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Rob Roehl
A Thing of Beauty
As I explained in an earlier blog, it’s hard to get Rob to my garage, so I’ve been making bucks and bringing those to Rob, who then makes the sheet metal to fit the buck. In this case I also made a paper template that I stretched over the buck. It’s another representation of the sheet metal, and a way to tell where the heavy duty stretching and shaping will be. |
 Rob used the paper template to mark the sheet metal and then cut it out. |
When we started the project, Rob explained that there are 2 ways to do this: create the flanges at the edges first and then create the dome in the center, or create the dome and then the flanges. Rob chose option number one, the nearby photos show how he started with a flat piece of 18 gauge steel and ended with a complex piece of sheet metal - what’s essentially a partial dome with two reverse flanges. |
 Rob starts the shaping with nothing more complex than two strong arms and the edge of the table. |
 This is the first check of our progress. |
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 The crown that runs through the center of the piece is done with the English wheel. |
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 The crown is subtle, but important, and easier to see with a straight edge. |
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 The flanging comes last, most of it is done with the plastic hammer and a home-made T-dolly. |
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 The buck is obviously too flimsy to shape anything over and is only used to check the shape, which is pretty close at this point. |
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 The nearly finished piece set in place – better than a painting by Picasso any day. |
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Henry J Update
With a little help from a certain employee and friend, I’ve managed to install most of the floor in the mighty Henry J. The kick panels at the front are essentially flat, so it was pretty easy to cut templates from light board, then cut the actual patch panels from sheet metal and weld them in place.
The tunnel proved to be way more work. I covered some of this earlier, but essentially the fabrication required that I start with a buck, and then create a light board template that fit the buck. With these twp precursors finished, Rob Roehl, from the Donnie Smith Custom Cycles shop, bent up the actual tunnel.
Getting that tunnel to fit the hole in the floor with any precision required a bunch more work once I got the parts back to the garage. The hole in the floor is a little irregular, if you look at the hole from above; it’s like a V with a little kink in either side of the V. That little kink meant a kink in the sides of the tunnel, not an easy thing for an amateur metal worker to accomplish. Eventually I did get kinky, and while the finished installation might not measure up to the standards of Steve Davis or Ron Covell, the tunnel is in the car.
What’s left now is the small section above the bell housing. Like the tunnel, I plan to make up a buck of some sort, maybe from light steel rod, then cut a piece of light board to go over that, and take the whole thing to Rob to collect just one more favor.
It’s a slow F-ing process, but we are moving along. Recently a friend found me an original Henry J steering column, so that’s the next big hurdle in the never-ending saga of the Henry J.
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