Hello everyone!
(I'll post pictures when I'm back out there tomorrow!)
I'm trying to recreate the rear curved belly pan pieces on my
1968 Ambassador (not the banana wraps) but I'm having a lot of trouble getting the pieces right. Has someone made these before? I may be too close to it and just stuck...
I have the shell lifted up enough that it's out of the way of the belly pan tabs that will be riveted to the c-channel.
So far, I've tried:
1.
Snipping and bending around the curve in the belly pan where it aligns with the c-channel. As people have recommended in other posts, I drilled holes at the point of the creases to give the aluminum somewhere to go when it bends. After bending up the tabs of the belly pan and putting it on the trailer, the subfloor was exposed where the holes were drilled to prevent creasing. I decided I needed to create a more flat surface in the curve to prevent the subfloor from being exposed.
2.
Then I used the same method from #1 above, but this time I also used a planishing hammer to stretch out the area below the holes so that the subfloor wasn't exposed. Since the planishing hammer stretches the aluminum slightly, it caused what feels like a bend/warp in the whole piece that makes it no longer line up with the c-channel.
I would greatly appreciate advice from anyone who has created these pieces before!
How did you create the pieces? Did you have any issues with them warping?
Linear Mode
