Morphing a Cobra into the P51 concept

[NewYorkGuy]

Is it cheaper in cost(labor & time) to plate a glass body than to start with an alum body?

[P-51 Cobra]

Originally Posted by NewYorkGuy

Is it cheaper in cost(labor & time) to plate a glass body than to start with an alum body?

I haven't priced comparably equipped ERAs and Kirkhams recently, but I don't think you can do this for less starting with a Kirkham. Besides, we owned an ERA.

P-51

[Metal-morphous]

Carmine no stress cracks or spidering in over 75 cobra hoods like the one in the attached photo. We contribute this to the polymer undercoat.
I plated the underside of my ERA hood over 20 years ago and it looks exactly like it did when it was first done and it gets way hotter than anyonther panel on the cobra.




Newyorkguy,
The cost is probable equivalent to an aluminum body but our goal is not to try and replace any real metal surfaces but rather an alternative to it like in this case the fiberglass body was correct , fitted and in great shape not to mention way stronger than sheet aluminum. Its very hard to dent! I'll try to upload a video that would make a sheet aluminum bodied cobra owner cringe. I take a piece of PVC pipe and smack it down on a plated aluminum over fiberglass fender and no dents or damage to the fiberglass, now that's not saying if you drive the cobra into a wall that the fiberglass isn't going to crack but I'm saying the glass is less susceptible to minor dents.

[Metal-morphous]

Finished the first of our three step polishing process to the entire aluminum plated body , now we can start setting up the panel lines and fastener details.


We first have to figure out the placement of the panel lines and between Buzz's concept drawing and some fullscale P-51 photos that I took at the Oxford airport yesterday, the masked lines only had to be move a few dozen times :-) but we got it figured out.



I took these close up photos of the panel lines, flush rivets and cowl fasteners of the fullscale Mustang. The Collings foundation was nice enough to let me take the photos of their Betty Jane.
As you can see the panels are tight and the flush rivets can only be seen when your close to the aircraft. The removable cowling fastener are larger and protrude about 1/64 of an inch above the surface.

[P-51 Cobra]

Ron,

It's looking great!

So you'll do the panel lines and rivets next, and then do the second and third stages of polish?

P-51

[Metal-morphous]

The panel lines were completed today. Now it's going back to have another round of aluminum plating applied to specific areas that we marked off as a raised panel.
Once it's back we will polish out those panels and then add the fastener details.
After all the metal detail is finished we will then give it the second phase of polishing which not only will remove all the hand prints from working on it but also bring up the shine a few more notches.

This is a panel line that my son in law just applied and with the rivet details it will look just like the full scale.



P-51 Cobra-- I'm almost finished with your custom directional lights!!!
They look great!!! Photos soon

[P-51 Cobra]

Ron,

Can't wait to see the lights!

P-51

[Paul F]

This is really cool.

[ACademic]

Do your score the lines into the panel? You show us the progress but little about technique. Or is that a guarded secret? I can't possibly replicate what you do, but I'm always willing to learn how stuff is done. Looking forward to see how the rivets go on... terrific thread and end product!

[Metal-morphous]

Sorry about that,,, here's a photo that shows how we are applying the panel lines and rivets. It's a technique used in the modeling Industry and we found that it works for us too. We use a hot soldering iron with shaped tips.
The heat transfers through the metal into the polyimer undercoat and it softens. Our metal just follows it down into the recess. It takes a little practice to get the depth right but we learned that with an adjustable temp on the iorn makes it much easier. We also use thin aluminum that we buy in sheet, cut it to size and use it as a straight edge.
The raised panels are nothing more than another layer of metal.

[Tenrocca]

I love this. One of my favourite threads ever. Keep it coming....

[Metal-morphous]

Up until now this has been pretty standard and for us a straight forward plating project, just larger! Now the fun behings!!!
We decided to not only added flush rivet but to stay true to
Buzz's concept we are added Dzus fasteners and raised rivets but again in a subtle manner. The full scale Mustang used raised rivets were extra strength was need and accounted for about 10 pecent of the total rivets used so we are adding them sparingly.
If you look close you can make out the flush rivets too.
I think the Dzus fastener are going to this over the top!!

[P-51 Cobra]

You guys are real artists!

[carmine]

Really impressive.
My hat off to all involved.
With the attention to detail thats going into this cobra i hope the windscreen thats in the renderings come into play as well.

[ACademic]

How are the raised rivets fastened? Are they just faux heads with adhesive or do they go through the body? Incredible detail.

[Buzz]

The attention to detail you are putting in will turn what could have been an amazing project into an absolute masterpiece. Beautiful work - can't wait to see more.

Buzz

[jolsen42]

John O

[Metal-morphous]

Dzus fastener were a little more challenging, first we pulled a mold from a full scale fastener. Then we fabricated our own from plastic and plated them in aluminum. Next we recessed them just below the top surface and epoxied them in place. They sit-up just above the top surface and look exactly like the ones used on the P-51.. The last stages of polish will add a nice highlite to them. Only 84 more to go :-)

[dallas_]

Dang. That's just cool as hell.

[ACademic]

"Paging Mr. Metal-morphous...Mr. Metal-morphous, SEMA is on the other line. They want this car done and delivered to Las Vegas by November 4th."