The fabrication thread.

[jdmsoles]

Originally Posted by duffman1278

Nothing big. I made a simple holder for my paint guns that way it makes my life a little bit easier when I have to put in the primer, paint etc. in the gun. I got the material free so it was no biggie.

I used flux core so grinded down the splatter and fat welds because I'm using .030 wire and that seems pretty thick for my thin material. w/e it got the job done

anyone know where i can get that kind of tubing i need to make a pedal pull back, but dont know where to buy that size steel rod/tube whatevers its called.

[GSXRJJordan]

Just finished the sheet metal for my trunk. By my count, I used 31 separate pieces of .030" sheet, total of about 16sq ft of material (plus scraps, etc). The skeleton (and wing mount) is made of 20 sections of 3/4" .040" square tubing, totalling about 18ft long.

Not to mention hundreds of pain-in-the-ass welds lol.

Pics up later tonight.

It's dimensionally close enough to perfect, everything's square/level with where it needs to be. What I like most is that my taillights and trunk lid now are perfectly aligned, and with the skeleton fully boxed by the sheet metal, it's solid. Should be very quiet when I add the sound deadening.

Originally Posted by jdmsoles

anyone know where i can get that kind of tubing i need to make a pedal pull back, but dont know where to buy that size steel rod/tube whatevers its called.

No need to quote a billion pics. I buy all my raw materials from McMaster Carr (McMaster-Carr) - if you're local to one of their warehouses you can pick everything up for free, or you can have it shipped.

If you can't find it there, it probably isn't used in industry, and you should choose another type of material/size/etc.

[duffman1278]

Originally Posted by jdmsoles

anyone know where i can get that kind of tubing i need to make a pedal pull back, but dont know where to buy that size steel rod/tube whatevers its called.

I would offer you to buy some of my scarp but I have like nothing left. However alot of metal places should carry them like Aircraft Sprice, Shore Metals, etc. McMaster Carr also should have it but I tend not to go there unless I have to because their prices tend to be pretty high imo. Just call those places up.

Air Craft Spruce -- Corona,CA - (951) 372-9555‎ <----They should have an online catalog as well

Shore Metals -- Placentia,CA - (714) 630-1962

[GSXRJJordan]

Originally Posted by GSXRJJordan

...Pics up later tonight...

... and here they are!

Forgot to mention, 'shaved' my antenna. The metal was dimpled quite a bit, so I figured I'd patch it from the top instead of the bottom.

... then grinded...


Very nice!

So here's the finished trunk:







... pain in the ass ...


And the kicker ~ tail light/bumper fitment before:

And after:



And the bumper's just sitting on the edges of it's support, no zip ties yet!


So yeah, bondo and sound deadening tomorrow hopefully.

[jdmsoles]

Originally Posted by duffman1278

I would offer you to buy some of my scarp but I have like nothing left. However alot of metal places should carry them like Aircraft Sprice, Shore Metals, etc. McMaster Carr also should have it but I tend not to go there unless I have to because their prices tend to be pretty high imo. Just call those places up.

Air Craft Spruce -- Corona,CA - (951) 372-9555‎ <----They should have an online catalog as well

Shore Metals -- Placentia,CA - (714) 630-1962

thanks to both of you, what size rod is that 3/16s thanks.

[drftmark]

GSXRJJordan did you weigh how much all of that was (just the metal you have done so far)? Before the bondo/sound deadening? Just curious

[GSXRJJordan]

Originally Posted by drftmark

GSXRJJordan did you weigh how much all of that was (just the metal you have done so far)? Before the bondo/sound deadening? Just curious

Not counting the scrap, I the metal I added should have been less than 50lbs. I pulled out about 40lbs (including the rear tow hook), so I'm not too worried about it.

Sound deadening will add over 50lbs for the whole car lol, I truly could care less. Thanks, RB25.

[Slip&Sliden 240]

Have a bunch of sets of spare knuckles, so I thought I would try to get some more steering angle. Plus I boxed in a pair of lca's.

Here is the steering arm after I removed .75"


the knuckles and lca's before I removed the bump stops


The finished product after swaping my hub's, and brake ducts over.

[duffman1278]

Originally Posted by jdmsoles

thanks to both of you, what size rod is that 3/16s thanks.

3/8

msglength

[S14_Kouki]

GSXRJJordan

damn thats alot of weld looks like it took a hot min. came out good tho

[vaughn4]

Originally Posted by Slip&Sliden 240

Have a bunch of sets of spare knuckles, so I thought I would try to get some more steering angle. Plus I boxed in a pair of lca's.

how did you weld your knuckles? Tig? What rod? Any preheating? How did you let them cool? I have tigged two different sets and i have broken both of them.

[bardabe]

Originally Posted by vaughn4

how did you weld your knuckles? Tig? What rod? Any preheating? How did you let them cool? I have tigged two different sets and i have broken both of them.

from my experience, when i was learning how to Tig Weld My teacher welded a Few set of Cast Pieces for the Nascars with 99% nickel Welding Rod, Same settings on the Tig as stainless (Straight Polarity Direct Current) he preheated them with a propane torch, after he was done welding them he would let them cool on their own it usually took about a day or so.

I have personally not released any angle kits because of the same liability, once my Z32 is running again and my track car are good again I will test them. I do not want any liability for anyone wrecking their cars because my welds creaked. Welding Cast is Extremely touchy and not just anyone can do it right. just because it looks pretty docent mean it's strong

[vaughn4]

Originally Posted by bardabe

from my experience, when i was learning how to Tig Weld My teacher welded a Few set of Cast Pieces for the Nascars with 99% nickel Welding Rod, Same settings on the Tig as stainless (Straight Polarity Direct Current) he preheated them with a propane torch, after he was done welding them he would let them cool on their own it usually took about a day or so.

