Tin Work Questions

[Countn Carbs]

I've got a little K-88 I've been working on and am getting ready for body panels - sides and a cowl piece.  I do want the sides to wrap around in the back (similar to the Albertson-Olds car) and am curious what material (steel, aluminum) and thickness would be recommended or what have you used?
Here is the car:

[Countn Carbs]

Albertson/Olds

[dreracecar]

For easy hand bending,  3003H14  either  .040 or .050. As for the novice .050 preferred as it gives extra material if you have to file.  5052H32 can also be used but is about 20% harder to work with.  Stay away from 6061

[Countn Carbs]

Wow Butch - look at that!!  Pure Art that you do and Thank You!! 

[THE FRENCHTOWN FLYER]

Another tip: The Albertson Olds has all the edges Rolled inward a bit. I think this adds a lot to the finished appearance of the panel. You can do this with a Tee dolly and a slapper bar. I've seen some recent high dollar dragsters with flat panels that were just left "raw" at the edges and they looked cheap to me. On panels ending at a bar make the panel just slightly larger than the tangent point to the bar so you can roll it over the bar for a perfect, repeatable fit. Also, where two panels overlap be sure to put a step flange in the panel. A bead roller works best for this - with step dies. I've even seen stepped Vice-grip pliers to do the same thing.

[Countn Carbs]

Great ideas and yeah I was planning on hemming and rounding the edges on the back.  For my seat panels I did a 1/2" hem and that seemed to work out well. 

One other question - for the belly pan....I was planning on keeping the belly pan flat to the bottom rails however the transmission pan (p-glide) is about a 1/2" below the rails.  I was thinking of just making a one inch deep "pocket" in the belly pan to accommodate the tranny pan vs. having the whole belly pan hanging 1" down.

Any thoughts there??  Also I assume the 3003H14 .050" Aluminum can be used for the belly pan as well??

[dreracecar]

The material can be the same.  Your choices for the bottom include beating a pocket into it or welding in a pan, both those take some skill to accomplish,  cutting a hole and leaving the pan exposed works or bending a tray and riveting it to the floor can be done also.  PG's tend to leak a little so a sealed pan keeps oil off the track

[Countn Carbs]

Perfect and Thank You!!  I like your idea about bending a tray - makes me think maybe I could do nutserts into the pan and have the tray be removable for tranny servicing w/o removing the entire belly pan.

[dreracecar]

use dzus buttons, nutcerts can spin/come loose and then you have problems.   In reality, bending the bottom up on the sides (u-shape) and laying the side panels over, dropping it  1/2" is not a big deal. and will not affect the looks. This is a complete new build, you can do it many different ways and will be period correct. The trick is not to over-think it and do it as simply as you can---that's the way it was done back in the day

[THE FRENCHTOWN FLYER]

I'd either bend the bottom pan up on the sides or make a hammerform die from a piece of plywood and form it into the belly pan. I did this on some seat buckets for "elbow clearance" to make it easier to self-buckle up.

A piece of PigMat or even some carpet underlayment placed between the pan and the trans sump will collect any drips and will make the starting line starter a happy guy.