July 25, 20179 yr My second tree shaped sheetmetal sculpture, (probably also second sculpture Ive ever done) made as gift. I work in auto restoration so we are constantly pitching replaced body panels, the cars are chemically stripped before we start metal work so the steel is perfectly clean, free of paint or rust, so this was once part of the quarter panel of a Dodge Polara convertable, sheared up into random shapes, hammer textured, roughly shaped and stitched together with a mig, picture fails to show surface detail entirely, texturing and mig welding is patterned together to create vines running up, I have 100' of led fairy lights inside so it has a remote control with multiple brightness settings. (I was thinking of the multitude of tiny lights effect from the trees in the Pandora movie) In any sheetmetal shaping, making a complex shape from one piece is very time consuming, making bigger pieces always adds work and challenge, this approach of sticking together small pieces like a puzzle helps to get from a small sculpture to a much larger one without things turning into an enormous effort while the overlaps and extra joints add depth and texture, more easily lead to organic shapes (long as I can stop the machinist side of my brain trying to make it perfectly cylendrical) ongoing expirement, turned out pretty good, I should think of something other than a to do tree next time
July 25, 20178 yr Cool. I like the added lights. Nice piece. Photos could be better. (I'm even still working on a setup to take better photos.) The things to make with just the sheet metal alone are infinite, then throw in the rest of the parts and you can have a lot of fun creating fun sculptures. Man, working with the old sheet metal on cars is so much better then the ultra thin stuff on modern vehicles. Looking forward to seeing more.
July 27, 20178 yr On 7/25/2017 at 11:00 AM, Daswulf said: Man, working with the old sheet metal on cars is so much better then the ultra thin stuff on modern vehicles. We need you here, Das. We have an old Mercury and a 30s Packard 8 that could benefit from your skills.
July 27, 20178 yr Need any packard hubcaps? I couldn't let them go to the crusher at the scrapyard---Just wish they had been still attached to the car when I found them...
July 28, 20178 yr Author On 7/25/2017 at 10:00 AM, Daswulf said: Cool. I like the added lights. Nice piece. Photos could be better. (I'm even still working on a setup to take better photos.) The things to make with just the sheet metal alone are infinite, then throw in the rest of the parts and you can have a lot of fun creating fun sculptures. Man, working with the old sheet metal on cars is so much better then the ultra thin stuff on modern vehicles. Looking forward to seeing more. Very true, the oldest automotive Ive worked is 1917 and the newest is 1978, all new panels and patches are made in 18 or 20 ga drawing quality sheet (AKDQ) super forgiving, I hear the new stuff is a real pain plus they are half plastic. Thanks to everyone for the input
July 28, 20178 yr Some are super thin and hard to work with. Yes, lots of plastic and much is brittle and replace only.
July 28, 20178 yr 20 hours ago, ThomasPowers said: Need any packard hubcaps? I couldn't let them go to the crusher at the scrapyard---Just wish they had been still attached to the car when I found them... Not just now thanks, Thomas. These two (Mercury (l) and Packard(r) ) are on hold for a while. As I said, I need Das here to do the heavy metal panel work.
July 28, 20178 yr 21 hours ago, ThomasPowers said: Need any packard hubcaps? I couldn't let them go to the crusher at the scrapyard For a guy with the ability to spot a Packard hubcap in a scrap yard, I am thinking your scrap pile might be as interesting as the shop itself. Perhaps I can have a tour when I am down your way.
July 28, 20178 yr I keep it fairly compact---less attractive to rattlesnakes that way. My local scrapyard used to have a nice bunch of old vehicles; but since they were not selling any parts off them they crushed them and shipped them to the melter. I could have cried as I know that if they had just taken a picture of each one and posted them to a California old car forum they probably would have sold in a week at *many* times scrap price---NM cars don't rust out!
July 28, 20178 yr Author 16 hours ago, Daswulf said: Some are super thin and hard to work with. Yes, lots of plastic and much is brittle and replace only. We do have to deal with the bandit cars, the Trans Am is something like the current last American muscle car, so plastic, urethane rubber and bad fiber glass, on one build Ive replaced it all in custom shaped steel, big project......we are looking for a new full time guy in the metal shop.......its a big shop
July 28, 20178 yr We had massive hail hit Socorro NM in 2004 and destroyed every roof and totaled all unprotected cars, The folks that had "plastic" cars had holes blown through the panels you could stick your arm through!
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