Nose

Did some more work on the aluminum nose yesterday. It's close to being ready for a skin coat of filler to hide minor imperfections, then primer and paint. The nose still needed some baffles inside to help stiffen it and direct hot air from the radiator out so that's one of the jobs I did. I still need to add some stiffening members in the area behind the front tires but that needs to wait until the nose can be fitted to the car again. The two baffles were made from .048" (1.2mm) aluminum sheet (3003 H14). Most of the body is made of 3003 sheet It's basically pure aluminum and is easy to form. Higher strength alloys were used in other parts but only where radical bending and forming wasn't required. For example, 6061, a popular alloy for a lot of parts, will crack if bent at a sharp
90* angle.

Paper (thin cardboard) templates were made, traced out on aluminum sheet, cut and bent. The tops of both baffles required an arched flange to conform to the curves of the outer skin. These were hammered over a piece of 3/4" (19mm) plywood with the correct curve cut into it. The baffles were then riveted in place (flush rivets in the outer skin) on iether side of the radiator outlet duct in the top of the nose. You can see a lot of seams on the back side of the nose. This is due to me chopping it up several times and changing it earlier in the project. I'm still not totally happy with it but it's time to just get it done.