Well, All I have to say is...Anybody who Welds "GOD BLESS YOU !"
Gumby is an amazing welder, on the other extreme is me. I took almost all day to simply tack in my underside SFC's. I started to complete one side(passenger side). it is a B@#$%.
At least I am pretty sure its not coming out but I need more practice.
Welding on a plate on the bench and welding under the car are two differant animals. I cant seem to flow the pool as nice underneath the car as you can on the bench..Hmmmm
I will get some pics up when I am not frustrated anymore.
(http://thumb0.webshots.net/t/53/553/2/16/87/2872216870092329140xWqGPg_th.jpg) (http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2872216870092329140xWqGPg)
(http://thumb0.webshots.net/t/53/653/3/69/5/2057369050092329140zTPctT_th.jpg) (http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2057369050092329140zTPctT)
(http://thumb0.webshots.net/t/58/458/4/28/27/2953428270092329140nvhTRv_th.jpg) (http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2953428270092329140nvhTRv)
I didn't think it was that bad when I did it, aside from sweating my ass off in that welding shirt and gloves (since I did it in july or august).
I agree that it is harder to see (glad I have that auto-darkening helmet!), but mine went in fairly well except that I went through almost 2-1lb spools of wire on the job. sheesh.
thats for sure! when settin up a welder on the bench, then movin to a confined space or out of position weld, there are always fine tunings to be done. looks like you are doin a'ight under there. keep at it, tweak on the welder a lil bit if needed and see where that takes you.
dont get frustrated, the more practice you get the easier it will come to ya. ;)
Welding under cars is a completely different ball game. When I do mine im gonna be in a pit standing. Ive layed down to weld exhaust for people numerous times, and it came out great, but you gotta practice at it.
Ok so I kind of got the welding to look almost like it will work. I completely welded bothe rails on, sort of. A couple of gaps here and there, couple of burn holes and lots of spatter.
I got my SFC's from Stinger and they came with plates to weld on the 1 x 2's, I guess for reinforcement. Are these really necessary ? Because when I tried to weld one , it kind of melted a lot quicker then the SFC and the frame rail. It seems to be a differant material.
And does the weld have to be a complete bead to be effective? (refer to my "pretty weld" statemant above)
I would put some plate on both sides and weld around this, but I tend to overdo things.
After I put in my connectors I could not believe how much stiffer my car felt and even the doors worked better. In fact you can jack it up high on one corner and the doors still work great. Ford should have done this from the factory.
Keep up the great work.
TED
One thing that makes welding under the car difficult is the fact that the floor and framerails are galvanized. That's probably why you had a problem with spattering.
would using a tig give a better weld with that?
they should have never made unibody cars, it's just stupid!
looks pretty good, sounds like you're using flux core wire, lol.
I don't think. Galvanized metal is coated with a different metal (zinc, I think) and when you melt and try to mix two different metals you'll get a mess. The only way to avoid it is to get the zinc off the metal, either by grinding (and that subframe metal is pretty thin so don't grind too much) or maybe use a chemical if one's available.
i used a wire wheel on an angle grinder to "prep" the metal, but didnt work out to well. ive been seriously debating on cutting the sfc off, and trying again. this time ill use a flap disc to get a better bite into the metal. my sfc are 11ga, so grinding on them shouldnt be an issue.