Cornfield Customs metal shaping

[Kevin54]

Damn man, that is some fantastic looking work!!!! If I lived in Milford, I'd be hanging out at your shop every day just to learn something.

 

[freudianfloyd]

Awesome work. I have always wanted to learn metal shaping. By the way, I drive through Milford twice a day to and from work. I would gladly work for free in exchange for training.

By the way, where in Milford is your shop located? I think you are the closest GJer to me.

 

[cornfield customs]

Awesome work. I have always wanted to learn metal shaping. By the way, I drive through Milford twice a day to and from work. I would gladly work for free in exchange for training.

By the way, where in Milford is your shop located? I think you are the closest GJer to me.

i am on deerfield rd, in between st rt 28 and 131

 

[freudianfloyd]

i am on deerfield rd, in between st rt 28 and 131

I have been taking 131 home lately because traffic is getting so bad on 50. I don't travel Deerfield much, but I'm sure I have passed your shop and just didnt realize it was there. You truly do some nice work.

 

[cornfield customs]

I have been taking 131 home lately because traffic is getting so bad on 50. I don't travel Deerfield much, but I'm sure I have passed your shop and just didnt realize it was there. You truly do some nice work.

stop in some time

 

[freudianfloyd]

stop in some time

I might just take you up on that.

 

[Todd.Brock]

Welcome to the GJ from Anderson Twp. Beautiful work. are you going to be st the pumpkin run this weekend?

 

[NoGarageAtHome]

Awesome.

You and MPandC motivate the hobbyiest like myself. Don't be shy and please post anything you think we can benefit from. It is difficult to find good how to info on metal work and guys like myself appreciate your talents and willingness to share.

 

[ilovevocs]

Awesome talent dude!!

S


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[cornfield customs]

Welcome to the GJ from Anderson Twp. Beautiful work. are you going to be st the pumpkin run this weekend?

yea i will be at pumpkin run. i will be parked in the shaws gas station and sign display area. i will have my vega funny car and edsel station wagon

 

[Todd.Brock]

Cool. I'll be sure to stop by say hello.

 

[cornfield customs]

here are some other smaller shaping projects i did recently

making a 37 ford coupe deck lid skin













metal repairs on a Fiat Topolino



















46 chevy truck rear fender, made in 2 pieces

























handmade 30-31 coupe 1/4s





started making a 1 piece mini tubbed inner wheel wells for a model a coupe. these are nice since they are one piece with the inner, the lip, and the outer bead to repair the entire wheel well 1 shot

made a buck to repeat the part later



panel laid out



first set of shrinks on the hammer



second set of shrinks



third set of shrinks



after plannishing out the shrinks

 

[cornfield customs]

then i had to stretch the flange back out





then hammered in the outer bead then the fading step






50' ford that has been chopped and a section started. like a lot of crazy sheet metal modified cars, there is a lot of metal work that needs to be redone. so right now i am focusing on the roof area and working my way down.

making new sail panels. left them long and turned the edges so i can spot weld the inner window channel in place at factory spot welds to cut down on long weld seams





shape roughed in



ready for final planish and fitment



now onto the area above the door. they welded the door tops in the car to make it hard top, the seam was low, and needed some attention. so i decided to make a new skin to replace the seam. again left it long to get the edge turned to spot weld in at factory spots.



roughed in



ready for final fit and finish planish







40' ford pick up that was dropped off. lots to do on this one, i focused on the head light bucket area on the pass front fender. the fenders were widened in the past and cut through the head light area. so that needed addressed. instead of taking another fender and cutting that part out and trying to re shape it to work, it is just easier to make the new panel.



here is the first test fit on the car after putting some rough shape in



the shape was a little off so had to address that. then moved on to making sure the trim ring would fit right. so i massages the panel to fit the trim





second test fit was much better, still needs a little tuning but it is close

 

[shoot summ]

All I can say is WOW!!

I've worked with a lot of materials, metal is one that I haven't done much with, your skill is phenomenal.

 

[Kevin54]

If you would, when you get some free time Could you explain a little more as to how you get your metal pattern off of your paper template? I mean. that I know what you are doing with the paper and the magnetics, but the paper has some serious wrinkles in it. So how do you go from a wrinkled up paper with lines and magnets on a fender, to making a flat blank, to making a finished fender?

And if you do find time to do a small write-up about it, it doesn't have to be a complex part with a bazillion lines and circles and magnets, but just something simple as all of the basics are there whether the part is large or small. I have seen where ones would take multiple layers of shipping tape and covering a part, running the tape in all directions, then trying to iron it out into a flat pattern to transfer that to a piece of sheet metal, but I have not seen how you do it, done before.

