I engine turned my firewall, and here's how I did it.

[David Hodgkins]

Hey everyone,

Last Sunday I completed a mod I've been working on since April, when I decided to build my own jig for the process.

After much deliberation with myself, I've decided to post pictures of the jig that will explain how it's done. I feel a little like Smeagle, as the jig is "My Precious" and I want to hoard her as my little secret. But I'm not Smeagle, I'm Frodo and as hard as it is to hold her into the light, I must do so, to save all of mankind from the filth of POP (plain old panels) forevermore.

Enjoy!








Just before starting. This was a REALLY SCARY moment. You must start with a polished panel in order to product bright swirls:



And, just after finishing, with a quick rub down to clear most of the lubricant. The panel is brighter than this now:



Finally, a close up of the panel. The swirls are NOT perfect, which indicates this was created by hand.

[143point9]

That is truly awesome! Once you had the jig completed, which must have taken a while to figure out, how long did it take to do the patterning? The levels of creativity of forum members never ceases to amaze me. Are you mounting the firewall forward or is the bottom 90* edge to mount the firewall from the bottom so you don't have to put any fasteners through that masterpiece?

[David Hodgkins]

The panel took all day to do, basically because I did it slow, and decided to add the stripes after I had started the panel. I triple measured everything before I started to make sure it was square on the jig. And I went off the center of the chassis to measure for the stripes. The stripes themselves are 7-1/2'' wide with 1/4'' pinstripes. I took those measurements off my roadster. This panel is for my brother's build.

The firewall itself is a FFMetal piece, which moves it forward 1-1/2'', and is nice and thick. The polishing was by far the most labor-intensive part of the piece to do.

[MPTech]

Like the Engine Turning wasn't amazing enough, then you go and throw in some mirror-polished stripes on top, just to completely blow our minds!

VERY Nice!

This is going on your brother's car??!! Wow! did he save your life or something?

[Dan Babb]

That looks great.

Any plans to powdercoat it clear? It may dull the polished look a bit, but would probably be a lot easier to keep it clean over the long haul.

[David Hodgkins]

MP,

Thank you brother for the awesome feedback. Admittedly, considering the stripes were a "last minute" decision the piece came out better than I had hoped for.

Dan, the current plan is to sharkhide it. None of the clears are perfect, and powdercoating "clear" is a misnomer. I clear powdercoated a test panel and it came out awful!

I tested sharkhide on another panel and the engineturning looks great!. The polished surface? Meh, good enough for rock and roll... Good thing is, it doesn't dull over time.

[skullandbones]

Excellent work, David! I like the jig. That looks like a commercial grade tool. I've done some for the fun of it with my drill press. It really does take patience and consistency. Neither are my strong suit. I'm sure your brother will love it. Thanks for sharing, WEK.

[David Hodgkins]

TTT, for those who are curious, by request...

[Tangentkits]

That turned out great David! The high polish stripes are a truly awesome contrast. One of a kind!

[David Hodgkins]

That turned out great David! The high polish stripes are a truly awesome contrast. One of a kind!

Thank you sir! It might be worth noting the other pieces I ended up doing for this build, and what they look like installed.

Here's the firewall installed:



Front radiator shroud:



Nose Shroud, done in stainless steel instead of aluminum:



Dash - I engine turned this like the firewall but then turned the piece over and turned the stripes, to create ghost stripes:


Cockpit cubby wall:


...and in the trunk, I got kinda fancy adding a second, hinged wall to cover the stereo components:

[John Dol]

Wow, is all I can say

John

[erlihemi]

Awesome! Who needs a CNC Bridgeport when you do it like that. Very nice Dave .

[David Hodgkins]

Thanks guys. I did a few 818 door panels this week, to gauge interest in producing them as parts:

[Barrel]

An alternative to turning the aluminium is to wrap the panel like this.
I hope that I'm not treading on anyone's toes here ,it's just a thought.