seats sit perfect but the 1 inch round tube hangs too low to run the exhaust down the outside edge of my frame rails and I am unhappy with it. There is no doubt that I could find a way to run the exhaust without removing the seat pans but I have to do it because I am pretty sure I like your method better. I will not be building risers though because my seats are from a 99 cobra and they need to sit all the way on the floor.

Looking good! Oh, and I would redo the tunnel from before the bead roller modifications. It may only be the floor pans but you are doing so much work to build the car, it will bother you to know that something is not perfect. I end up redoing things all the time, sometimes several times because something is not just right and it eats away at me to know that it is not perfect.

BlackGMC · Apr 15, 2007

Pbum5 said:
Looks good.
Maybe this is a dumb question, but shouldn't you put the floor in before you weld in the seat risers?

ya, i got a little ahead of myself yesterday. So I will be cutting the welds that hold the seat risers today. I thought I could work around them but, nope, I should have left them tacked. Oh well.....

351w_swap said:
Oh, and I would redo the tunnel from before the bead roller modifications. It may only be the floor pans but you are doing so much work to build the car, it will bother you to know that something is not perfect.

Ya I was looking at it this morning and I decided that I am going to redo those 2 ugly pieces. I just don't want to look at them everyday for the next year or so... It should not be a big deal I still have the patterns so, I will redo it next week.

got any pics of the seat pans you made?

351w_swap · Apr 15, 2007

Here is some pictures. There is a seat sitting on the passenger side. Thought you might like to see a picture of my progress on the housing as well so I snapped one.

BlackGMC · Apr 15, 2007

Very very nice, you put my work to shame... Have you thought more about where your going to run your exhaust?

351w_swap · Apr 15, 2007

BlackGMC said:
Very very nice, you put my work to shame... Have you thought more about where your going to run your exhaust?

I don't know about that but the seat pans are growing on me. I think I might keep them and box them in. I think with some skirts on the rocker I can run the exhaust past the outside of the pans and still keep it discrete. What do you think of the frame rail crossmember? I am not sure if it will need to be modified for the transmission or not but it is real stiff. I think I will do quite a bit of boxing to keep everything clean looking in the under carriage. Your work is looking great, I like the top to the seat pan riser.

BlackGMC · Apr 16, 2007

351w_swap said:
I don't know about that but the seat pans are growing on me. I think I might keep them and box them in. I think with some skirts on the rocker I can run the exhaust past the outside of the pans and still keep it discrete. What do you think of the frame rail crossmember? I am not sure if it will need to be modified for the transmission or not but it is real stiff. I think I will do quite a bit of boxing to keep everything clean looking in the under carriage. Your work is looking great, I like the top to the seat pan riser.

I like the frame rail cross member, it looks strong as hell!! But like you said you might have to modify it or add some do it for the tranny. I love the frame you have set up, but running your exhaust should be a challenge. Keep up the good work!!!

BlackGMC · Apr 17, 2007

Metal Brake ???s

Well I am needing a sheet metal brake so I can continue making panels. I should only be bending 18 gauge sheet. I was thinking of going with this Harbor Freight one, it is only $59.

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=41311

Since it is a Harbor Freight tool, I am going to add some angle iron to all the flat pieces to add some strength to it and build a stand for it to sit on.

Any opinions?

351w_swap · Apr 17, 2007

I would seriously consider going with this one.

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=91012

if that doesn't work, its the 36 inch one with stand and bracing. I know it is 200 dollars but it will be worth it to get higher quality bends. The one that you showed does not adjust to clamp down on the piece of steel Which will make it harder to get straight bends. There are several places to look this subject up at such as the metalmeet.com site I mentioned before. Many of them have built their own as I have started to. Before I go too much further I need to finish it but in the end it cost me about 100 bucks for a 60 inch brake and it will be much stiffer than even the 36 inch harbor freight brake.

BlackGMC · Apr 17, 2007

Ya, I checked out that brake and I thought about building my own, but the HF brake is not that bad. The only thing I had to reenforce was the upper plate. I did get some C-Clamps and but one end off and welded them to the brake. Actually for the money and time it bends pretty good in my opinion. I just really could not spend $200 for the nice HF one, i just wrote a big nasty check to the IRS so funding is running short. Check out the pics.

Oh and please excuse the messy garage, I did not have time to clean it.

68FBJJZ109 · Apr 17, 2007

See what did i tell you. you keep the progress up and it will be screaming down the road in no time.

okibono · Apr 18, 2007

man, it is looking good...

BlackGMC · Apr 18, 2007

Thanks. Does anyone know what gauge steel I need to us to mount the roll bar? I was thinking of welding a 1/8 or 2/16 steel plate to the side of the rear cross member and add some addition support underneath it.

My 1970 Mustang project - Frame/Floorpan/Subframes.

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