Mario - I checked your website, very nice work you do
I don't know any people here who do similar work like you do, I'm impressed. You are certainly welcome if you ever come to South, my new garage is almost at the center of Lörrach and easy to find.
David, 1993-1998 I was living in Sudbury, East Anglia. I did work for retired Rolls-Royce trained man who was kind enough to teach me most of the stuff I know about sheetmetal. He didn't run a "real" official business anymore, but due his contacts there were always old classic cars waiting to enter his garage
1993 was the year when I started my first company in UK, my main work was 3D Software Development in C/C++. At the time not many companies believed the 3D would make prototype and body buck design so fast and easy, I sent my CV to many famous Coachbuilders but due non-interest I did all that Software Development and 3D CAD/CAM for other types of businesses (mainly IT companies). Really a shame, since I always wanted to be a full-time Coachbuilder and add that computer design flavour. Well, here we are, now I have my own tools and machines and the benefits of combining both IT and metal - too bad I love more British and American cars than German, otherwise I would probably be only working with cars...
My father is British, maybe its the DNA that keeps me loving rusty objects, Lucas electronics and right-hand drive vehicles
Found some photos (don't expect too much!), here are recents photo showing my old garage - I didn't find anything where I have the tools and machines set up for some serious metal working... It's a bit of a mess due the moving process.
The Trumpf-laser, it has two stations - one for laser welding and one for laser cutting:
I love old machinery
My own truck, over 50% of the cabin has been now redone and restored with new metal:
In last years I created couple of expedition trucks, ate a lot of rust because I got rid of all the old body, reverse engineered the dimensions - then fabricated everything new again. Photos are from my "old old" garage...
The "fresh" starting point after everything else thrown to recycling center...
Here three truck beds simultaneously under process, biggest problem was handling the parts alone - they were getting heavier every day:
New cabin(s), the original design was single cab, but I created new ones which were 90cm longer and had 2 additional seats. Worst part was fabricating multiple cabins in the same time...
Test fitting the original single cabin GRP roof, later I made the new double cabin roof from sheetmetal:
Test fitting new cabins+beds on old chassis:
The poles on the bed are for camper part of the truck, they are electrical worm screws lifting the camper roof additional 50cm when required:
Important part of the project to keep my sanity
:
And thats me after waking up very early and not bothering to put on proper clothes:
