1932 Ford Trunk Corners - Trunk Shot

With the dies clamped in a table vise, Hardison hammered the bulk of the sheet into shape. To prevent the hammer's smallish face from dimpling the sheet, he used a handmade slapper to distribute its force over a larger area.

Hardison clamped and re-clamped the sheet to the die as it took shape. Once satisfied with the general form, he re-purposed a broken hammer handle as a corking tool. It's strong enough to transmit the hammer's force to set the shapes yet it won't mar the sheet with individual strikes as a metal tool would.

In the metal-shaping world fancy power tools exist exclusively for convenience, for metal can be bent and stretched over just about anything. In this case Hardison employed a shear table to shift the crease into shape.

This progress shot indicates just how well the broken hammer handle forms the metal into the creases. Hardison gradually worked the metal into shape, as forcing it would inevitably return a warped or possibly torn mess.

The hammer-forming process sets the shapes but leaves a rather lumpy surface. He planished the surface with a pneumatic hammer for timesaving and convenience but a plain hammer and a dolly would've sufficed. Note the flat carved from the side of the upper planishing die gives the die access to very sharp corners.

Once planished and cooled, the folded edge looks hardly different than if it had been struck into shape by large manufacturing dies.

With the creases corked in sufficiently, Hardison used a blunt chisel-like tool to sharpen the panel's creases.

Hardison trimmed the sheet about 1/4-inch away from the die before folding it over. Heating the metal does more than ease the bending process; it also helps shrink the metal flange to prevent it from puckering around the compound curve.

With the insight offered by the process, it's hard to not appreciate the effort, skill, and cunning required to make such a simple-looking piece.