Getting this pretty much fleshed out now. It doesn’t look much different than the above pictures from before, but a lot of time was spent today dialing in the shapes, angles and gaps.
I got to put my El Cheapo English wheel to use finally, I’m not very good at it yet, but I managed to accomplish what I set out to do with it. It was the perfect tool to use to put the concave curves in both directions on the side piece.
You can see the shiny finish created by the wheel stretching the metal:
You’ll also notice the absence of magnets now, I had to tack weld it to the quarter to be able to build off it. It will ultimately have to get fully welded off the car before welding it to the quarter permanently, but I’m going to try to do the majority of the welding and grinding with it on. This’ll prevent it from moving around and distorting too much with the heat.
I elected to make a new, bigger inside side piece that fits better and will have much tighter gaps than the factory piece.
I’m using 3/16” solid round bar to create a smooth rolled finish on the edges. Can’t just leave it as a sharp sheetmetal edge. You can see it on the bottom of the inside piece through the opening here:
I’ve got the top piece already cut out, but I need to spend a little time shaping it on the English wheel first to get it to fit nicely before tacking it on.
This is going to be a slick little modification!