/diy/ - Do It Yourself

[Anonymous No.822005]

Okay guys, I'm looking to get into fabrication/metalwork. My aim is to build a 1920s style car, from frame to engine to drivetrain to body. I work on cars for a living and this is one of my garage dreams, but I've never done this kind of stuff before.

I have a rough idea of what tools I need, but is there any go-to literature I should know about that covers machining, welding, basic structural desing, and coachbuilding? I understand that this is a pretty huge undertaking, so I intent to start on small scale first, but if anyone has resources or knowledge to give, I'm all ears.

[Anonymous No.822008]

>>822005
learn to metal shape. you're gonna need at least a tubing bender, an English wheel, a few different types of hammers. and some sort of bead/edge roller machine that's name escapes my head.

[Anonymous No.822077]

>>822005
You want to build the engine too?

[Anonymous No.822079]

>>822005
While I'm sure there's plenty of knowledge here, there's tonnes of god tier panel bashers on >>>/o/, might be worth a visit there as well.

Godspeed OP.

[Anonymous No.822120]

>>822008
I'll have to look into getting those kind of tools, certainly.

>>822077
That's the plan. I'll start with small scale single cylinders, then an inline 4, then the final V8.

>>822079
I frequent /o/, and while there may be some good panel beaters there, the rest is full of bench racers and poorfags who know jack all about machining or fabricating. While I'd like the body to look alright, my main goal is making almost all of the components myself, too.

[Anonymous No.822131]

>>822120
I dunno how experienced you are but wouldn't it be wise to start with something small?

I dunno what kind of car you had in mind though, do you have any ideas on paper that you can share?

[Anonymous No.822136]

>>822005
The type of metalwork you'll need to create panels and fenders is fairly specialized. There were very good classes around Detroit that the shop techs would take. GM and the other autos still create a limited number of bodies by hand without tooling. Any rate, I'd find a good class in it.

Re motors. Would encourage you to consider basing designs around readily available short or longblocks, then customize valve train and or fuel systems. For example, GM iron duke 4 pushrod engine engine as a start point

> former GM engineer.

[Anonymous No.822160]

>>822005
average /diy/ post:
hi anon i dont know how to play any musical instruments, but ive seen these black dots on the paper, i think they go in time sqeuence and up means higher pitch. eventually i want to write a symphony, but my plan is to write music for a jazz quartet first. do you have any videos about how to do this?

[kg No.822181]

>>822160
I'm this guy: >>822136
He says he can work on cars, so that's a start. I think a lot of these are troll posts, but hey, it's an anon board, if you can't be stupid here, where else are you going to go?

Building a car from scratch isn't impossible, there's just no reason to actually do it. Even automakers don't have the same engineers doing powertrain development as chassis/body, b/c they are very different skill sets (they aren't made in the same plants either, for same reason).

Cost for a single hand-built unibody was over $500K at GM, and took many guys months. Full custom powertrain is more... IIRC custom engine was ~$1M.

Even car pictured; the old school coachbuilders, bought complete drivetrains/chassis from makers and built bodies around them, b/c it's too hard to do everything. And that was still wildly expensive... which is why no one does it that way anymore.

Closest I've seen to this in "common" practice (which mean probably a few hundred tackle it a year) is the Locost 7, which is basically a Lotus 7 knockoff. There, the builder scratch builds a tube frame, and major body components are fibreglass. All major components (engine, trans, spindles, axles, master cyl, etc) are sourced from scrap cars and adapted on, b/c who in their right mind is going to cast their own master cylinder?

[Anonymous No.822214]

>>822160
You know that we get a thread like this at least every month. Statistically, ONE of them is going to actually do it. And then you'll just be a nay-saying bitch, while anon is driving around in his diy-jalopy.

[kg No.822219]

>>822214
Given how hard a time most folks have just keeping themselves alive behind the wheel of a car, I have little hope. But I want to hope.

I'll leave you with this.

[Anonymous No.822235]

10 yr autobody tech here.

1 find a frame that will support your rough idea. Do this first imo because you need a realistic idea of the frame before you can plan anything else. You can't build a skyscraper on the foundation of a ranch home.

2 make a build plan. Without a build plan, this is a fruitless endeavor. It will keep you on track and give you direction.
3 don't lose the motivation. It helps having friends who are willing to help. If you do lose it, you will end up with a project car in your garage for 11 years, unfinished, that you don't even want to work on anymore. It sucks. Do it, get it done, and have deadlines.

[Anonymous No.822352]

>>822136
>Would encourage you to consider basing designs around readily available short or longblocks, then customize valve train and or fuel systems
That's probably a good idea, yeah. We occasionally swap out engines at work that have failed for one reason or another, so I might ask to keep one that still has a good bottom end and block.

>>822235
I do intend to find an old body-on-frame car that I can strip down to just the frame and axles, yes. As for a build plan, I need tools first and foremost. My toolbox is good enough for working on cars, but I have very little in the way of fabrication machinery. That's what I'll be budgeting for first, especially since it'll allow me to do some of the custom modifications to my current project car, too.

>>822181
>b/c who in their right mind is going to cast their own master cylinder?
Hey, if I can learn to cast metal, I'd be pretty damn happy. While my main goal here is to build a pretty sweet ride, learning all these skills along the way would be awesome as well.

I don't want to spent the rest of my career unbolting one broken part and replacing it with a new one, I want to make something.

[kg No.822357]

>>822352
My point is that you can make something interesting without going to the trouble of creating things from scratch that you can buy for a few dollars.

Things that should be made from scratch should be unique / not readily available elsewhere. Want to cast something? Cast a nice hood ornament. Don't waste your time casting something you can buy for a few bucks. Life's too short for that kind of bullshit.

> you can do anything you want
> you can't do everything you want

[kg No.822363]

>>822352
This is a great example of what I'm talking about. This car was built by it's creators with mostly off-the-shelf stuff as a demonstrator for this particular engine. So, when I see this, I see
>pre-production engine
>lots of standard parts like tires/wheels, axles, etc

Leaving the builders to create, from scratch, things like
>wooden frame
>body work
>fuel / other liquids tanks as needed to size

[Anonymous No.822392]

>>822363
>>822357
That's actually a good way to look at it, yeah. I suppose an easier way to go about it would be to use standard parts where I want to, focus on the more interesting/worthwhile things, and then go back and replace what I want with my own engineering later on.

I found a photo from someone's project on /o/, too, which goes to show that there are people out there who can do this kind of thing in their own garage.