Dick Bear's McBearen/Mclaren - by Dick Bear

[MetalMeet Librarian]

9-14-2006

This week I reached a point in the build that was once again a moment of real satisfaction. I finished off the two missing panels of the front fenders completing the entire upper body of the McBearen!

No longer are there two gaping openings in the front fenders that previously had always detracted from the lines and slashing down angle created by the fenders. I can, for the first time, share with you the full body shape without anyone having to imagine the entirety of the front end.

Eighty-seven individual panels were shaped, hammered, cut, fitted and welded together to create the four independent structures that are the front, back and doors of the car. It has been a real experience getting to this point but after reaching it I’m, for the most part, satisfied!

Image #1; yours truly tacking in the final major panel of the upper body.



Image #2; 3/4 left view of completed upper body.



Image #3; 3/4 right view of completed upper body.



Image #4; full front view of completed upper body.



Cheers!

Dick Bear

9-15-2006

Originally Posted by Boogiemanz1

Dick, after about the third installment I knew you had the drive to get to this point. Congratulations on a hell of a job. With your newfound experience in building "scratch built" vehicles...in what percentage of time could you build a second one. My actual question is, after the learning and figuring, and the "just sitting and staring".....how far have your skills progressed in the pure shaping, and how much faster are you? I already know that you are much much faster than I am..............john

Thanks Anders, Steve, Ben, Keith, James, Jim and John for your compliments. Hearing words of encouragement from a group like the seven of you means a lot to me! Can’t wait to have you see it in person. Hopefully after seeing the real thing, you won’t be tempted to retract your praise!

John, that is a good question and I’m not sure that I can answer it. I guess the best way to attempt to do so would be to share with you some of the thoughts that pass through my head now as I approach a panel, as apposed to not having any thoughts to even consider when I first began.

In the beginning I would just start beatinga panel in a general manner and then make adjusts as I thought they were needed. That method resulted in a lot of wasted energy and time. Now, although I don’t always know what I’m going to do, I try not to commit myslf until the panel is given an opportunity to “express” its’ opinion. If that sounds like voodoo I don’t mean for it to. I guess that is what others have called ‘reading the panel’. It’s true… given the opportunity, the panel will tell you what needs to be done next or what shouldn’t have been done in the past. Learning this, I keep as my primary goal to disturb a panel as little as possible so that I don’t have to back track to repair mistakes as often. The fact is, metal is very forgiving and unless you gouge, tare or crease it to a point of no return, even a seemingly gross error of direction can be worked out if given enough time.

So, I think the key is to identify when you are heading in the wrong direction quickly and for me this is accomplished by working the panel slowly while being aware of the cryptic messages the panel is trying to convey.

Secondly I would say that developing the skill of interpreting 2-dimension thought into 3-dimensional form is a necessary developmental skill for metal shaping. There were times that I found myself working a panel in exactly the opposite direction than what I should have been doing. When that error is discovered (by reading the clues provided by the panel) one really feels stupid and I was (am) guilty of that too often! It is funny but true that there were times when I was totally convinced that a particular thing had to be done to an area only to discover that doing so resulted in the shape of the panel reacting at 180 degrees out of phase. When this happens real learning takes place ‘cause it requires periods of “sit and stare” to decipher exactly what is happening and why. Realizing the cause and correcting the situation prepares you for the next time a similar situation is confronted.

I guess what I’ve really been talking about is efficiency of effort. I’m not sure that hand shaping metal can be done any faster than a specific type of metal will allow itself to be shaped. It takes a minimum number of passes through a wheel to accomplish any given form and keep the desired surface quality. That number is determined not by the operator but by the metal. Aluminum works faster than steel and, I assume, mild steel conforms faster than stainless steel. Each type has its own scale.

The accomplished metal worker cannot rush the forming process but he or she can maneuver through the different processes necessary to form a panel more quickly than the non-experienced person because he doesn’t waste time with mistakes. His production is therefore faster. Not because the metal forms faster under his direction but because he doesn’t waste effort. Everything he does is directed toward the end result.

In the final analysis the old cliché is once more proven to be true. To become proficient at metal shaping you first have to take the tools into your hand and do it and secondly, to become efficient at it you have to do a lot of it. It’s like any skill… practice makes you better than you would be without it.

I’m sure the individuals who have achieved the level of master shapers in our group would be the first to say that it is only through doing that anyone can learn to shape metal.

So, how fast could I accomplish the same metal shaping aspects of the McBearen build next time? I have no idea but I’m confident it would take less time the next time than it did this. And the time after that I would expect it would be a bit faster than that. Perhaps sometime in the far future I might be able to visualize, measure, cut and shape a perfect panel without wasting one moment of time. In any case I’m sure that nothing on the McBearen would have been accomplished if nothing had been attempted. Fast or slow, slow or fast, in order to learn to shape metal one first has to begin!

Dick Bear


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