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Need a referral for someone to make a sheetmetal cowl for speedster- Eastern PA or New Jersey?


Dwight Romberger

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Hi All,

I am looking for referral to someone who can fabricate a cowl for my speedster project this summer. I will make a wooden buck like the one in the 1st picture. I only need the cowl and the piece to the front of the seat. It will need a good sized fender bead on the cockpit side. It will look like the one in the 2nd picture.

I don't need concourse quality, just something I can afford :).

Thanks,

Dwight

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Looks simple enough. You could buy a Harbor Freight English wheel, a few sheets of 0.050"-0.060" type 3003 aluminum, and do it yourself. Gas welding the pieces together would be the "right" way to do it, but if you have a friend with a good aluminum TIG welder, that also works. Even the exposed edges could be wired with some simple hand dollies and hammers.

A couple of years ago, I took the aluminum body course from Kent White, so I am over-confident about how easy it is. That is, I know what has to be done but haven't done it for myself yet, LOL.

See www.tinmantech.com

There have to be some shops in your area that do bodywork for circle track and dirt track cars. One of them could knock out a steel body pretty easily, as well. Isn't Mahoning Valley Speedway in Lehighton near you? Go talk to some of those guys. [While you're out running around, go to Dietrich's Meats in Krumsville and get me some smoked pork chops and 2 lbs of scrapple!] The hard part is the buck, and you said you could do that. If you can make the buck, you can do the body, even in 18-20 gauge steel.

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There's a great metal worker here in Winchester. He's $50 an hour, but it's an honest hour and he does great work. It all depends on how much you have to spend. If you make the buck yourself, you may be able to do the metal work also. I can tell you, having just finished re-working a scuttle dash like the one you show, that the hard part is how you trim the edge. Mine was half oval, half inch, both top and bottom along the edge, and that's very labor intensive.

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When I took Kent White's course at Tinmantech in North San Juan, CA, I asked how to make a cowl like that with a wired edge. He grabbed a piece of 3003 aluminum sheet and walked over to the pneumatic planishing hammer. In a few minutes he had made the saddle curve, then he used the planishing hammer to bend the edge over. He hand-formed a piece of 1/8" steel rod to the approximate curve and then used hammer and dolly to roll the edge over the wire. He gave the piece to one of the other students to seat the wired edge with another dolly on a shot-filled leather bag. It came out pretty good and only took about 20 minutes all together. Outside the shop, he had a midget racer with a similar cowl. He also showed how to make curved pieces by hand-shrinking with a plastic mallet and steel form: hammer in a kink, then hammer it down from the narrow end to bring the metal together. Aluminum is very forgiving.

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Thanks guys,

Gary. That work by Kent white is exactly what I need to do.

I think I am going to take your advice and give it a try on my own. I looked at my existing cowl and I think I can modify it into the speedster shape I want. I will build a buck to fit the existing shape, but with the changes I want. I have a bead roller. They have special dies to roll the wire bead around the cockpit. I spent most of yesterday watching Youtube videos. If the project starts to go south, I can take it to someone to finish.

I probably should not have sold the doors. I could use them.

Thanks again,

Dwight

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Edited by Dwight Romberger (see edit history)
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