Even as earily as WWI the Germans were able to form metals into shapes that other countries could not even come close to; the German helmet being a prime example. I wish I had a the piece here to look at.
I did some checking around and the HF bead roller is good to form up to 18 ga (~ 0.04) material. That does open up some possibilities since what I will have to do could be fairly simple or OMG!
I think I am going to start a new string (I am not sure where to do it; in the Off-road or should it be in the Kit Car forum) on this subject w/o going any farther on your string.
Thanks so much for the help and I hope you and everyone else will get into the new string with me.
You might be surprised at what can be done. Its been a long time since I designed anything using bead rolls or flanged holes (different than dimples... stronger). I think it is worth a try (an a justification to buy one) and who know, I could be wrong.. or right. Herbie, think of two beaded sheets of stock identically formed welded back to back forming several tubes. Will it work... don't know yet.
I'll try to make a sketch and post it on a new string. Again, I could be wrong but it is worth a look-see.
Body Wayne guy did the pulling and porta powering and welded the hinge plate in for me back in March. He hasn't touched it since. I did all the bodywork myself since then.
Been working on installing newer seats. The old grey are 98 Passat seats. New leather are E36 1995 328is seats. S for Sedan. So they flip forward easy. The old seats were too wide, plus the drivers seat broke in my crash in December.
These have been tricky to mount. The mounting points are wider than the outside of the seats quite a bit. I want them low since they have a vertical adjustment built in. I'm having to make mounts very low profile and near flush with the heater channels to get the seats centered up and moving without hitting things. Getting closer. The mounts are just tacked welded now to make sure things work. Then I can duplicate for the passenger side and weld them in.
These new seats offer about 2 inches more space for a door bar so that is going to work well.
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Looks great 
