4. Art Price,
from D&D’s finishing department, joined the class
"because I wanted to see how metalwork is done on the big
machines." Price spent almost 40 years in a body
shop before this opportunity came. "I’ve always
done it with a hammer and an anvil," he said.
7. Brian
McCollim slides a lumpy piece of sheet metal through a
planishing hammer made by Kennison from a large band saw frame
and rivet gun. Kennison pointed out this tool to the
class to emphasize how, with a little ingenuity, inexpensive
tools can be made. D&D uses it almost daily.
|
| 8. One
of the very special times of the D&D-sponsored
seminar on Saturday was a display of special tools made
by expert metal crafter Terry Steagall, Murfeesboro,
Tenn. Several years ago, Steagall (left) shrunk a
1948 Chevrolet pickup body to fit onto a 1980s Chevrolet
S10 chassis. Roughly ¾ the size of the original,
it is considered one of the best known automotive
conversions in the last 20 years. |
|
metalshapers.com and
sign up for one of the sheet metalworking seminars coming your
way. Unfortunately, many of these lectures are
non-participatory and you won’t get your hands dirty.
Others, like the one we attended at D&D Classic Auto
Restoration, Covington, Ohio offer an opportunity to sharpen
your knowledge as well as your hand skills and get a little
dirt under your fingernails. Held on April 26-27 and
hosted by D&D’s Mark Kennison, the pay-to-attend,
real-world experience came complete with all the sounds,
smells and thumps of metalworking as it is practiced daily at
D&D.
Kennison says "participants who attend my classes not
only see demonstrations up close, they get a chance to run the
Yoder and the Pullmax. And their projects can be taken
back home." Interestingly, those back yards we
mentioned earlier can stretch several hundred miles as
illustrated by most of those in attendance at D&Ds
seminar. One participant came from Alabama, another came
from Georgia.
Eager to listen to
anything Kennison has to say or demonstrate on metal shaping,
we signed on immediately for the coveted hands-on seminar.
We have been a big-time fan of Kennison’s work after
visiting him in 1998 at his former
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