Studebaker dash panels

[MP&C]

This is the continuation of a job from last summer. To start, let's catch up...

A few weeks ago one of the local Studebaker owners needed some panels made for the dash of his truck (1947 M5), he's revamping the dash gauge/radio arrangement and needed some fresh metal to work with. Here's the existing:





Where the factory panel has a recess, and since he has plans for installing a couple gauges in that panel, the new will be made without the recess. The flat panel above for the DIN radio will be replaced as well, with the sides tipped for uniformity.


The old panel has seen some previous holes, for whatever reason.











Where the rubber tire on top of the e-wheel does a nice job of forming a radius across a panel, the upper portion of the panel was a bit tighter than the 3" radius anvil will provide.





Having just set up my bead roller with the skateboard wheel for tipping, I thought to use this with a beading die to form the tighter radius.





Here's the results of "rolling" the panel








The panel has about an 1/8" lip around the perimeter, so the radius die was changed out to one for tipping.





With only just over 1/8 of extra to tip the flange, this process was not that effective. Hindsight, about 1/4 left over and trimmed afterwards would have been more effective. But since the panel matched so well, lets try other persuasive devices.








The tipping wheel did do an adequate job of marking the crease location....








And the "vice anvil" and a slapper was used to fold the straight lip over to a 90....





A different anvil was chosen for the radiused edges...











And a punch used to form the 4 corner radiuses...











And once complete, the comparison.........








Then the same process was used for the upper plate. The folded edges on this will make it match the lower panel a bit better and make it look more as an original piece...











And the two together...





For now, we are leaving the mounting holes out. It may even get some studs welded on the back side, for a clean look. But we'll cross that bridge when we get there.

[MP&C]

He recently stopped by with a better idea of what he planned, and a box full of gauges. So yesterday we got started. As the panel for the center of the dash has a crown, we will need some adapter rings...








Here's the new gauge with the clamping bracket....





Not having a slip roll, I decided to try these in the bead roller:





I had some help in the shop this evening, so in addition to having the powered option on the bead roller this evening, given the diameter of the gauge bezel, I was able to show her real world application of Pi X D....

















Just to test fit, here's the gauge with bracket, and the ring placed over both....








Both rings formed, tomorrow we'll get them welded up and tip some flanges for the bracket to push against...

[MP&C]

And for today, we worked on getting the rings in one piece...








Then to tip a flange to hold the gauge in place, used these in the bead roller....





Applied a bit of pressure and started tipping the ring gradually as we went....








After getting the initial flange tipped to almost 45 degrees, the body hammer was used to get the flange to 90.








Fitted, and shown with the gauge's mouting bracket in place.....











Now to fit the rings to the panel....











....and fine tuned with a drum sander.. A view in the panel....








Rather than weld around the perimeter of the hole, which will surely warp things up nicely, I'll tip a flange on the underside of the rings and spot weld to the panel.

[bigblock73]

Wow, impressive!!!

Great job!
Posted via Mobile Device

[nds1968]

Originally Posted by bigblock73

Wow, impressive!!!

Great job!
Posted via Mobile Device

X2

[cAlvis165]

Nice work! Thanks for sharing.

[MP&C]

Thanks for the comments!

There was still a few hours left this evening, so here's the tipping process for the rear ring flange. Before marking anything, the panel and both rings were pushed flat to the "table" surface. Then alignment marks added to keep us in the right location....








Marked along the surface of the panel against both rings..





Did an offset line 3/8" away and trimmed. This looked too wide to tip, so I went back and marked again at 3/16".








.....and trimmed again to the 3/16 mark. Changed to a different lower die for tipping this time.... made a complete revolution to "mark" the bend line and then started tipping...








Again went to about a 45 degree tip, placed the ring in the panel to see what needed more tipping....














Tipping along a wavy line does pose some "pulling" issues, so I did have some planishing/stretching to do in some areas. It's real close, but I have some tweaking left to do, and then I'll tackle the second one.