And again....whenever you get a free moment. I know that with your projects you have been showing, that you must not have any free time at all.

Thanks so much, and keep posting away. I just may have to make a special trip to your shop someday just to follow you around and see how you do what the magic is that you do.

 

[jhn9840]

Phenomenal skills. How did you get from beginner to where you are today, if you don't mind me asking.

jhn9840
John

 

[bulletpruf]

Mad skillz. Following.

 

[tc-cad]

AMAZING Work I am most impressed. I work at a tool and die shop that does Deep Drawn sheet metal motorcycle fenders and lawnmower decks. I do the 5-axis laser programming and the Deep Draw FEA Simulation. Do you have any youtube videos?

Thanks for Sharing.
TC-CAD

 

[K13]

If you would, when you get some free time Could you explain a little more as to how you get your metal pattern off of your paper template? I mean. that I know what you are doing with the paper and the magnetics, but the paper has some serious wrinkles in it. So how do you go from a wrinkled up paper with lines and magnets on a fender, to making a flat blank, to making a finished fender?

And if you do find time to do a small write-up about it, it doesn't have to be a complex part with a bazillion lines and circles and magnets, but just something simple as all of the basics are there whether the part is large or small. I have seen where ones would take multiple layers of shipping tape and covering a part, running the tape in all directions, then trying to iron it out into a flat pattern to transfer that to a piece of sheet metal, but I have not seen how you do it, done before.

And again....whenever you get a free moment. I know that with your projects you have been showing, that you must not have any free time at all.

Thanks so much, and keep posting away. I just may have to make a special trip to your shop someday just to follow you around and see how you do what the magic is that you do.

Great work Mike! Man you can get some deep shrinks with that hammer.

Hopefully Mike will explain in a little more detail but I think the basic premise is the wrinkles show you where you need to shrink the flat panel. Wherever the paper wrinkles is where your shrinks need to be in the metal so you mark it on the paper then transfer that info over to your flat metal panel.

Mike when you go to cut out the old sheet metal that you have clecoed the new over do you just cut right along the seam with a thin wheel or do you mark and remove the new panel to cut out the old?

 

[cornfield customs]

i will eventually have to do a step by step how to with paper patterns, but will try to explain it best i can.

with paper it follows the same rules as steel. you have to in essence shrink or stretch the paper to get it to take the shape as the panel you are patterning. so a shrink becomes a tuck or a fold, and a stretch becomes a cut. you start with laying the paper on the flattest area of the panel and magnet that down. then working you way out from the center you pull on the paper to make it lay tight. if there is a lot of paper bunching up it becomes a tuck. so you lightly and evenly space the tucks and place magnets in between them. if there is a bubble under the paper and you cant get it to make contact with the panel it needs a relief cut to allow the paper to spread out or stretch.

so then where the paper begins to tuck or cut shows where your light line falls, the line where light reflects which gives cars their flows and *** appeal. you mark this line with a pencil since this line is where a shrink or stretch begins. after this you mark and label all your shrinks and stretches. i then mark all the edges of the panels, body lines and fold edges and label them accordingly. at this time you can pull all the magnets off and remove the pattern.

now the pattern is laid back as flat is it can to give you an overall size and shape of what you need to start with. it also shows all your shrinks, stretches, lines, and edges. so now your pattern becomes a map of what needs done, where to start and how to get to the end of a finished panel

hope that makes sense, i will do a small demo at some point

 

[EdT]

Beautiful work!! I am really digging the "structure" of the method you use. Some guys can (somehow) seem to do that kind of stuff "freehand" , but I am a process guy and it's really great to see that there actually can be a process as opposed to a happening. Thanks a lot for taking the time to post your work; it's very inspiring. I do a lot of light fabrication of small parts and I would be interested in some idea of the hours involved in some of your parts. Either I am really slow, or this kind of work just takes time. Folks get a distorted vision of the time involved in fabrication from all the TV shows where a fender is completed in what looks like 30 seconds, but it actually took a few days.

 

[Vette60]

Mike.

Thanks for sharing - the work that you are doing is fantastic and the attention to detail and skill level is top notch. I really look forward to seeing more of your work posted here.

Randy

 

[don long]

Hi Mike
I found this thread and have read through it twice!!
Kevin beat me to my first question about the paper pattern.
Thanks so much for the explanation. I am truly interested in what you have shone. It leaves me wanting much more.
Thank you


Don

 

[oldironfarmer]

You make me embarrassed to post the crude things I do.

Thanks!

 

[ratdoggy]

Do you have any Youtube videos?
I'd love to see how you can get a panel with 2 different radius done like the one in the first picture. Anyone can bend something over a old welding cylinder but how do you get that panel curved like that?

