October 15, 2001

Contact:

Terry Cowan -- 817 790 2076

 

******NEWS RELEASE *****

For immediate release

Huntsville, Alabama -- On October 13-14th, 2001 -- Over 35 members (some as far away as the Netherlands) of the Metalshapers Association converged at George King's shop in Huntsville to form and assemble a complete Aluminum roadster car body.  Called the Cyber Car buy the Huntsville times daily newspaper, the body design is by member Wayne Rogers from California, who is building fiberglass versions of the car actually named the Ascot.

The Metalshapers Association is a group of metal forming enthusiasts who were assembled over the Internet by the group’s founder, Terry Cowan of Alvarado, Texas. Metalshapers members labeled the event FormFest 2001. The purpose of the event was to prove that shops from all over the world could build portions of the body in their shops using flexible shape patterns (made of special paper tape and filament tape) plus hand-bent aluminum strips called profile gauges, and send them to a shop where the members would meet and assemble the body over a long week-end. All communications were handled through the group’s discussion group on the Internet. "It's our way of building the first automobile body over the Internet!" claims George King.

Also, a wire form of another car, designed by member Les Edmundson, of Detroit, MI was brought for the group to begin making patterns for forming its metal body panels. Edmundson’s car will most likely be the group’s next FormFest project.

Between what equipment King supplied and all the tools the members brought with them, they could have built most anything imaginable. They had four English wheels including one that Jim Rettick of Right Angle Tool brought all the way from Bloomington, IL. They had King’s 1959 model P-5 Pullmax machine, bead rollers, an 8' brake, an old Magee wiring machine, four planishing hammers, two Erco shrinker/stretchers, MIG welder, TIG welder, and every hand tool you can think of.

Various members (including Ben Van Berlo and Emiel Barts from Holland) have hosted mini-FormFests with as many as ten or more members sharing in building the panels.

The group hopes to spur interest in metalshaping of all kinds, including sculpture and custom body building, among those who can not afford to have it done and never dreamed they could do it themselves and professionals who want in the business. Member Tom Lipton said, "If we show the way and shorten the learning curve (with magazine articles, patterns, videos, etc) it will increase the participation and increase the success rate of all forms of metalshaping."

The over-all goal of the next FormFest using Edmundson’s design is to build a distinctive metal automotive body that can also be built by others using the organization's resulting plans and patterns and by using either an existing street rod chassis or an inexpensive readily available chassis such as from an S10 Chevrolet.

The purpose of the Metalshapers Association is not only to teach the craft but to also help those who choose the craft as their livelihood, by promoting metalshaping and helping create a demand for custom metal work. The group has a web site; www.metalshapers.org where members have pages with photos of their tools and shops, called ShopViews. Many of the members’ web sites are also hosted through the organization.

For more information you can visit their website or e-mail the moderators at moderators@metalshapers.org. Our mailing address is P.O. Box 900, Alvarado, TX 76009 (Fort Worth area)

###