[MP&C]

Worked on the dash panel again tonight, used the Tig to tack in the first ring...








Then worked on the second, marked the flange at 3/16", trimmed, and made one revolution to mark the bend line, then tipped the inner flange as before...











Second ring clamped, tacked in place, panel dressed a bit, and gauges test fit....bolted in this time..











A couple small depressions at some of the weld tacks, some glaze will address any remaining imperfections. All in all, pretty pleased with the results...

[MP&C]

forgot the pic of the front view...

[MP&C]

Wrapping this up, drilled four holes where the owner had marked them on the back, and cleaned up the burrs...








Used some 10-32 machine screws, ground the heads at an angle to match the profile of the dash panel...





Note the anti-seize in the threads. Any time your weld circuit may cross hardware threads, the anti-seize will prevent the threads from galling.

Screws aligned with the holes...














Then I ground down the front side of the welds, ready to test fit the dashboard....

[theastronaut]

Nice fab work! Those tipping dies are next on the "buy" list for my bead roller.

[CAL 58 GMC]

Nice job!

[hyatt]

Impressive metal work

[rambler]

very impressive..

[MP&C]

Thanks for the comments guys.

Back to instrument panels today......


This one was just shy of 40" wide, really testing my 22 ga capacity apron brake... shown with the plywood pattern by the owner...








To sharpen up the bend just a bit, I ran it through the bead roller using the tipping dies...





Trimmed the folded flanges down a bit. Final flange will be about 3/16", bent them using 1/2" so the apron brake would cooperate a little better..








Used a 3/8 diameter punch as an anvil and hammered the corner radiuses (radii?)








Adding holes...











Welding on the "hidden studs"














This will replace the original as well as the upper plate we made last year...








The parts will position something like this....

[MP&C]

I had a request to show how the "unwelded" corners were formed, so I did another sample. The flanges were marked the same as the last version, just under 1/4"








The corner is trimmed at the corner to a radius to get rid of some of the excess metal...





Flanges folded to just up to corner, leaving a tuck ready for shrinking...








Video of the hammering process:

http://s5.photobucket.com/user/rmcca...eo158.mp4.html


Please excuse my lack of camera location awareness, my first feature film...

[MP&C]

Today I finished up the last piece for the Studebaker truck; this piece was to hold the heater/AC controls and DIN radio. The owner had made up a sample piece to make it from:





I wasn't too comfortable making something to match this piece as I didn't think these corners and the elliptical radius was correct. This is what I get for someone not wanting to bring over the truck to work from..








Looking at the picture he had sent of the dash, the piece this was replacing appeared to have straight sides and about a 1/2" radius.... (the piece under the orange panel)





So I had him bring that panel over today to have a "more accurate" sample so my work will have a better chance of fitting.. a bit different from his sample...





What I could only guess was him wanting 3/8 hardware, was actually 10-24 studs with a 3/8 nut.





You've got to love it!


Here's the layout, and cut out on the band saw....








I use some modified lower dies in the press brake to fold the 1/4" flanges around the perimeter....








The folds were stopped shy of the corners, and a 1" diameter "anvil" was used to form each corner radius.








The process is shown in this video on a similar piece....


http://s5.photobucket.com/user/rmcca...eo158.mp4.html


Finished radius....








Then, to add a radius along the bottom, I used the Baileigh magnetic brake, adding a 7/8" steel rod to form the radius...











....and then the front was folded up...











The front was squared up, then sides were clamped, and spot welded in place....








Din hole cut in place..





Hidden studs added....








Note anti-seize on threads to prevent galling/stripping of the threads while the nut held the studs in the vise during welding.





Welds for the studs cleaned up, and the radio test fit...











Some holes will be added to the rear of the side panels to attach support straps for the rear up to the dashboard during install... For now, All ready to go!!

[rambler]

great work! I wish I had that kind of talent

[swamp rat]

Absolutely awesome work!

[Low Elco]

Superb work! I learn something every time you post.

[Bishops Trucks]

A true metal master! Very nice work.