The Blue Bomber

[GreasedPiggy]

Nice!

Quite an improvment. The welds look like they are penetrating into the steel pretty well. Matching the metal thickiness is so important when possible. Getting rid of gaps really helps too.

Keep the pics coming!

[laguna80]

No new pics yet. I'm on spring break but didn't get to do any work today. We had a full house because my brothers and sister came in from Cali. I didn't feel safe working cause they had brought their little kids. Anyway, I finally got some work done today. Put a patch in the rear wheelwell and put another patch on the rear passenger doorjam area. Tomorrow I should be able to start building the inner rockers and repair to floor supports by this weekend. I welded upside down for the first time too. It was kinda fun.

[ChuckB]

I still want to come check out your pig. I'm pretty busy right now though. I hit you up in a couple weeks.

Looking Good!

[laguna80]

Some pics- 1: rear passenger wheel well. 2: rear passenger door sill 3: front passenger door sill. Tomorrow I'll do the inner rocker. I feel pretty good right now.

[GreasedPiggy]

very nice! You look to have the power and wire speed just right for the way you are doing the welds. Are you using 0.030 wire?

Looks like you are able to go about 1/8 to 1/4 inch per hit. Welds will go great like this unless you hit thinner/rusty areas.

Keep up the great work!!!

[laguna80]

Thanks. I'm using 0.030 flux cored wire. The valley where I live is way too windy for gas use. I got some flat 1/8 inch copper that I'm using as a heat sink. It makes it a lot easier so that I don't blow holes (too much) lol

[laguna80]

More pics. First is the floor support. Next is the inner rocker. It came out all right I think. It was a little difficult because I had to bend the top on 16 gauge metal and it had a slight curve to it afterwards. Question for you all: I about to the point where I'm gonna start putting metal over metal. Should I paint all that first and then weld through it when the time comes? Ex: I am gonna lay down the floor boards soon. This goes on top of the floor supports which need to be welded after the floors go down. Do I paint and then weld or just leave them bare when I lay down the floor boards?

[laguna80]

Floor supports all done. Got to rebuild the front body mount, then the front pass. A-pillar. plus floorpans.

[laguna80]

Little update: I'm redoing most of the body mount. Can anyone tell me the specifics of the little cylinder inside the body mount that holds the bolt in? What do I need for that part?


Also, I picked up these seats from craigslist a couple days ago. 1998 silverado like Nat's pig.

[laguna80]

Got the body mount done. I found some steel spacers to use. Pics tomorrow. Auto darkening helmets rock! That's all I have to say.

[laguna80]

Oh and another thing. I am so glad that I have been welding a lot of 20 gauge lately. It makes it so much easier to weld the thicker stuff. I'm not so scared to really burn the weld in.

[Sporin]

My Dside floor supports are a mess and that uinderfoot body mount as well. I'd love some detailed pics when you can. Thanks!

[laguna80]

Originally Posted by Sporin

My Dside floor supports are a mess and that uinderfoot body mount as well. I'd love some detailed pics when you can. Thanks!

I'll post some later on today.

[LC_Hamma]

[quote=laguna80;3210372]Little update: I'm redoing most of the body mount. Can anyone tell me the specifics of the little cylinder inside the body mount that holds the bolt in? What do I need for that part?


That looks like the rearmost body mount. From the body mounts I've plasma'd out, they all had some sort of vertical "X" bracing to prevent overtorquing & deforming the sheetmetal. I also had to remake some body mounts. I have a pic on my build thread of the one's under the driver floorboard (filled w/ dirt ), IIRC it's prolly on the 2nd or 3rd page.

[laguna80]

Originally Posted by LC_Hamma

That looks like the rearmost body mount. From the body mounts I've plasma'd out, they all had some sort of vertical "X" bracing to prevent overtorquing & deforming the sheetmetal. I also had to remake some body mounts. I have a pic on my build thread of the one's under the driver floorboard (filled w/ dirt ), IIRC it's prolly on the 2nd or 3rd page.

That portion there was cut out from the front body mount. It had the X too, that had gotten filled with crud and rusted out. Are the body mounts the same in the front and back? or are the back ones smaller or something?