I have personally not released any angle kits because of the same liability, once my Z32 is running again and my track car are good again I will test them. I do not want any liability for anyone wrecking their cars because my welds creaked. Welding Cast is Extremely touchy and not just anyone can do it right. just because it looks pretty docent mean it's strong

Thank you for the information. I dont have much experience welding cast pieces. I have welded a couple cast manifolds for tractors, but never something this much stress on it. I plan on trying a couple different filler rods over the winter.

[bardabe]

^^^ yeah If I where you i would do a good chamfer on them to make sure you have absolutely good penetration. it's fairly thick so it will stay hot for a long long time. but if cleaned correctly and with the right filler rod it should be very very strong. might want to contact Parts Shop Max to see if they are willing to share their technique because they are poping cars out the same day. they weld in their angle kits

[atutt]

Originally Posted by bardabe

^^^ yeah If I where you i would do a good chamfer on them to make sure you have absolutely good penetration. it's fairly thick so it will stay hot for a long long time. but if cleaned correctly and with the right filler rod it should be very very strong. might want to contact Parts Shop Max to see if they are willing to share their technique because they are poping cars out the same day. they weld in their angle kits

Just want to add a little to that. With the CORRECT filler rod. And, proper welding techniques. The weld (when it comes to steels and irons) will always be stronger than the weld.

And. on the topic of the knuckles. They should be welded with a high nickle rod (like mentioned). Afterward they should be heat treated.
They should also only be welded with either TIG or Stick. As they have superior penetration to MIG. If you're gonna wire feed it. It should be a dual-shield flux core weld.

[vaughn4]

Originally Posted by atutt

Afterward they should be heat treated.

I have talked to a couple different people they have mentioned putting the knuckles into a bucket of sand. Fill the bucket half full of sand, finish your welding, place the part into the sand, then fill the bucket to the top with sand. Any other ideas as to letting the part cool at a slower rate?

[Jonnie Fraz]

Originally Posted by bardabe

^^^ yeah If I where you i would do a good chamfer on them to make sure you have absolutely good penetration. it's fairly thick so it will stay hot for a long long time. but if cleaned correctly and with the right filler rod it should be very very strong. might want to contact Parts Shop Max to see if they are willing to share their technique because they are poping cars out the same day. they weld in their angle kits

Good info!
The difference with PBM stuff is they do not cut the arm off the knuckle. I am having a tough time with the cutting the knuckle mod. I was going to do this a while back...then my buddy lost a tie rod at Thunderhill and almost did not get the car stopped in time. Pretty scary if the knuckle fails!
I think PBM is the way to go!

[SANdisk]

On that same note of welding cast iron, Nickel (inconel, hastelloy, ernicrmo-17) is the rod of choice. pre-heat and post-heat are neccesary. pre-heat the work piece untill it can catch a piece of paper on fire (451 f) and post-heat for a couple hours in a kiln or oven. this is done to prevent cracking.
You can tell that the PBM knuckles are mig welded. they dont need to be tig'd because there are not just hacked off and put back together (which i think is not very safe). They weld a seperate piece on thats made out of normal mild steel that is inserted into the original tie rod hole. Dont get me wrong, i think that the mod can be done safely by just cut and weld. But I Wouldn't attempt it without proper welding skills and a jig where you could duplicate the results each time, i.e. the length of the cut and final postion. well thats my .02 haha.

[bardabe]

^^^ very good information sir, I agree with you 100% I would actually suggest the Sand Idea better for the cool down though

[STR8E180]

im all the way from australia and WOW THIS IS A GREAT THREAD

spewin i didnt find out about it earlier

im going threw a rebuild at the moment and almost every thing on my car is custom made

exhaust manifold is made from mild steel steam pipe



and this is how it came out after it was coated







and some photos of the plenum

basically milled the standard inlet manifold all the way down to the flange plate so i could resuse the flange



port match the flange plate to the cylinder head ports







bolted it up with wat ever bolts i could find laying around just to weld it all together

[STR8E180]

after coating

[bardabe]

Looks good mate, did you weld all your stuff? those are some real nice beads

[STR8E180]

all done my POWERTUNE AUSTRALIA

nice avatar
i have a big thing for misa

[Devil Man]

holy crap they did a freaking amazing job with the collectors.

[blueshark123]

Originally Posted by STR8E180

what valvecover is that?

[S14_Kouki]

Crazy ass Australians and there mild steel manifolds ahahahahahah. Did they costume make your engine Flange for the exhaust??

[bardabe]

Originally Posted by blueshark123

what valvecover is that?

looks like a 20V valve cover

[S14_Kouki]

I made this manifold its for a ls1 in a FC I reused the shitty engine flange and collector that came with his POS manifolds that did not fit. Reused for it to be cheaper on the costumers part.

[STR8E180]

Originally Posted by blueshark123

what valvecover is that?

its a sr20V rocker cover/valve cover

Originally Posted by S14_Kouki

Crazy ass Australians and there mild steel manifolds ahahahahahah. Did they costume make your engine Flange for the exhaust??

yeah its mostly australia and N.Z that use mild steel steam pipe for exhaust manifolds
whens the rest of the world going to catch up and follow
the exhaust flange i had my mate CNC machine for me

[S14_Kouki]

No No Australia has to catch up with everyone else and use stainless steal you see that header above you its stainless and looks fucking awesome without being coated and will never rust. Mild steal might be cheaper but it will never be better the stainless