tail fin extensions

[57 imposter]

Well my metal man didn't work out on the tail fin extensions, A friend who has dabbled with metal shaping said "let me have a crack at them". I had bent and tacked some 3/16 round stock in the shape I was looking for, hauled the car over to his shop and told him to "have at it". I was more than a little shocked at the results. His buck consisted of a 2X4 with rounded edges and corners. he had to make about 6 pieces before he got the process figured out and said there was about 2 hours in each side. Wouldn't take a dime for his time so I will be buying a lot of lunches.  Hope the pictures post,   

[Ecode70D]

   Well... that sure looks like a 57 to me.  He's a good guy for doing that for you.  I don't see any reason that you can't finish it.
     

[electricalan]

Pretty coool !!!

[JPotter57]

that looks good.

[RICH MUISE]

That looks great, Doug! Congrats on following that idea thru.

[Zapato]

looking good!

Zap-

[djfordmanjack]

looking good !
Did I miss out on something or how did you make the round taillight bezels parts? they look perfect.
by the looks of the garbage bag you should be offering him some cool beverages..

[57 imposter]

Thanks for the kind words, Guys. this was the second to last major road block, the first being budget, to getting this thing finished. The tail light rings are 1950 Merc. headlight frenching rings. We chucked them up in a lathe and took about 3/8 of an inch off to bring the outside diameter down to fit the body. with an adapter ring made, the complete 57 tail light now mounts from inside. The inside dia. hugs the lens much tighter than the stock housing and allowed me to tunnel the tail lights about 1 inch. When finished I hope the change will be subtle and will make someone have to look twice to figure out what was done.

[57 imposter]

I only seem to be able to post two pictures so this one is how the lens will fit in the housing.

[Ecode70D]

Doug
    I was just wondering..Do you have some sort of a reflector inside that ring between the ring and the tail light lens?   Jay

[57 imposter]

Actually, the I assemble the complete tail light and it just clamps against the adapter ring so it is using the stock tail light bucket which I painted high gloss white. hope that makes sense

[Zapato]

looks to me that you found yourself a new ''metal guy'' to work with.

Zap-

[57 imposter]

Zap
  I think you are right. He is a hobbist just like most of us that found out he had a knack for this by helping another friend with a 33 Willys that needed some headlight buckets. Just started experimenting and figured out a process that worked. By the way, he has no english wheel or planishing hammer. All done with home made bucks and Harbor Freight nylon mallets.  pretty impressive when you know what he has to work with.

[Zapato]

we all have walked into someone else's shop and came out with another good idea. today picked up a few and one appropriate to this thread was a base for forming curves on sheet metal. take a bowling ball screw on a fan pulley onto it, weld the pulley onto a post and it to an old wheel.  then pound  away and use the ball to help form sapes, and those plastic harbor freight hammers are pretty cheap and look just like the ones from snap-on.

Zap-

[RICH MUISE]

The wooden bucks are what I used to make my rolled rear pan. Also used one to make new doglegs for the inner wheel wells. The buck for the rolled pan was a 4 x 6. I should have saved it from the weather when I was finished, but I didn't...just put it outside. I guess it probably would have warped anyway as most lumber seems to. They were fun projects.