The Panel Shop Blog

We had two very rare cars side by side at the Panel Shop. This Cisitalia convertible is undergoing some major panel replacements. The tail section has been repaired, fabricated, and completed.

The rockers and front fenders are next. When this is completed, Steve will move onto the nose of the car where a lot collision damage will have to be addressed.

Its neighbor is a Bugattt, which at first glance may look slab sided, but has subtle curves that converge in towards the very recognizable Bugatti tail.

The panels attach to the car very differently compared to the Cisitalia as these cars use a lot of wood to construct the inner structure.

There was a very twisted piece of sheet metal laying on the work bench. There was such a severe twist to the panel, it almost looked like a mistake…

…but when Mark fitted the rocker panel to a Ferrari Lusso, it soon became clear how it fit perfectly to the car.

With the panel fitted to the car, the twist and curve of the sheet metal it not as evident, but making this panel fit to the body, and recreating the correct profile takes a good eye and the right knowledge to make this panel right!

We had to fix some poor previous repairs done to the nose of this Aston Martin DB5

We have jigs to properly remake the correct profiles for DB5s, DBS’ and V8 cars.

Even with correct jigs to align the work, it still take a good eye to make these hand made cars look correct.

A “C Type” Jaguar was at the shop to correct a poorly fitting intake plenum.

The alignment of the intake plenum never really lined up with the body as the bo

Some front nose parts were made for an Alfa Romeo including the front grille parts and headlight pieces.

In order to make new plexi-glass headlight covers, molds need to be made from aluminum.

New frames were made as well to secure the lenses.

Here are the plexi headlight covers made from our aluminum blanks.

With everything mounted and test fitted, it’s time for paint and finishing.

A Ferrari GTC/4 front bumper was originally made of black rubber covered foam. Over time, this cover would get wavy and deteriorate. Unfortunately, the replacement parts are no longer available, and the reproduction fiberglass copies do not fit too well.

The owner of this GTC/4 has decided to have The Panel Shop make a new bumper out of aluminum. Since it was going to take a lot of hours fitting a fiberglass bumper to this car, making this piece out of aluminum that fit the steel body perfectly was a logical decision. The first step was to make a mounting point for the custom bumper.

The four fabricated pieces will be welded together when everything fits, and attached to the mounting plate.

Some C/4 owners have chosen to paint their rubber bumpers body color, and with this one made of aluminum, should be easier to paint whatever the owner wants.