A number of months ago, we illustrated how Frank Wallic fabricated replicas of aircraft seats. Little did we know that the story would prove so popular-so popular, in fact, that the story begat a miniseries of sorts. Suddenly people were interested in what it took to fabricate parts by mid-century aerospace means. And that's cool.
While the dash face story last month is incredibly simple, it lends itself to a specific purpose-and a rather limited one at that. A battery box, on the other hand, is useful for anybody building a car. A basic and straightforward design made with simple shapes and tools, this project is definitely achievable for a first-timer.
At the same time, we're going to illustrate the seat risers for Editor Brennan's up-and-coming squeeze. While fabricated by Frank, their existence is due to his collaboration with the place building the car: Ionia Hot Rod Shop. We included them for two reasons: primarily to give you ideas and most importantly to illustrate how a seat-including a flat-bottomed aircraft bucket-should fit within a car to make driving a comfortable experience.
The fundamental elements of the battery box include the floor and the frame. The frame is little more than two strips of 14-gauge aluminum sheet, brake-bent 90 degrees.
Since we're basically illustrating the rudiments of aircraft-style sheetmetal fabrication, we took it upon ourselves to offer a few basic pointers. The first: tools. Seeing how Frank makes quite a few of these pieces, expensive tools like some of the ones he uses are good investments. The rest of us hobbyists who want to merely test the waters, however, can get away with simpler, more rudimentary tools. Take the rivet squeezer like the one he uses here. It's handy for sure, but at about $450 it's expensive; since it operates near open edges exclusively, it's limited, too. The rest of us who don't plan to smash rivets on a daily basis can make do with the conventional (and more affordable) rivet gun, sets, and bucking bars-stuff required to buck rivets for the rest of the project anyway. Reference the July '07 issue for information regarding those tools.
While his JET-brand box-and-pan brake is relatively affordable, it's probably too spendy and would likely take up too much space for the occasional user. Several tool vendors such as Eastwood Tool Co. offer economical and compact brakes, and while sort of clumsy and not necessarily pro quality, we've seen imported 18-inch sheetmetal brakes for less than 30 bucks; 30-inch models run about $70. Learn to work around their limitations, and projects like these are definitely tenable. If you're really frugal and creative, consider clamping sheets between 2x4s or angle iron and folding your edges with a body hammer. Don't laugh; bodies for what are now million-dollar cars were frequently made as recently as half a century ago by hammering sheets into hollowed-out logs.
Then there's the professional element. I know people who may be capable enough to do this work, but who are far better at making money than parts. If you're one of them, consider having Frank make you some of these parts. After all, the primary purpose of these stories was to illustrate the things he made; in doing so, we stumbled into a tech story or two. Or four....
As you can well imagine, the only limitation to these projects is either your imagination or your pocket book (or, in the cases of most of us editors, both). Whatever the case, give this a try.
Once assembled, the frame base and the floor comprise a tray of sorts. The triangular gussets strengthen the corners and hide the pie cuts. Note the presence of the temporary sheetmetal fasteners. Typically referred to by Cleco or KwikLok, their trademark names, they're essential to sheetmetal fabrication, as they can be installed or removed in seconds. | 
Remember the pneumatic rivet squeezer we mentioned earlier? Well here's the business end of the one Frank uses. Their one-hand operation suits them for squeezing rivets, provided they're within an inch or so from the edge of a panel as they are here. | 
Once Frank finished the base, he made the walls with more of the folded and flat sheet. For most rivets-exclusively for those in the middle of a panel-Frank uses his trusty rivet gun, a rivet set, and a bucking bar, as shown here. |
In keeping with the requirements of a true battery box, Frank fabricated a lid. While we don't have photos of its construction, we can best describe it as a flat panel with a perimeter flange on three sides. He made that by notching two corners and folding over both of the long sides and one short side by about 3/4-inch. | 
While the doubler plates on the sides and top lend a bit of rigidity to the structure, they're there primarily to lend the box a bit more of authenticity. Frank made them by rolling a soft bead into strips of metal. | 
We're sort of getting ahead of ourselves by showing a finished riser, but at the same time this is the perfect opportunity to illustrate what a seat riser must do. Above and beyond raising a seat from a floor, the riser must pitch the seat rearward to a slight degree. By pitching the seat rearward, the leading edge of the seat will more effectively support your thighs. Without this thigh support, your legs will splay outward and stress your hip joints. Most importantly, the rearward pitch will distribute your body weight over a greater area of the seat-specifically to the seat back. |
While each panel's shape will differ to accommodate the riser's taper, each panel starts out looking similar to this one, a panel with an upper and lower flange, as identified by the lines. The flange with the sharp "ears" protruding will get folded outward to create the base; the notched flange will get folded inward to create the seat mount. | 
Each base flange and both of the upper flanges on the side panels can be bent to a simple 90-degree angle. The upper flanges on the front and rear panels conform to the riser's taper; however, they must be bent to a corresponding angle. | 
To hold each flange to the other, he fabricated L-shaped gussets by notching small sheetmetal squares. Since the riser needs a flat top to match the seat's bottoms and a flat base to match the floor, the upper gussets mount below the upper flanges and the lower gussets mount above the lower flanges. |
Equipped with either a bearing or a bushing that allows the cutter to both rotate and plunge, the Avery Micro-Stop countersink cage Frank uses turns an ordinary drill into a mini drill press of sorts. By pressing the nylon foot piece to the panel, he's ensured a perfectly concentric hole each time he pushes the cutter into the panel. | 
As he did with the battery box, Frank fashioned doubler plates to reinforce the seat risers. Again, he installed his rivets by conventional means, with a rivet gun, a set, and a bucking bar. | 
To increase their functionality, Frank outfitted the driver-side seat riser with a piano hinge and door. Incidentally, the flat surfaces of these risers may serve as switch mounting locations; however, given that this style of fabrication smacks of purpose and utility, we think it would be rather strange to try to hide anything in a car equipped with such risers. |
Remember our earlier instruction to check the minimum surface working area your sheetmetal bender needs to do its job? Here's why: The first seat riser design sat the seat too high in the car. | | |