How to Make Trim Pieces

In restoring an older project car, one of the most maddening obstacles is replacing a worn-out piece of body trim. If you try to buy a replacement part, you'll probably find it's been out of production since the days of hand-crank engines, and all the salvage yards are picked clean of any used remnants. Which leaves you with only one option: fabricating it from scratch.

It's relatively simple to create just about any bracket, tab, or widget.
That's not as difficult as it may sound, and the relatively inexpensive tools you need to do the job will come in quite handy for a countless number of other projects. Using the following metalworking tools and techniques, it's relatively simple to create just about any bracket, tab, or widget.

Tools
Some of the tools shown here are professional-grade, such as the four-foot-wide press brake that metalworker Alex Prosser uses in restoring cars and airplanes. Instead of spending $2,000 on Prosser's industrial unit, you can get a 20-inch one costing only $150, which is fine for handling most do-it-yourself projects. Most of the other metalworking tools, such as a shrinker, stretcher, and bead roller, run about $150 each, and it's amazing the range of things you can do with them. You also don't need a professional shear cutter, since a pair of $15 tin snips is sufficient for most small jobs.


The particular piece shown here that Prosser fabricated is a hood trim for a customized '41 Mercury. The finished part does not have a hole in the middle, since that was originally for inserting the hand crank to start the engine, which has been replaced by an electric starter. Like we said at the outset, this sort of trim piece doesn't grow on trees. But just follow the steps shown here, and you too can make your own metal trim.

Resource
Alex Prosser, Custom Metal Shaping, 310/534-3042, email: alexprosser@prodigy.net