55.2-59 Bling Radiator cover

[MD2020]

1956 Chevy Truck
This was very easy to do.

So my radiator needed something to cover it.
I love watching Iron Resurrection for all the cool stuff the do.
So I wanted a cover for the radiator, with the Covid-19 thing going on I can get anyone to run my piece of steel through a Spoiler roller so I did it my self like this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KXancgN-fk&t=316s
So these were my tools, the dead blow and a ball peen hammer not in the picture, the white plastic I used a little and the little Chasing hammer was not used. A 1/2" radius router bit, If I had a 1/2" shank router I would have gone with a larger radius. The yellow wood Is Osage Orange (Bodark and other names too) I cut on my land a year or so ago, It's a really hard wood. The wood was not long enough So I did one end and then flipped the wood form over and did the other side. This will make more sense as we go along.

So I have a 1/2" radius on both sides of this piece of wood on the right and it's 1-1/2" thick, the piece on the left is 1-1/4" thick


So it was setup like this with about 7 heavy C clamps and start with the hammers like on the youtube

[MD2020]

It took about 1 hour to make this and about a day to make the forms.
It needs very little body filler.


So this would be the view standing in front of the truck, the hole on the left is for the radiator cap the left and right side are flush with the inner fenders.

[oldman3]

Nice job...Jim

[Black_Sheep]

Nice work! What gauge steel did you use? How did you trim the curved side to allow for the rolled edge?

[mr48chev]

Nice work. That is something I have wanted to get into. I took Gene Winfield's metal working class a few years ago and that was some of the best money I have spent.

I really like that you cut the wood that you made the buck out of on your own place.

[Kim57]

Very nice fab work.
Kim

[MD2020]

Originally Posted by Black_Sheep

Nice work! What gauge steel did you use? How did you trim the curved side to allow for the rolled edge?

I bought a 4x8 sheet of 16Ga. for all the patch panels for the project.
I used a compass to scribe the radius on a large sheet, cut it out with a cutoff wheel, then used a 4-1/2" sanding grinder and a 2" roll lock sanding disk to get it to the line.

It was a 14" radius on the sheet, 15" radius on the buck, so the sheet stuck out 1" from the buck, total of 1-1/2" to bend around the buck

[_Ogre]

nice cover. do your have a pic on your truck?

[MD2020]

The truck is in the body shop now

Last year with the motor in it, from stock 4" drop on the back , 6" drop on the front


cut out both sides of the fire wall and bead rolled filler panels.
it needs a bulk head for the AC and heat below the passenger filler panel and that will be all the hole in the fire wall.

[Tempest67]

that is really cool....nice work, and thanks for sharing.

another master metal fabricator on this site......... you guys amaze me

[Russell Ashley]

Very nice work.

[mr48chev]

Wow you just keep surprising us with that nice work on that truck.

[MD2020]

I did Tool and die and Machine work for 28 years, I also did lot,s of Fab. work.
10 years of Ornamental Iron work too.
Thanks for the comments guy's
Lots of nice Trucks on here

[jwhotrod]

that screen shot above looks like Pro Engineer? I like your work a lot. I was a mechanical designer for 40 years, over 1/2 of it with Pro E.

[MD2020]

1st time working on body panels, NOT so easy to keep the panels flat.
On some of the patch panels I got some warping out in the flat area's.

The fire wall panels were fairly easy to make and the welds were real close to the bead work, so that kept it from warping.
I cut one side out at a time and finished it before going to the other side.






All the red primer area is new too.