I was an automotive tooling engineer and tool & die maker so I know what it takes to make metal parts. The trunk floor is not an easy one to start with. To do it right by hand you would have to probably make in several sections. You would use a leather shot bag and hammer to move the metal and then an english wheel to shape it. I have also seen some prototype parts formed using wood dies. Most people make a wood buck to use to check the parts and hold them while welding the pieces together. The problem you will encounter when hand forming parts is that you cannot control the material wanting to wrinkle. When the parts were formed originally the die closes and used a cushion or binder to hold the sheet of metal and the press continues and either stretch forms the part or a double action press might also be used.
Even today some low volume cars have hand formed parts in them. The Viper and Prowler were a couple that Chrysler did. The rocker boxes were aluminum on the Viper. They heated up the aluminum and had a temporary die that did some of the forming. One man could to I think two sets a day.
You probably have some shops in UK that still do had forming or prototype work for the automotive factories. Some of the early Ferrari's never had tooling built for the bodies they were 100% hand formed.
There are lots of prototype shops in the U.S. that I have used in the past. All new products require prototypes for testing and concept approval. We did everything from automotive, lawn equipment, farm equipment, cooking grills, etc.
In some cases if you have existing part they can actually cast a plaster copy of it or use epoxy to cast and make a few parts using that for forming.
Most true prototype forming dies are made from an alloy of Zinc called kirksite. You rent the material usually for one year then they melt it down and use over. Here is a picture of a kirksite prototype draw die. They now laser trim and usually have other form dies for flanges.
http://www.experi-metal.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/Kirksite-Tooling.jpg[/img]
There is a formed part in the tool or you could see the outer part of the tool that you see sitting on the cushion pins is what holds the sheet of metal while the upper cavity comes down and pushes the ring down and allows the male form to come up and form the metal.
You need to find someone coming over for a visit have them cut a trunk floor in half box it up and pay the $50.00 extra bag charge, lol. I have taken items to Africa that way with no issue. They can tell it is a sample part.
Even with my experience I will buy before I make by hand too time consuming and for a novice very difficult. I do encourage people to try new things but a trunk is not where you should start. Maybe form so patches for bottom of door or wheel house to start with.
Going to an auction next week here there is a 73 mustang, and lots of shop equipment. English wheel, lathe, couple rotisseries, welders. I want the english wheel to play with. You can smash a finger very quick with one, lol.
Cheers,
David