[laguna80]

Here's the story to the body mount for the front passenger side. I had to cut a lot of the original stuff out. You can see here that I basically cut it in half and then welded three strips together to give the original shape. Then I took another three strips and made the slanted portion. It's not perfect, but neither was toyotas. This is all sixteen gauge sheet. Then I had to get a replacement bolt and spacers that were pictured above (the really rusty ones). I used grade 8 3/8 5 inch bolt. The spacers are half inch spacers, I couldn't find anything smaller.

[LC_Hamma]

You got it right - they used 2 spacers butted together for the mounts. I coulda sworn those rubber donuts w/ the nipple thingy were on the rear - at least they fit my rear mounts perfectly. The body mounts under the rear seats have the same exact interior brace too.......

[oldfj40]

Nice job - keep it up.Lots to fix once you get digging into it huh?Looks like your welding skills are improving quick too.I'm looking forward to the same thing soon.
Your seats are the exact match to the ones I put in the pig as well.I got the idea from Nats thread too.Very comfortable - you're gonna love 'em.
Keep the progress pics coming.

[n2666s]

this is great thread; wow, just watching your welding and fabbing skills progress, rescuing another pig instead of parting her out

Lou

[laguna80]

Here's the nearly completed body mount welded in. I have to clean it up then paint it. It's definitely far from perfect, but I think it's going to work pretty good. Here's some pics of the floor supports for Sporin. I messed up a bit. I should have left a gap on the bottom of the one piece to allow for drainage. It's going to get clogged up again, but I'll deal with that in 10-20 years hopefully. The last pic is the last floor support before the tire. I tried to keep the angle since it was already angled down. This is gonna get rusty again, but I'm gonna keep it as clean as possible.

[ChuckB]

You gotta teach me how to weld, my driver's side body mount is shot!

Nice slippahs!!

[laguna80]

Thanks for all the encouragement everyone. God knows I need it. lol
ChuckB anytime you want to come out and check it out is cool. I may not be qualified to teach, but you can sample the welder for sure.
All I've got done recently is this little floor patch. That corner by the pass seat is a bitch to redo!

[eventhough]

I had to redo one of those corner sections also and it was not any fun. I ended up cutting a piece that fit pretty well but had a gap to fill that recieve a good dose of 'booger welding.' I figured it was better than what was previously there and by the time it rusts back through my Piggie will probably have been beat to a pulp.

Good work!

[laguna80]

I finished that corner and put in another patch. I'm gonna try to cut out bigger patches to put in so that the work will go faster.

[n2666s]

welds are looking better day by day; congrats;

Lou

[PabloCruise]

Originally Posted by laguna80

More pics. First is the floor support. Next is the inner rocker. It came out all right I think. It was a little difficult because I had to bend the top on 16 gauge metal and it had a slight curve to it afterwards. Question for you all: I about to the point where I'm gonna start putting metal over metal. Should I paint all that first and then weld through it when the time comes? Ex: I am gonna lay down the floor boards soon. This goes on top of the floor supports which need to be welded after the floors go down. Do I paint and then weld or just leave them bare when I lay down the floor boards?

I believe the answer is to get some zinc based weld through primer to protect the bare metal. I am no body man though - so you may want to double check my answer in the body forum...

[laguna80]

Originally Posted by PabloCruise

I believe the answer is to get some zinc based weld through primer to protect the bare metal. I am no body man though - so you may want to double check my answer in the body forum...

Ya, I checked with a welding forum that I'm also a member of and they said the same thing. So I picked up some rustoleum cold galvanizing compound, which has a high zinc content, just like they said. I also picked up some LPS3, which is a rust inhibiting oil that was recommended by brownbear in the paint/body section. I've had a killer past 2 weeks with tests, so I haven't done much. Just another floor patch. O-chem is kicking my ass this semester. My GF wanted to help out with the cruiser so I picked up this little Wagner airless paint gun from Home Depot. I've got several cans of zero rust which I'm gonna use for the pig. The second pic is the floor patch and the third pic is the Passenger A-pillar which I'm gonna work on after the floor is done. The door was barely holding on before I took it off lol.