Back on track!  Had a slight delay due to a family wedding.  Time to get moving again, the clock is ticking.

I decided to start shaping the front fender.  Pretty simple process really.  You just take the compound shape of the fender and break it down into a few forms to ease shaping just like you would on the full size car.  You then gas weld the pieces together and voila!  All of this is done with various age old tools such as the wheel, slapper, shot bag, hammers, dollies, etc.  Heck, I start a lot of shapes off by bending them over my thigh!

At this point I leave my pieces a little oversized to help dissipate some of the heat when I weld and to have a margin of error for fitment.  The front section will consist of more complex parts due to the shape.  Doesn’t make for pretty pictures but it’s all part of the process.

More to come…

I was able to make more progress on my wood buck and can now move on to shaping the aluminum. I still have a few areas that need additional refinement but I’ll go back and address those as I move along with the piece.

The process of shaping the aluminum is so exhilarating that I like to jump in as soon as I can.  My workflow is done in stages but it is very seldom a completely linear process from start to finish.  My pieces are more of a constant state of evolution where I often revisit different aspects of the design as I feel they need attention, continually jumping from one “stage” to another.

I should have some great metal progress shots to show soon if everything goes well.  This Ferrari GTO sculpture is really beginning to click with me subconsciously and is naturally flowing better than any of the others in the past.  Hopefully this will continue and I’ll have the bar set at a new level.