53Vipette
04-30-2013, 11:08 PM
I have a car I'm working with a rather long list of things we are doing here in my shop. I thought I'd share some of the "easier" custom stuff that I am doing. The point of this is to give you guys an idea of what you can do with simple tools to change the way your looks without paying someone. Ironic seeing as that's what I get paid to do :D
Please do keep in mind two things, this isn't like a super detailed write up with a ton of pics and it's not finished so there's imperfections at this stage. If you've done this I'd like to see some pics of yours too!
The car came into the shop with a stock front bumper that's on every other '65 El Camino... which I forgot to take a pic of so use your imagination! The instructions I received were to smooth the bumpers, at first I thought just get rid of the bolts, easy enough. Wrong... quickly I realized he wanted the bumper like filled, narrowed and tucked. Instantly, I thought of you guys. Here goes!
I spent about an hour stripping the chrome and nickle off to get back to bare metal. I used several types of sanding disks and my air sander to smooth tool marks as I went. Before cutting in the work area it was prepped with 120 grit. Keep in mind the bigger, longer the passes are the better off you'll be. I'm using that finish as my base line to get the bumper back to when I'm done. Free Pro-Tip of the day, when you see sparks you've arrived at base metal. In my case I didn't see sparks until I was back to steel, if you have input other wise please let me know.
I started by first laying out all the damage, like big dings or tweaks from the stamping process. I wanted to remove as many as I could in my customization. Once that was established I found the contour of the bumper, so high points to high points and laid lines along there. I used a cut-off wheel to remove the chunk I wanted gone. In this case I cut the whole light and opening out. Silver lines are cut lines and black are damage in the pics below.
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/noimg.gif
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/noimg.gif
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/noimg.gif
Afterwards I de-burred the cuts and began laying out my pieces. I did each side (one side so far) in three pieces. I did cheat and use my CNC plasma to cut some parts, however, this could be accomplished with a band saw, hand plasma or a cut off wheel. I was lucky and found three very vertical lines distinct lines I wanted to follow. I marked both sides and measure accordingly. Alternatively, you can use a piece of poster board and a dull piece of aluminum to make some really killer lines, then use scissors to cut along them and form a template.
Once the part is trimmed to fit now you can form the metal into shape. I used 10 ga. cold rolled which is a little bit thicker than the bumper, use 12 ga. if you can get it. In this case the back is getting metal finished to so the slight chance in thickness won't be apparent. Another free Pro-Tip, a dead blow hammer and a block of wood will do some amazing things! Neither material will mar the metal which is good if you plan to re-chrome the bumper. I used an assortment of tube, table edge and slip form roller to change the shapes. In the past I've also feather cut thicker material to make compound curves. After all it's just metal, you can weld it and blend out the rest later.
I continued to trace, cut and form the rest of the pieces.
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/noimg.gif
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/noimg.gif
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/noimg.gif
It should be noted that being mindful of the shape the bumper is taking could be the difference of hours of reshaping or a few minutes of light metal finishing. I measured the bumper brackets before and after the modification to see the change relative to the other side.
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/noimg.gif
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/noimg.gif
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/noimg.gif
Thanks for reading and I hope this comes in handy for someone!
Please do keep in mind two things, this isn't like a super detailed write up with a ton of pics and it's not finished so there's imperfections at this stage. If you've done this I'd like to see some pics of yours too!
The car came into the shop with a stock front bumper that's on every other '65 El Camino... which I forgot to take a pic of so use your imagination! The instructions I received were to smooth the bumpers, at first I thought just get rid of the bolts, easy enough. Wrong... quickly I realized he wanted the bumper like filled, narrowed and tucked. Instantly, I thought of you guys. Here goes!
I spent about an hour stripping the chrome and nickle off to get back to bare metal. I used several types of sanding disks and my air sander to smooth tool marks as I went. Before cutting in the work area it was prepped with 120 grit. Keep in mind the bigger, longer the passes are the better off you'll be. I'm using that finish as my base line to get the bumper back to when I'm done. Free Pro-Tip of the day, when you see sparks you've arrived at base metal. In my case I didn't see sparks until I was back to steel, if you have input other wise please let me know.
I started by first laying out all the damage, like big dings or tweaks from the stamping process. I wanted to remove as many as I could in my customization. Once that was established I found the contour of the bumper, so high points to high points and laid lines along there. I used a cut-off wheel to remove the chunk I wanted gone. In this case I cut the whole light and opening out. Silver lines are cut lines and black are damage in the pics below.
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/noimg.gif
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/noimg.gif
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/noimg.gif
Afterwards I de-burred the cuts and began laying out my pieces. I did each side (one side so far) in three pieces. I did cheat and use my CNC plasma to cut some parts, however, this could be accomplished with a band saw, hand plasma or a cut off wheel. I was lucky and found three very vertical lines distinct lines I wanted to follow. I marked both sides and measure accordingly. Alternatively, you can use a piece of poster board and a dull piece of aluminum to make some really killer lines, then use scissors to cut along them and form a template.
Once the part is trimmed to fit now you can form the metal into shape. I used 10 ga. cold rolled which is a little bit thicker than the bumper, use 12 ga. if you can get it. In this case the back is getting metal finished to so the slight chance in thickness won't be apparent. Another free Pro-Tip, a dead blow hammer and a block of wood will do some amazing things! Neither material will mar the metal which is good if you plan to re-chrome the bumper. I used an assortment of tube, table edge and slip form roller to change the shapes. In the past I've also feather cut thicker material to make compound curves. After all it's just metal, you can weld it and blend out the rest later.
I continued to trace, cut and form the rest of the pieces.
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/noimg.gif
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/noimg.gif
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/noimg.gif
It should be noted that being mindful of the shape the bumper is taking could be the difference of hours of reshaping or a few minutes of light metal finishing. I measured the bumper brackets before and after the modification to see the change relative to the other side.
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/noimg.gif
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/noimg.gif
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/noimg.gif
Thanks for reading and I hope this comes in handy for someone!