I worked on forming the side panels today. In the lotus 7, the sides transition from flat to curved where the sides meet the nose cone. Since I have limited metal working tools, getting the curve without waves was tricky.
I tried a range of things from bending by hand over a curved surface, to rolling over a toy bowling ball (kind of like a one sided English wheel). In the end I took a small piece of a 2x4 and rounded the corners, placed the panel on foam cushions, then pressed and rubbed the 2x4 on the inside of the panel to stetch the metal. This seemed to work the best. The end result wasn't perfect, but not too bad considering the tools I had to work with. I may spend a little more time on the panel, but it's pretty close to being done.
