It's hard not to be aware of what has been happening with the street rod, hot rod, musclecar, and replica markets of late. Some of these cars are going for big money at various car auctions around the country, and the influence these cars generate on television (in advertisements as well as pseudo-reality shows) is at an all-time high.
Some of the indoor car shows, such as the Detroit Autorama or the Grand National Roadster Show, have been elevated into the stratosphere by the prestige associated with these shows' highest awards--the Don Ridler Memorial Award and the America's Most Beautiful Roadster award, respectively. These top awards are given to the owner of the finest vehicles, but they wouldn't be standing on the podium if it weren't for the talented craftsmen who actually designed and built the cars in the first place.
During the past decade, when the Ridler and the AMBR awards were announced, only a handful of names continuously came up, as these were the fabricators who literally shaped the cars that won the top awards, and no fabricator has had more success at building more AMBR and Ridler winners than Marcel De Ley. Marcel, working out of his Custom Metal Shaping business in Corona, California, with his two sons Marc and Luc, scratchbuilds these winners and then turns the raw metal bodies over to the build teams who finish them up and take them to the shows. To date, the De Leys have built three Ridler winners (2002, 2003, and Ken Reister's 2005 winner Impression), six AMBR winners (1996, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003, and 2006), plus some high-profile TV cars such as the AlumaTruck, the AlumaTub, and the Whatthehaye (which sold at last year's Barrett-Jackson auction for $540,000).
For all the high-profile cars they build, the De Leys themselves are pretty low profile, so this might be the first time you've read about them, as some builders like to keep their "ace-in-the-hole" fabricators a secret. But when we visited the shop recently, Marcel was just starting on a small project: re-creating a Maserati bumper for a customer on the East Coast. We thought there might be some budding fabricators out there who would like to see how it was done and maybe give it the ol' college try on one of their own projects, so follow along and see how the Master does it.
One of the scratchbuilt creations...
One of the scratchbuilt creations to come out of Marcel's Custom Metal Shaping, the Whatthehaye, eventually sold for $540,000 at the 2005 Barrett-Jackson auction in Scottsdale, AZ. If they can build a car like this from the ground up, then a simple Maserati bumper should be no trouble at all!
Here's what Marcel started...
Here's what Marcel started with: a vintage Maserati bumper that has seen better days. It was full of pits, had been crunched a few times and sort of straightened, and its old age made it too brittle to repair. But Marcel used the old bumper as a buck/form to create a new replica bumper.
Most round pieces used on...
Most round pieces used on a project start with paper templates cut to the shape of the piece to be copied. Those shapes are then transferred to 16-gauge commercial-grade steel sheet, then trimmed a little oversized with hand shears (you'll see why later). The piece on the right is the top right corner section of the new bumper after it was run through the Eckhold Piccolo machine.
Marcel works the metal through...
Marcel works the metal through the Piccolo machine so it starts to bend and shape the bumper's corner.
After a few passes, the section...
After a few passes, the section is checked for fit on top of the old bumper.
A little bit of ol'-fashioned...
A little bit of ol'-fashioned hammer-to-tree-stump...
...moves the metal into shape...
...moves the metal into shape faster than the Piccolo can.
Again, another trial fit finds...
Again, another trial fit finds it's getting close. Marcel knows that fitting a bumper to the outside of the old bumper won't yield a clone of the old bumper, but the customer wanted something that looked close and would fit, which is what he'll get.
The machines and tree stump...
The machines and tree stump can only do so much--extreme shaping is done with a hammer and torch, so the section is first clamped in place.
The corner to be shaped is...
The corner to be shaped is heated with a torch flame to white-hot.
Marcel follows with a large...
Marcel follows with a large hammer and begins to form the now-pliable metal against the old bumper.
The metal has been slapped...
The metal has been slapped and hammered to fit the old bumper, with a little bit of lip hanging over (on both the top and bottom of the piece).
Once the basic shape is realized,...
Once the basic shape is realized, Marcel uses the planishing hammer to smooth out the rough spots caused by the heavy hammer blows.
After the work done on the...
After the work done on the planishing hammer, the section looks very much like what it is supposed to.
The bottom section of the...
The bottom section of the corner is then made the same way as the top piece, and the two pieces are then trimmed to fit and welded together.
After a little bit of weld...
After a little bit of weld grinding, Marcel is ready to move onto the center section.
Again a paper template is...
Again a paper template is used to show the shape needed for the center section.
Using a plasma cutter, Marc...
Using a plasma cutter, Marc follows the template shape to make a forming die out of 3/4-inch steel plate.
Roughed out with the plasma...
Roughed out with the plasma cutter, this is what the forming die starts as.
The template is used to double-check...
The template is used to double-check the die's shape.
Here's what the bottom die...
Here's what the bottom die looks like after some smoothing from the grinder.