Aaron's 76 Type LT Project

3 minute(s) of a 383 minute read

Holy crap, what a busy week - can't wait to do some work on the car. Stopped by the big box store tonight and got some copper to use as a backer when welding, a fire extinguisher and some foil duct tape. Going to try a trick a guy at Northern Tool told me about - take some of the small square ceramic tile strips, wrap them in the foil tape and then tape that to the backside of where you are welding. Helps prevent blow outs....or so we shall see.  

Pics to come tomorrow...hopefully of some decent welds 

4-24-2010

Easy Guy, easy....

I had to do some final sand blasting to clean up the areas that would get welded and did a little extra blasting while I had everything set up. Then I got around to setting up my welder - hadn't really done much with it except put it on the cart. I was able to practice on some 16 gauge sheet metal.

Here was round #1




This was the last round - considerably better, but still need to practice some more tomorrow morning before I weld "for real". I think I was not holding the gun close enough to the metal and was moving the gun at the wrong speed. I think I have the right wire speed and voltage.

I circled the best weld from my practice runs - that is what I want to achieve.

4-25-2010

So I figured you could all use a good laugh. Turns out the gaps between the butt joints on my toe board patch were just too big for me to fill using a copper or ceramic backer (inexperience issue). So I decided to make some patches out of 16 ga sheet metal to go over the seams on the interior side. The idea is that I should be able to make the underside look pretty (or prettier than the interior side).  

I started grinding the welds along the top patch and will clean that up more this week. I did not touch the welds on the right-side patch (I know, hard to believe). I have one more patch to add along the diagonal seam.

Anyway, it was a learning experience. My welds slowly got better, but they still suck balls. Just need to take my time. Will keep at it this week.