 

[yaidunno]

Do you have any Youtube videos?
I'd love to see how you can get a panel with 2 different radius done like the one in the first picture. Anyone can bend something over a old welding cylinder but how do you get that panel curved like that?

Power Hammers and English wheels

Mike, thanks for sharing the photos. I've followed your work on other sites and have always been quite impressed. Keep up the good work!

 

[Homebody]

Damn, great stuff!!

 

[Graham08]

Amazing work! The spare tire well is crazy, a huge amount of shaping going on to make that happen.

What's the advantage to shaping the inner fenders in one piece that basically are three flat pieces connected at 90 degree angles? Is it faster than welding up out of three pieces, or does it just make a better part?

 

[rmack898]

Mike your work is beyond words although freakin amazing is a good starting point.

Now that you've explained your process for developing a shape, can you tell us what kind of paper you are using for your templates. From the pics it almost looks like unlabeled Tyvek house wrap or something like that.

 

[johnyg]

hi mike!!!! while i could never attempt what you do it is great to see what can be done by by a real craftsman.they are few and far between !!!!thank you for your time!!!!john.

 

[C_F]

My jaw hit my keyboard when I saw the finished pic of the spare tire dish on the back of the Fiat Topolino...absolutely incredible, man! The Chevy truck fender is equally impressive.

Thanks for joining the GJ and for taking the time to share some of your incredible talent with us all.

 

[cornfield customs]

Amazing work! The spare tire well is crazy, a huge amount of shaping going on to make that happen.

What's the advantage to shaping the inner fenders in one piece that basically are three flat pieces connected at 90 degree angles? Is it faster than welding up out of three pieces, or does it just make a better part?

with making the spare tire well in 1 piece has multiple benifits. the first is the time saving factor. with making in 3 pieces you would have to make the pieces, trim to fit, weld, grind, and metal finish out. which is very time consuming. so in 1 piece you can knock off hours in the crappy work. the second is you never want to weld in a 90* corner, you cant metal finish it out, or blend out into a radius. and third it is a smoother more uniform shape that flows out nicer

Mike your work is beyond words although freakin amazing is a good starting point.

Now that you've explained your process for developing a shape, can you tell us what kind of paper you are using for your templates. From the pics it almost looks like unlabeled Tyvek house wrap or something like that.

the paper is just plain body masking paper that is used in body shops

 

[pamike]

How much time does it take for some of these pieces we see, like the spare tire well?

 

[cornfield customs]

How much time does it take for some of these pieces we see, like the spare tire well?

depends on the part and the complexity. i have about 15 hours in the spare tire well, the rear truck fender had about 40 hours start to finish

 

[E.rodz]

Hi Mike thanks for sharing your talent with all of us! I have been following you on Instagram for quite some time now I am glad your sharing your progress on here too! I am new to shaping and have been rounding up tools to use for years now and your posts inspire me. can't wait to see more!

 

[Graham08]

with making the spare tire well in 1 piece has multiple benifits. the first is the time saving factor. with making in 3 pieces you would have to make the pieces, trim to fit, weld, grind, and metal finish out. which is very time consuming. so in 1 piece you can knock off hours in the crappy work. the second is you never want to weld in a 90* corner, you cant metal finish it out, or blend out into a radius. and third it is a smoother more uniform shape that flows out nicer

That all makes sense, thanks for taking the time to explain.

 

[cornfield customs]

havent been able to post lately, been out of town working on a Ridler contender for a week, then to WI to help finish up a sema project. so now that i am back in the shop before i leave for sema i can get some shaping work done.

this 33 ford 5 window came in from a local body shop that needed some new metal put in the car. the wheel wells and quarters have been severly abused over the years with lead, bondo, brass and deep gouged from grinding. so that leads us here



roughing out the new wheel well from one piece




patterning the quarter



over all shape roughed in



after some trimming and making body line dies we started hammering them in the quarters. here Ryan is removing the guide fence after bead work





still needs a lot of work and the lower body line, but it is coming along

 

[yhprum]

Looks good! Can you explain the beading process?
Thanks

 

[j p smith]

Mike, thanks for sharing your photos. It is very good to see your serious metal shaping skills taking flat sheets and changing the customers "oh **** what are going to do about that" situation to "holy moley that's beautiful". Please keep bringing the updates on your customers projects.

 

[cornfield customs]

well i ended up not being happy with the new quarter for a few reasons. the main one was the body line around the wheel well was a little higher than it should have been. so it is junk, and will be re purposed as a wall hanger. you

can see the enthusiasm in my face lol





took some time to make the lower cowl patch while the quarter panel set it so i can learn from my mistakes on the next one