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Car wood frame carpentry help needed Nottingham area
SteveWallace - 28/4/17 at 05:50 PM

I'm currently building a new wood frame for my MG TC restoration project and have hit a problem. I'm working on the rear wheel arches and door pillar as shown by the light coloured wood curving around the rear wheel in the picture. My problem is that whilst I've got the near side to fit, the wood that I have for the off side is not right. They are complex cuts that curve in all three dimensions and are made out of Ash.

I need to have the off-side door pillar (and possibly the arch) remade, but due to the complex shapes, this is beyond my woodworking skills (plus I don't have a band saw). This is further complicated as the only template is the near side one, which is obviously a mirror image.

Are there any good carpenters on here that can help with this or any recommendations for someone in the Nottingham/Derby area.

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myke pocock - 28/4/17 at 07:40 PM

Shame your not closer (Carlisle) as I would have done it for you.

trextr7monkey - 29/4/17 at 05:51 PM

How strange I was about to respond but saw Mykes post. We are also in Carlisle with plenty of bandsaws, sanders etc
Good luck unless yo happen to be passing through on the way to Scotland
Atb
Mike

SteveWallace - 29/4/17 at 08:15 PM

Thanks for the offers guys, Carlisle is obviously the place to be for woodworking skills. I may well end up on a road trip if I don't find a more local solution. Today I started to see if I could reproduce the part in a bit of pine that picked up for no money as it should be easier to shape - if it works then at least I'll have a correctly handed template, if not then nothing lost.

Angel Acevedo - 2/5/17 at 05:13 PM

Canīt you do it laminated?
Or a mix of steam bent/laminated=

SteveWallace - 2/5/17 at 05:56 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Angel Acevedo
Canīt you do it laminated?
Or a mix of steam bent/laminated=


That would be possible, but I want to use original materials throughout the car and that means Ash hardwood.

Over the weekend I managed to make exactly what I wanted out of a lump of Pine using hand tools. It wasn't as hard to do as I thought it would be, but Pine is a lot easier to work than Ash and it took a good while (quite satisfying though). However, its given me the confidence to try with Ash, so I'm going to buy a bit tomorrow and see how I get on.

SteveWallace - 16/6/17 at 09:30 AM

Thanks for the offers of help guys. As previously reported, I decided to have a go myself. This was very challenging, particularly as I don't have a band saw, so hats off to those of you that regularly work in hard wood.

Here is the result. The off side one is the one that I made using the near side one as a mirror image template. I should really have taken the pictures before painting them with wood preservative:

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Mr Whippy - 16/6/17 at 11:47 AM

fab, well done. Much better you doing that and now learnt a new skill

HowardB - 16/6/17 at 11:47 AM

wow - well impressed!