I'm back in from the "Redneck Roundup" metalshaping get-together in Rock Hill. This was a three day gathering of 40-45 people from all over the United States, plus Per "MetalmanSweden" from Sweden, and another talented metalshaper, Ben Van Berlo from Holland. I made new friends and learned a lot from watching the other guys work on their projects and the various presentations throughout the weekend. Great bunch of people and I hope to attend again next year.
One of the things I learned more about was the "flexible shape pattern". I've seen pictures of them posted on the allmetalshaping.com forums but didn't know anything about them. One of the presentations on Friday included a brief discussion on them so I thought that the passenger side fenderwell lip would be a good place to try one out.
The concept is to use reinforced shipping tape to make a non-deforming yet flexible pattern that shows how much shape a panel has so you can accurately determine how much shrinking or streching the panel needs. It also helps determine if an area of a panel has bends only- no stretching/shrinking needed to arrive at that particular shape.
I used a layer of blue painters tape as the first layer, being careful not to overlap anywhere. Then I used a single layer of reinforced tape on the spots I thought would need to be stretched, and a double layer (at opposing angles) on the area that I though was only bent- the inner flange. Once it's pulled off the panel (the painters tape makes it easy to remove) you use baby powder to kill the adhesive so it can be handled without it sticking to everything.
I didn't get a picture of it before I had removed it and used baby powder on it so I taped it back in place for a quick pic.
<a href="http://s1315.photobucket.com/user/andersonautoglass/media/12814570_10156516965470468_1094212172105999521_n_zps7mcc3uwk.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1315.photobucket.com/albums/t599/andersonautoglass/12814570_10156516965470468_1094212172105999521_n_zps7mcc3uwk.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo 12814570_10156516965470468_1094212172105999521_n_zps7mcc3uwk.jpg"/></a>
It doesn't look like much pulled off until you weigh down the spots that will lay completely flat, in this case the inner edge. If it will easily lay down with no wrinkels or bucking you know that that area only needs bending to arrive at its final form.
<a href="http://s1315.photobucket.com/user/andersonautoglass/media/12802734_10156516965500468_592390780678100535_n_zpsreouhk08.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1315.photobucket.com/albums/t599/andersonautoglass/12802734_10156516965500468_592390780678100535_n_zpsreouhk08.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo 12802734_10156516965500468_592390780678100535_n_zpsreouhk08.jpg"/></a>
The ruffles along the outer edge won't lay flat. You can see that there is "more" tape for that section than a straight/flat piece so the new metal needs to be stretched in that area.
<a href="http://s1315.photobucket.com/user/andersonautoglass/media/12049493_10156516965580468_3132114364807486958_n_zpszc7ap56k.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1315.photobucket.com/albums/t599/andersonautoglass/12049493_10156516965580468_3132114364807486958_n_zpszc7ap56k.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo 12049493_10156516965580468_3132114364807486958_n_zpszc7ap56k.jpg"/></a>
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