Don selleck
Active Member
hard core
34 dodge truck upgrade.
- Thread starter Don selleck
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Don selleck
Active Member
the time has arrived, after 16 weeks my IFS and 4 link is complete. Heading down to nashville with a friend and staying down town, and take in a few of the sites saturday night, then heading to my brothers on the east side for a visit, then on to Scotts hotrods in knoxville early monday to pick up the goods. Can't wait to get started on this thing.
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Don selleck
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Well went to Scotts monday to pick up my goods, small fab shop around 4000 sq. pretty amazing for what this place is producing, Very nice receptionist I talked with and then the salesman who took my order Jeff, also very cool, walked me into the fab area for a tour was almost immediately approached by the owner Justin, b.s. ed with him for about 45 min, very cool and sharp buisiness man.after the tour loaded up and headed north. the next day opened the first box and set front crossmember to see how close the fitment was Scotts didn't ask for any dimensions, I was kind of taking there word for it. first noticed some impressive beautiful welds, had the front of the truck on the sliding jack that came with the lift so I could lift it up and down for ride stance observations, set the cross member on some jack stands, and lined it up under the frame near its final resting spot. released the bleed on the jack and dropped right into place perfect. I have a long ways to go and super busy with work right now will be a while until I jump into this.
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Don selleck
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65 sporty
Well-Known Member
These guy's here in MI?
Don selleck
Active Member
Knoxville, tennesee
Don selleck
Active Member
well put abour 4 hrs into it today got further than planned. Will be cutting about 3/4" to nothing" angle out of the inside of the new crossmember to get it to level up to my ride stance
Don selleck
Active Member
well haven't got much done on the old truck picked up a welder from a friend of mine been practicing, this is a new animal to me have always used a mig welder, definately a learning curve , but Its nice thats for sure . got the crossmember cut (cut about 5/8" to nothing) and leveled it in for my ride stance so its level from front to back so i'm in the realm of adjustment for the caster adjustments. Welding it in tomorrow.
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65 sporty
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It's been a long time since I have picked up a TIG torch, but when I learned welding I was great at gas torch welding so TIG came easy to me.
Practice a bunch before welding on the truck
Practice a bunch before welding on the truck
Don selleck
Active Member
absolutely a friend of mine came over who welds for living did a couple test welds with that welder, I was gonna have him do the welding on those areas since my life depends on it basically and figured i could get some pointers. Well he said not use that welder he couldn't keep a good flo going and was not penetrating enough to his liking, so picking up a monster tig tomorrow from a guy that works at a local car part manufacturer who recently bought new and gave the old equipment to him, but he doesn't have a place to hook it up so we agreed to keep it in my climate controlled shop for safe keeping. Basically the unit he's worked with for 10 years, said it was just reconditioned last year, said it works like new. it is a three phase and i am sizing a phase convertor right now with my electrician, A little delay but hopefully with get this truck moving in the right direction.
Don selleck
Active Member
well been awhile 2 days after last post I closed on a small house in tecumseh mich. remodeled it and flipped it in 83 days. I got the monster welder it needed an invertor that costs 2400.00 so broke down and bought an esab 205i. Been practicing and seems to be a very nice welder it a tig mig and a stick. so far have tried the tig and mig features both work very well. Am begining to like the tig welding more and more very clean and easier to manipulate the different types of metal I'm welding together on this truck
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Don selleck
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the welds seem to be penetrating well, got a few decent one's stacking up but the positioning is huge, I guess my grinder will remove any sins. the old metal to new is quite a challenge, while heating up the new thicker first then blending into the old. The tig is so hot I'm hesitant to weld too much on one are as far as touching up the original weld to many times, trying not to make the edge weld crack from it. Had to cut the frame for the rack and pinion clearance the half circles were pretty cool cut a gouge in the bottom of the frame, to clear the area for the center line of the circle hole cutter. then just weld a flat stock metal with a proper size hole in it for the cutter for a guide. then duplicated this process on both sides of each frame rail.
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Don selleck
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filled in the top with a small v shaped piece of steel to fill the void. cut some supports on the inner circle to beef it up a bit before I box in the inner side of the frame. Originally wanted to keep this look but not really confident of the strength of whats left after the half circles. This is my final ride stance.
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65 sporty
Well-Known Member
It's looking good. Esab makes some good equipment, nice choice, it should last a lifetime
Don selleck
Active Member
thanks, bought it at bakers propane supply there kinda like the new welding supplier around here. went to the tried and true place not much of a selection, I was leaning towards a lincoln but 2 of my friends bought these, and I have to say it does work very well that tig torch gets hot as hell after using it for a while, I see why they have the water cooled setups, but for I'm doing as a hobby couldn't justify the price.
Don selleck
Active Member
removed the center crossmember today I assumed this would be under pressure like the front was it wanted to push in when I removed it. The brace I installed was under quite a bit of pressure. thinking that the center member which I removed today was causing the reverse tension by pulling it in. So I set up a brace with 1/2" threaded rod to keep it in place. removed it and loosened the threaded rod didn't move at all. The frame maintained its original spacing. which is good, now maybe I can keep if wide open underneath as far as a permanent frame structure in that area so the drive line can be removed from underneath for future maintenance. Thinking the rack may have to be removed prior to but we will see.
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Richard Sweet
Member
So what's the rest of the story?