Awesome to see you are still working on this. Do you still have the LED tails you made for it back in the day?
that’s certainly something else…
Shockwave - Will do!
Jimmy - Yea, but they’re in a random box of crap now. Went with the LS Honeycomb style tail lights a couple years before I took her off the road. Kicking around and doing some preliminary design work for some custom LED/HID stuff for the front end on this rebuild. (I want to move the fog-lights into the corner lights, and just have a strip of yellow LEDs for the markers/turn-signals; and I’d like to switch the headlights to HID projection units. Challenge I’m having is finding HID units that are small enough, and how to seal the Projection Units up.)
The Hella 90mm units look really nice. How small do you want to go?
That’s still a 3.5" diameter unit; looking smaller. Smaller the better, but still needs to put out a good headlight pattern. Been kicking around a few options, none of which I currently like.
Welcome to the store has 2 really small options; but I’m thinking both would require a full re-design of the headlight hinge/lift assembly.
Still have the .GIF?
Just picked up freshly certified (7/12) blank ring 200cu tank of C25 for $150 off the local classifieds. Nice deal considering a full 125cu of C25 is just shy of $300 from the local welding supply stores.
Gotta pick up a few welding blankets, then it’s time to start seam-welding the engine bay.
Gotta build a cart for the welder/tank as well, a 200cu tank isn’t exactly small/portable without a cart/dolly.
What do you have for protection; glasses, gloves, coat, etc…?
Picked up an auto-darkening helmet, and a pair decent welding gloves back when I got the welder. Haven’t gotten a welding coat/shirt yet, just using one of my insulated cotton Flannel shirts/coats whatever they’re called (somewhere between a flannel shirt and coat). Just grabbed a pair of Fiberglass welding blankets at Harbor Freight yesterday too; protect the windshield and the rest of the car that I don’t want weld spatter on.
Nice. Are the seams in that car glued before spotwelding? If so, seamwelding fucking sucks, because the glue that you can’t grind out that’s between the seams boils and fucks up your weld.
What type of welder did you buy? If it’s a 110v, even for thin stuff you may need to preheat the area with a torch (this can also help burn out the seam glue). Your welds will look 100x better and will penetrate much more. Also if you’re getting really ugly welds try buy a can of anti-spatter and spray it on before you start welding.
Good call on the blankets, I had to replace my E30 windshield after welding the sunroof closed (and after it accidentally got sandblasted)
From what I can tell, the seams are just spot welded; no seam sealer. I used a 2" paint/rust scotchbright pad on my die grinder to remove some of the paint on the seams to be welded, and there’s nothing in between the 2 pieces of sheetmetal that I can tell.
Welder is a Lincoln Pro-Mig 185 (220V unit).
Planning on doing a 1/2"-1" weld, 2" gap, working my way around, then coming back around and filling in the gaps 1" at a time. Then tentatively flapwheel everything smooth.
Welding all the seams solid seems like overkill. I think you would see a similar benefit from just stitch welding it…
Good call on the 220v. 110v welders suck.
Agreed, but if I do end up going back and flapwheeling the welds smooth; then there will still be seams that aren’t welded, I can get a completely smooth transition if I fully weld/grind the entire seams. More aesthetics at that point though. It will depend on how the welding goes to be honest. This will be my first real welding/fab project (other than a welder/tank cart that I need to make).
Should be sweet.
I’m partial to the LT1 though, and I know our local bald turbo freak is also a fan.
Started welding yesterday; first welds are rough, but are getting better as I go. I’ll post pics on Monday.
Did find some adhesive between the spot-welded seams on the shock towers, damn stuff stinks when it burns/melts. Just hope it’s not toxic.
So far the most PITA part is stripping the paint/primer/glue off before welding. Bunch of scotchbright pads, wire wheels, wire brushes, dremel tool, etc… All I gotta say is thank god I have the air compressor I have, anything smaller wouldn’t hold up to the die-grinders running constantly while sanding.
Started grinding some smooth too after welding, should turn out really good once it’s done.
Ran out of welding wire today, so I gotta go find another roll before I can keep going, as well as some weld-through primer.
Well, I would post pictures, but for some reason my camera decided it didn’t want to record the ones I took last night. Memory card was empty this AM when I went to upload them. WTF. I’ll take some more tonight and post up.
Another note - If you use a flexible line between your compressor tank and lines mounted onto the house/garage/shop; be sure that it’s securely connected, and stays that way. While grinding, the hose I had installed decided to get hot (well, duh, hot compressed air and a 60G Lowes vertical compressor running full time for 30 mins makes a lot of heat)… and come off the barb fittings! That’ll wake you the hell up and give you a WTF moment.
Side question - Those of you who have done body work, what’s the rule of thumb for plastic application, meaning pinhole size, thickness, etc. I know you want to use as little as possible, obviously. But if I have a 1/16" divet after grinding it all smooth, it’ll be easier to just skim coat it and sand, then it will be to weld fill/grind; plus I gotta coat the entire areas with filler anyways to smooth everything out.
plastic application…grinding it all smooth…?
Does not compute. Are your talking about a divet in a plastic panel? “Grinding” is throwing me off.
---------- Post added at 09:08 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:04 AM ----------
Assuming you are acutally talking about plastic the BEST products I have used are epoxies but you can use a glaze as well. 3M sells a two part “Bumper Filler” and SEM sells a glaze called “Bumper Bite.” Both really awesome for plastics; scratches, holes, cracks, etc…you need to get the surface down to plastic. Once you have the filler or glaze; sand smooth, prime and paint. No finishing filler, ie skim coat.
It takes some time to get use to working with it. I would suggest going the 400 (for too high of a contour build), 600 or 800, finish with 1,000 grit. Then use a 2K primer. NO WET SANDING before primer. It will gum up and make a shitty surface. Change out your paper more often.
plastic application = Body Filler.
Divet as in a recess in a weld; IE after I grind the weld smooth, there is a small 1/16" wide slot or 1/16" x 1/16" x 1/16" void in the weld. Happens where I have had to run multiple beads to get a nice blend between 2 panels that are overlayed, not butt welded.
Not doing any body work on the plastic body panels. This is all talking steel in the engine bay.
Ah, gotcha. For small holes I would use a finishing putty. I believe 3M calls it “Ultra Glaze”
If you get “Bondo” type filler you want Dyna Maxx (SP?).