Classic Metal Shaping

Classic Metal Shaping Coachbuilding and body restoration for vintage and classic cars.We undertake work in aluminium, bras

The finished job on its way back to Scotland. Riley Imp. I was pleased with the way the trim down the side of the car li...
03/01/2023

The finished job on its way back to Scotland. Riley Imp. I was pleased with the way the trim down the side of the car lined up considering I had to modify the ash frame to make the screen fit and I made a new bonnet but the original holes for the side trim.

A few more build photos of the Riley Imp that I didn't post before. I ended up making the entire bonnet but I used the o...
03/01/2023

A few more build photos of the Riley Imp that I didn't post before. I ended up making the entire bonnet but I used the original hinges which meant that the holes for the chrome trim could be drilled back through the bonnet and the trim would screw back in the same position as original. (once the missing and damaged screws had been replaced.) I used a hammer form to form the little bulges in the bottom of the bonnet.

A few random photos of the Riley Imp that I missed out. Windscreen fitted, valance finished and cutting the trim piece f...
02/01/2023

A few random photos of the Riley Imp that I missed out. Windscreen fitted, valance finished and cutting the trim piece for the side of the body.

Riley Imp - Bonnet fitted, wings fitted, valance fitted bonnet catches and windscreen fitted. (temporary fasteners on th...
02/01/2023

Riley Imp - Bonnet fitted, wings fitted, valance fitted bonnet catches and windscreen fitted. (temporary fasteners on the screen frame.) Chrome trim fitted.

The Riley Imp has a ''chrome'' trim that runs down the bonnet and meets up with the bottom of the windscreen frame. This...
02/01/2023

The Riley Imp has a ''chrome'' trim that runs down the bonnet and meets up with the bottom of the windscreen frame. This is a brass D section that is a brass u which is filled with lead that has screws set into it to allow it to be fixed to the panel work so that no screws are visible from the outside. My customer had the long pieces that fit to the bonnet but not the short pieces that go between that and the windscreen frame. Several screws had been cut short. I had to fit new screws in several places on the long sections which meant letting new screws in place in the lead. I also had to make new strips for the shorter lengths. To create the new u section in brass I made some tooling for my pullmax, did some test pieces then the actual pieces finally filling them with lead and fixing the screws in place. I can tell you it was a fiddle fitting the screws in place to match the existing holes in the bonnet. The final picture shows the trim fitted to the body.

Riley Imp. I think the wing stays had been replaced - they looked pretty new. they were fine except the bracket on top o...
23/12/2022

Riley Imp.

I think the wing stays had been replaced - they looked pretty new. they were fine except the bracket on top one side was in the wrong place. I replaced this. There were several little jobs like this that needed doing as is always the case on a job of this type. Another example is the door latch covers which I show here. Originally Chrome plated brass - I made new ones from stainless steel.

The Original Bonnet that came with the Riley Imp had been repaired prior to it coming to me. They hadn't done a bad job ...
23/12/2022

The Original Bonnet that came with the Riley Imp had been repaired prior to it coming to me. They hadn't done a bad job but it would have required some time to make it flat and smooth. Some of the louvres were damaged which is a difficult thing to fix and when it had been fitted they had not checked that the Radiator was sitting square on the car. The bonnet had been cut lopsided as a result. The combination of all these problems resulted in the customer and myself deciding that the bonnet should be replaced. I re-used the hinges because there was nothing wrong with them.

Next task on this little Riley Imp was to clad the front of the body frame and the doors.
22/12/2022

Next task on this little Riley Imp was to clad the front of the body frame and the doors.

At some stage I made new running boards. I then began to clad the Riley Imp body frame. The aluminium was shaped on a wh...
21/12/2022

At some stage I made new running boards. I then began to clad the Riley Imp body frame. The aluminium was shaped on a wheeling machine and formed to fit the ash frame. One thing I haven't talked about is the hinges. These were not mounted correctly on the body when the car came to me, the bottom hinges were new and the top ones had been restored. they did not line up causing the door to bind and not open correctly. It took quite a bit of work and a one off alignment tool to sort this out. It was made more difficult by the fact that the top hinge once restored had larger hinge pins than the lower hinge.

The rear panel which houses the spare wheel was in paint when the car came to me and at first glance appeared to be in p...
20/12/2022

The rear panel which houses the spare wheel was in paint when the car came to me and at first glance appeared to be in pretty good condition. Once the paint was removed ( my brother was good enough to step in and do this job for me. Thanks Frank!) we discovered that it was full of fibreglass and was cracked and very damaged especially around the bottom. Unfortunately the ash frame in the adjacent area had been built to match the damaged panel so I had to build this up with laminates of ash to correct this issue. Thank god for modern wood adhesives. I decided to restore the existing rear panel because it was part of the original car that could be saved and it would be the least work. It was rotten in several places and split almost all the way around the perimeter of the spare wheel housing.

Next on the to do list for the Riley Imp was to clad the body. First I tried the windscreen on the ash frame - I found t...
20/12/2022

Next on the to do list for the Riley Imp was to clad the body. First I tried the windscreen on the ash frame - I found that when the screen posts were in the correct position there has a half inch gap under the windscreen. I worked out that fixing this was not too big a job but it was also slightly too narrow for the screen. By the time I had fixed these two problems the doors no longer fitted. I had to dismantle the doors and re-make them to fit. This work was not part of the original estimate so I tried to keep the reconstruction work to a minimum. I scarfed bits in and re did joints rather than make new doors. It worked out in the end but it was not a small task even trying to be economical with time. Once I had done the ash frame work the metal brackets fitted to it no longer fitted so I made a pair of new ones.

Quite a few people seem interested in the gas welded joint in this Riley Imp wing and I found a couple of close up photo...
03/12/2022

Quite a few people seem interested in the gas welded joint in this Riley Imp wing and I found a couple of close up photos of the weld once I had simply planished it, so here they are. EDIT its actually one photo of each wing.

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Little Oakley Hall Clacton Road
Harwich
CO125JL

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