Hi World -
As I mentioned in my build thread, I wanted to develop/improve my skills in metal shaping so I signed up for a 4-day coach building course at Proshaper in Charlton, MA.
I just finished day three of four and thought you might enjoy seeing what we're up to and what we're learning to do.
The approach is that each student (17 in this class) works on building a panel for either a 550 Spyder or Maserati 300S and owns completing it until it fits its station on the car's wireframe.
I'll jump right to the action:
I took on the right rear end of the Maserati. What follows is the process and my progress on one of the panels that I started this morning.
Let's go!

First, use the wireframe to make a paper template of the part.

Cut the blank. We used 20ga steel for this exercise.
I had already put an initial bend in to get things started.

Use the template to determine where the panel needs to be stretched or shrunk.
In this case, I need to raise the middle section to develop a compound curve.
I marked on the template where I need to shrink. Essentially, I want to close the base of these triangles.

(at this point, I started to wonder how the heck I was going to make a flat piece of metal move that much...)

The way this works is to create "tucks" on the edges, then hammer them back into themselves in such a way that the metal gathers (shrinking), which upsets the metal around the area to have to move. In this case it raises.

To get things started, I used this modified arbor press to create the tucks.
Pretty ingenious invention of Wray Schelin's (he is "Proshaper").

You can also do this with a hammer and stump but this is more reliable, at least for a novice like me.

Holy crap, what have I done...?
Again, I kept thinking, "Well, this is a waste of perfectly good metal..."

Using a giant hammer (no, seriously, this thing weighs like 10 lbs), the idea is to "trap" the tuck and hammer it back into itself, closing the base of the triangle tucks.
The trick is to not bash the triangle over onto its side.
That is bad. Really bad.
I tipped a couple of them over but caught them in time and likely lost much of the intended shrink on that particular tuck but the good news is that you just "do it again".

"Do it again" and "A little more" were the most repeated phrases I heard! This isn't a fast process...

Looking good. Hope you brought warm coat , gonna be cold in the morning

Bash, bash, bash, bash, bash, bash, bash, bash, bash, bash, bash, bash, bash, bash, bash, bash, bash, bash, bash, bash, bash, bash, bash.



My arm is very tired.

Do it again.

A little more.


Hammer in the middle to stretch the center.

Back to the arbor press. Hammer more, arbor press hammer more to shrink the edges.

Please God. No more. My arm is so tired I must stop. So I did. Seriously. I hammered for 2 hours and that was all I could handle. It was brutal. I am not a young man.

Not kidding. I couldn't hammer any more. The good news is that much of what was left was stretching that could be accomplished on the English wheel. Still quite a good workout.

Early results from wheeling. It's quite astonishing watching the "bag of walnuts" change from what looks like throw-away to a pretty decent panel in a matter of minutes.

Last time I saw you , you had 2 arms! Just switch, hahahaha

Looking good Chris.

Lots of in-progress pics but let's just get to fitting it on the wireframe. The panel is clamped in place (or at least as "in place" as you can get it to go!) to reveal where it's tight and needs to be stretched, and where it's loose and needs more of that damned shrinking!

Wheel, fit, wheel, fit, wheel, fit.
Did I say this isn't a fast process?

I wasn't alone in being under aggressive with the shaping. It seems that's typical of newbies. Toward the end of the day, I copped and attitude and really went after things on the wheel. It seems I'm learning just how much you have to do to get the metal to move, particularly when the panel needs as much shape as the ass-end of a vintage Maserati!

Hours of work later and while I still have a bit of shaping, all the trimming and lots of final wheeling to disappear the tuck / hammer marks and other anomolies, things are looking pretty good.

Oh, and I also made that upper piece too. Turned out pretty well.

Way Cool!!!!

Can sort of empathize how much your arm must be hurting. Spent the last few days with hammer and dolly straighening out one of the quarter panels I welded back on. Never really appreciated how tired you get pushing a dolly from awkward positions for hours on end. I had to take a break and work on something else for the weekend. And that is child's play compared to what you are doing. Man this is good stuff!!!!

At the end of day three, we clamped most everyone's panels onto the wireframe and out of nowhere, a Maserati 300S suddenly appeared!

It was quite a rewarding moment.

And I have to say, not bad for a bunch of newbies with hammers and tree stumps!

The goal on the final day is to get some of the panels welded together. Pics once I get home.

Hope you enjoyed the overview.

Like magic! Arm hurting magic.

Awesome! Did they teach you the heat shrink method at all? Im fond of that with a shrinking disk. NOT so much with a torch. I was taught shrinking disk method in a cool class back in 06ish and before that the torch method at a community college.



Im more fond of stretching metal than shrinking it

Palm nailers are your FRIEND.

Wow! That is very cool

Hey, let's make a Maserati at your house in June.

Phenomenal. A new appreciation of how it was done before the age of presses. Talk about man hours. Thanks for posting Chris. Fantastic stuff.

Has the student become the master?

Andrew - Yes, there was a full day of demo stuff, including shrinking disc. Pretty magical. And Wray (Wray Schelin of Proshaper) demo'd heat shrinking, too.

Very cool, thanks for posting this.

That is simply awesome. It's fascinating when people use techniques that supposedly "went out of style" only to discover that those skills are more relevant than ever!

