Shaping Your Next Classic Sports Car
Specializing in Classic Vintage sports cars. Hand Rolled Panels. Panel Beating. Repairs. Reconstruction. Learn MoreBook a ConsultationShaping Your Next Classic Sports Car
Specializing in Classic Vintage sports cars. Hand Rolled Panels. Panel Beating. Repairs. Reconstruction. Learn MoreBook a ConsultationVintage, classic car, or hot rod – your car is an investment. It deserves the best.
At J.S Panels, my goal is to produce the finest hand-rolled body sheet metal in the world. I specialize in excellence, with 35+ years of metal-shaping experience.
This is your passion. We share it.
Metal Shaping, Welding, & Fabrication
Chassie Construction
Coach Building
From talented craftsmen centuries ago who built carriages using ash and a very basic assortment of tools to the early 20th-century automobile engineers using those same skills to construct the framework for automobile bodies that were sheathed in steel or aluminum, our coachbuilding services are based on centuries-old traditions.
Metal Artist
Meet Joe Stafford
45 yrs of experience
Since then, Joe has applied his skills to numerous vintage and classic cars. Panel Craft has worked on virtually all the iconic marques, including Porsche, Ferrari, and Cobras. In the late 1990s, Joe was commissioned as a panel beater to oversee the sheet metal design during the restoration of the Formula One Scarab. The Scarab made it’s public re-debut in 1997, almost forty years after its original appearance.
In addition to the Scarab, other legendary machines brought back to their original glory include a number of historic Porsches that were chosen to race at Le Mans, France’s premiere 24-hour endurance race.
Where we build
The Facility Built in 1997
Each job is handled with the utmost care and attention. Once the car is in the shop, Joe keeps clients in the loop on a bi-monthly basis with progress reports, photos (if requested), and a billing statement.
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projects
Completed Cars
process
Behind the Scenes
Step One: Inspiration
Creating a work of art requires inspiration, imagination, intuition, skill and a lot of hard work. When it comes to fabricating hand-rolled sheet metal for vintage car chassis, Joe Stafford of Panel Craft LLC provides all the requisite ingredients.
It begins with the model. Most of the time, Stafford is able to use the original car, from which he creates a template after taking measurements. “Even if there’s only one fender, I can do it,” he says. One fender provides the proper scale. From there, he can mirror the image on the other side of the car.
If he doesn’t have the back end of the car, he can still get the height of the fenders, the lift, the volume and other details. Stafford relies heavily on intuition and previous knowledge as he carefully examines the chassis, observing subtle details. “I also look for what isn’t there,” he adds, relying on shadows and reflections to provide hints about the shapes of the bodywork. “I study shapes, not the car.”
If the original car isn’t available, Stafford turns to photos – of which he has tens of thousands, many of which he took at car shows. If he doesn’t have it, it’s likely to be found on Instagram or elsewhere on the Internet. He will then track the photographers by their photo credit and purchase the images.
Step Two: Building a Model
Step Three: Creating the Car
Once the buck is properly proportioned, Stafford needs to lay out the size and shape of the blanks. These small individual pieces, when shaped and welded, become the building blocks for the completed body skin. But, before he can cut blanks, he has to have a template for the blank. In order to make these paper templates, he draws on his years of experience to formulate the optimal placement of seams, while not exceeding a workable size, and then shears the blanks from the material of choice which then, collectively provides the roadmap for construction.
Finally, Joe begins blocking out the panels. In metal shaping , blocking is defined as hammering a rough shape into the blanks using a round-face mallet or hammer, which then produces an approximated shape that can be finished off using the wheeling machine. Because it isn’t possible to make a body from one single blank, it’s mandatory that multiple pieces be used in its construction. Once all these blanks have been shaped, they’re all welded together using the traditional oxy/hydro method, then meticulously planished to form the completed body shell.
the right equipment matters
Tools of the Trade
To augment the two wheeling machines in the shop, we have the Kraft former 324 “Piccolo”. Additionally, we have accumulated a vast array of tooling which accompany these two hammers. Shrinking, stretching, beading, doming and louvering are cleanly and accurately performed in a fraction of the time required if only traditional hand methods were used.
If the ash frame of your classic car needs attention, we have every tool and piece of equipment on site necessary to implement repairs or re-construction. With this equipment, we feel we are the best equipped small shop in the country.
Edwards 42″ Type E Wheel
Hypertherm 600 Plasma Cutter
4 Henrob MK III with Low Pressure Regulators
Roper Whitney 48″ Finger Break
Roper Whitney 10 Ton Punch
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
How much is it going to cost?
Because hand-made cars are each unique in their own way, it’s impossible to project with any certainty what the final tally will be, even if we have done the same model previously.
How long with it take?
Deadlines lead to shortcuts and shortcuts lead to substandard work. The process of handcrafting automobile bodies from steel or aluminum is one that we are passionate about, so every detail is meticulously executed. This requires patience and persistence to get it right.