How To: Aluminum Body Panels by mjderstine

[mjderstine]

hey guys, had a coupld questions and comments on how i make the body panels. so i thought i would take a couple pics and show you what i do. its actually a pretty easy process when you have the patience to do it.

first start out with a nice set of tin snips some nice flat nose pliers and nice hard square edge of a counter or something like that, the shaper the corner the better.

oh and the stuff for the actual panels is just some galvanized aluminum flashing.


first you want to mark all your lines. i usually use a pencil, but for these pics i used a sharpie so you could see the lines



then you want to line up the ends of the lines with the sharp corner of a counter top, coffee table, work bench, something like that.



the next step it where you need to make sure you have extra sheets laying around because once you put a crease in you can't get it out. practice, practice. sometimes i like to use some masking tape to tape the sheet to the counter before i bend, but did not do that for this example.

take the flat of you palm and apply pressure to the lines in firm jerks of your body weight, it doesnt take much to put the little crease it, after you get a crease in with both hands you can use your thumbs in the same manner to really sharpen up the crease.





then go ahead and start creasing your other lines. and you end up with something like this. for the slightly curved area you kinda need to roll the surface over the corner, it is not as exact as the creasing technique, but can be done to make a nice filleted curve.







now you need the flat nose pliers to put the edge on.



this edge makes the piece more structural in nature and gives it a nice solid feeling. i like to make the edge somewhere in the 1/16-1/8 wide. you just take you pliers and starting at one end pinch the edge down. take you time and dont try to make a 90 bend all at once, you can crack the flashing and ruin your panel. you want to make 2-3 passes with the pliers along the length of the edge to complete the edge.





you can go crazy from this point and make double edges, as seen in my M-715 build. (see signature link) these will give you a nice strong U channel that you will feel confident can take quite a bit of abuse before it will get wrecked on the trails.






hope this was helpful guys, and let me know if you have any questions.

[17dean]

Thank you for making and taking my scale addiction to the next level ! But for real tho, Thanks cause I am going to give it a try soon as I clear some space on my work bench!

[pottymouth]

I feel silly posting two grammar posts in a row, but what the hell. I know Trader Joe's...what is that "Trader Jose"?

[adamargue]

How do you mount your pannels together.

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[mjderstine]

Originally Posted by pottymouth

I feel silly posting two grammar posts in a row, but what the hell. I know Trader Joe's...what is that "Trader Jose"?

its their mexican beer! its like corona

[jfergz]

Just when I think I have a grip on my scale addiction BAM here it comes again...thanks man will definitely be putting this to use

[mjderstine]

Originally Posted by adamargue

How do you mount your pannels together.

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Not exactly sure yet. Ill probably use some 1/16" bolts to mount them to the cage and eachother.

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