Kudos to you!!! Back in the early seventies I used to ride my bike down a side street through a nearby city (Bellflower).
I would frequently see an old bearded guy in his garage hammering sheetmetal or perhaps aluminum.
Days later I would see what looked to be louvered hoods and fenders. I was amazed at his skills.

Enjoy your new skills Chris!!!!!!!

Nice Job!

I wish there was a similar class near me

Guys fly in from all over the world to take this class, the class I took there were two guys from Australia and three from Europe. It actually works better that you aren't close to home because you end up putting in about 15 hour days which you might not do if you could go home. But when your only alternative is having fun with metal or a crappy hotel room, you tend to stay and pound metal.
Seriously, anyone remotely interested in doing this should take the class, it's amazing how much you learn in 4 days.

What happens to shell once you guys leave? Is it finished and then sold off.

Who will be the 1st to make an aluminum bodied 914?

Not sure, the wire frames are fairly new at Wray's, just in the last few months. Not sure what he will do when one gets completed. It would make great wall art, but I'm partial to cool wall art.

So, the final day and lots to try and accomplish.
More wheeling, fitting, wheeling, fitting...

Lots of "a little more..."

Areas that need more work are determined when the panel is clamped to the wireframe. All those Sharpie marks are a clue to how much "more work needed here" areas I was identifying!

As I address one area the panel fits differently on the wireframe, highlighting the next area that will need work.

It seems never ending and sometimes it seems you're going backwards. A real lesson in patience and perseverance, I must say.

Wheel, wheel, wheel...
A little more...
A LOT of shape needed to get put into what was a flat panel 5-6 hours earlier.

Getting there...!

As you work a panel more and more, the wheel starts to polish the metal. This is raw steel but the highly wheeled panels actually start to look like chrome. It really helps highlight the panel shape, which areas need work, etc.

Still more work to do but check out that reflection!
Yep, that's me, laying on the floor shooting up at the underside of what I started calling "my panel".

Once things were far enough along, I couldn't resist seeing how both the panels I made would come together. Turns out, pretty well!

Next, it was on to finishing steps. Here, I've tipped the flange in my upper panel. This is the edge of the trunk opening.

A good friend of mine turned 60 late last year so as a B-day present, I gave him this class. He did the same panels as me, for the other side of the car.
In the end, it worked out pretty well in that our focusing on this area of the car enabled the first (and only) panels that were ready for welding.

Wray seemed to get pretty excited to see parts of the REALLY come together. Excited, as in, he did the welding!

It fits!

And looks so cool...

How'd we do?

Yep, lots of work left but, man, I have to say, I'm proud of what we created.

These cars were hand made and in looking at all the pics of the various cars that collected as they were trying to figure the dimensions to work up the wireframe, I can tell you there are significant differences between the various cars.

May I present the proud (and very tired) members of Team Proshaper Maserati 300S with our baby. Proud papas all.

She really is a bad ass looking car...

Me and one fine Italian ass!

Heading out the door at the end of it all.

What a tremendous four days. I am fortunate to have had the opportunity to participate in what I suspect was a life changing experience.

I am so excited to get home and back to work on, well, you'll just have to watch my build thread and see!

I'll close with an artsy-fartsy shot. I think I'll call this "A 300S through the wheels".

Farewell Proshaper and a huge thank you to Wray Schelin and all the guys in the April 2018 coach building class.

ps. I have a couple videos I'll post up later this week.

A Joe Walsh quote seems fitting here, "Life's been good..." Thanks for sharing. Can't wait to see what you do with these new skills. Safe travels.

So if you started with a sheet of 20ga steel, could you tell if the thickness changed much after all the stretching/shrinking?

You could when wheeling. There would be a very slight change in the feel as you first traversed from a raw area to an area that had already been worked. It was dependent on how much pressure was being used and it was pretty slight. As far as I understood it, on the panels we were working there was only maybe ~5% change, which surprised me. I'd have thought it would have been more.

It looks like the shell will be used to "perfect" the body, at which point, flexible shape patterns will be made from it and the body then created in aluminum. I wouldn't be surprised to see it become shop art after that. Maybe Wray will sell it.

I'll post as I get to doing the flexible shape patterns. Another very cool technique that Wray Schelin created. Look it up on line, if you're interested.

As to an aluminum 914, you may want to watch my build thread.

Hope to see you soon, Mike!

This one is easy:

No!

I will say that I think I am officially dangerous. Confident that I can do it to an acceptable level but won't quit my day job any time soon.

I suspect it's something like ice skating. The experts make it look easy and if you get a few lessons, you can "skate", too!
But probably no triple axles any time soon. Hopefully, eventually. But I gots lots o' skating, and some falls and bruises ahead of me.

What an awesome experience! How are you going to teach us all that in one day? I'm kidding. really.

Hi Andy -
Well, I'd be more than happy to demo stuff I learned and let folks give things a go. It's amazing how accessible this skill really is. Many of the guys in class had never even touched an English wheel before this class and I watched them crank out some really nice panels.

See you in June!

What a great experience, Chris...... something worth putting on the bucket list.

That class sounds amazing. What a great experience and now you have a unique skill that will be very handy for your project!

Jeff B

we could certainly use an additional fabricator welder here, too many 914s backed up now for floor pans flares and jackposts!