Got to work on things for a good portion of the afternoon and early evening.
First thing I wanted to do was actually get the thing mocked up on the bike again, as can be seen the hinge the front sticks out well outside the outside of the frame. Ended up cutting the skirt out to be able to get the hinge bolted to the seat rail. I also found out that while the 3/4 inch skirt length is just about perfect, you can see in this picture sits right about middle of the frame tube. Problem ended up being the 3/4 inch break on the bottom of the skirt which immediately prevented the seat from sitting flat.
I trimmed the break a couple times and refit to check, it's tight enough I ended up deciding to simply roll the bottom edge. It'll work out just fine I reckon, should still serve the dual purpose of adding strength and softening the edge of the skirt. Here too you get a better idea of how far past the seat rail the hinge piece sits, eventually it will end up even farther outside than that as the frame isn't sitting quite square on the chassis yet. Eventually I'll get to that point of fitting things and when that happens I'll decide how to clean up the area with the hinge. I may just bubble around it, or if it sits outside enough I can cover back in behind it. Being able to cover in behind it would be the better looking of the two options I think.
Next I did what I really wanted to get to and started building the cowl area. To start that off I had to bend a piece of bar to anchor the back end of the sheet metal. Took some measurements with the seat on the bike and decided to extend the rear bar out past the kick up of the bike chassis. I may regret this later but I'd really rather not cut the frame up and worse than it was when I got the bike.
Having taken the measurements I needed, I shortened the box tubing of the seat rail. With nothing aft of the hinge bracket to support but body work there was no need for the comparatively heavy tubing. Took 2 1/4 inches, should anyone be curious. After that it was welding the strap piece onto the end of the box rails.
Here is the bar welded into place and the piece for the top of the cowl cut and run through the slip roll to put a crown to it. Also visible on the sheet are the marks I made to measure out the angle on the edges, 1/2 inch in on both sides. It went to the sheet metal break and got the edges bent down.
Breaks on the edges, better view of the crown now. After that I spent a pretty decent amount of time going back and forth from the shrinker stretcher and English wheel trying to get the panel having the downward curve I want as well as a bubble out. Again, I wish I was better with the wheel so maybe I wouldn't smash my fingers so much. I was real happy with the eventual outcome here so I'm improving.
Of note here, I mocked up the top panel to try to get a handle on how long it needed to be. I was hoping this picture would show the panel's shape better than it does but oh well. I ended up taking an inch and a quarter off the back end of the panel after mocking it up like this. The angle at the back looked like it was going to be too hooded to me at the length it was originally made. As one of the comments earlier in this thread said though, it's easier to cut off than add metal back in. Once I got the top panel how I wanted it, I was able to measure things out and make the rear hoop.
The rear hoop is welded in and the top panel stitched between the hoops. The contour of the top panel shows better in this picture, and about this point I started getting real excited as things are really starting to look like what I keep seeing in my mind.
Skip forward several minutes and I've made one of the side panels, this piece ended up being more difficult than I was expecting. The top panel seemed to just fall right into place, This piece has the bottom lip rolled like the front panels, and then I did a break at the top and ran it through the shrinker to cause the top to curl in. Every time I would adjust the top edge it wanted to affect the bottom edge and vice versa. Then I had to trim it to fit the seat frame.
Side panel is welded in place. I had prepped pieces to do both side panels, you can see the piece for the other side sitting under the tape measure here. Anticipation won out though and I ended up closing up this side first.
Made a paper template, traced it onto some sheet and then cut it out using the shear which is not technically called Beverly. This thing was refreshingly easy after the side panel. Got it tacked into place and looked at the clock, it was late enough I decided not to start on the other side.
There was a gap between the front and rear side panels because of the way I assembled things so far, so I made a small filler for the bottom and started to weld the gap up. Didn't get the entire thing filled because of dealing the the heat created. There is a considerable amount of welding left to be done overall anyway, even on this particular side. Something I have noted though is I've started feeling like I need to radius the lower rear corner. In all the drawings I've done of this I've had the bottom edge flat and it's never looked weird to me, but seeing things in steel I think I need to upsweep the last maybe three inches and then put a small radius to the transition. Mostly I'm happy with it though.
One thing that is sort of problematic in a minor way though, but the rear support is contacting the rear fender when the seat in installed on the bike right now. I'm not leaving the fender the way it is right now anyway on the finished product so it's not a huge issue other than it keeps me from easily just popping the seat on to look at things now. That's it for now though, it was time to put the old seat back on, clean up, and get home for the night.
P.S. There is a picture of the seat as it is now sitting on the bike, but I decided not to share it as it just looks weird with the seat not being able to sit flat.
Be careful you don't attract the attention of the rocket bike crowd! That modern technology will eat your lunch! 
