Builds 1st FJ40, '76 - SMOKEY - Puttin’ her Back Together (2 Viewers)

[Vae Victus]

Hi VV
Your thread puts a smile on my face and for that I say thank you.
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For us on the other side of the world what is conditioned storage as to non conditioned ?
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Now my build is finished ....
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Then a stroke of Genius. Nat do you want to come to China? And in the same sentence let's rent the mechanics shop.
Me China Oh .
I got the lease signed in record time. I now have a 150 square meter man cave.
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A couple of photos of your shop would be nice.
Cheers Peter
...via IH8MUD app

Conditioned storage - air conditioned in summer - stays below 80*F and humidity stays reasonable. In winter heated to stay above 50*F. I wouldn't store fine art, but fine car parts are ok, plus, it's all they had.

Finished - you are done? Congrats!

Re China - so you sent a man to China to get his shop space? Hmm, that's a story as old as time. Wasn't it King David who sent Uriah to war so he could have Bathsheba - I think you have a new nickname for your truck!

Photos of the shop? Heck - there isn't one. It's the darn garage and it's so full I have to shift things around to get things done.

But, more on that soon: Things are happening again! However it's late and I gotta get up in 5 hours....

Here's a little peek

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

sleep is overrated.... nice welding cart

 

[Vae Victus]

Here's a bit more of what's happened in the past month.

I did get most of the small parts to the blaster.

A few remained with broken bolts so last weekend I attacked those.

Welded nuts on some

Built a few short ones up and used vice grips on them.

I was able to get all of the broken bolts out pretty easily.

Now I just need to get the glass out of the front windshield frame and take these final parts over to the blaster. Once they are done I'm taking him to the buy the paint and body guy to begin on those.

I figure it will be faster to get him working on all the small parts now rather than waiting on me to finish the metal repairs on the body. He wasn't crazy about the idea because he wanted to shoot them all at once but it's my vehicle and my money so hopefully he will proceed.

 

[Vae Victus]

I think I'm going to try to TIG weld the body panel repairs instead of MIG welding them. My TIG welding outfit is not the best, so I got a new welder! I ended up getting in Everlast unit which is foreign-made, but it's reasonably priced and like Datsun Toyota Subaru and Hyundai, the quality has improved over time.

 

[Vae Victus]

Here's a couple pictures of what goes on at welding cart that I teased about above.

This is my first ever brand-new piece of welding equipment. Everything else I have purchased has been eBay or craigslist. It's all worked but it's all been pretty rough stuff. This is a really nice welder that I'm looking forward to doing TIG work with. I can also fix some of my restaurant equipment that is aluminum which I could not do with my DC only Miller unit.

As I said in the previous post, I've seen a couple of forum postings on the Internet about doing TIG welding for the body panels it's supposedly a bit cleaner if I can get a real good fit up on the panels.

We shall see. It should be fun! (that's sarcasm, I'm really kind of dreading it.)

 

[RWBeringer4x4]

I think I'm going to try to TIG weld the body panel repairs instead of MIG welding them. My TIG welding outfit is not the best, so I got a new welder! I ended up getting in Everlast unit which is foreign-made, but it's reasonably priced and like Datsun Toyota Subaru and Hyundai, the quality has improved over time.

Just because I know very little about welding - but will need to learn (and buy one) eventually. Why would a TIG unit be superior to a MIG for body work? Hopefully this doesn't spark a "MIG vs. TIG" debate, just wondering what guided you toward the decision.

 

[tnkayaker]

Here's a couple pictures of what goes on at welding cart that I teased US above.

View attachment 1161154
View attachment 1161155

This is my first ever brand-new piece of welding equipment. Everything else I have purchased has been eBay or craigslist. It's all worked but it's all been pretty rough stuff. This is a really nice welder that I'm looking forward to doing TIG work with. I can also fix some of my restaurant equipment that is aluminum which I could not do with my DC only Miller unit.

I have the PowerPro 256 and love it.

 

[78fj40mg]

Just because I know very little about welding - but will need to learn (and buy one) eventually. Why would a TIG unit be superior to a MIG for body work? Hopefully this doesn't spark a "MIG vs. TIG" debate, just wondering what guided you toward the decision.

 

[SMG]

I love my Everlast 210 EXT

Just be careful, It's easy to warp sheet metal with a tig.

 

[txnight]

Awesome welder! I tend to use mig instead of tig for auto body work. Mig is a lot more tolerant of contaminants on the metal.

Whatever you use have fun!

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

the biggest issue about doing MIG for body-work is you get a harder weld - it's not a huge deal, but you have to be careful about warping both in the weld and in the grinding smooth... that said, I can't remember the last time I TIG welded a body panel on. That said, I was TIG welding tonight on a stainless bracket - so it's not all obsolete.

Inverter welders are cool - I've seen those, but refuse to be a guinea pig to figure out if they're a good buy or merely another welder company that comes, goes bankrupt and leaves you with a welder you can't get parts for... ESAB survived and has thrived but every every ESAB there are hundreds of companies that didn't make it.... heck, even my dad produced and sold a welder in the 70s.... that company didn't survive either

 

[Vae Victus]

Just because I know very little about welding - but will need to learn (and buy one) eventually. Why would a TIG unit be superior to a MIG for body work? Hopefully this doesn't spark a "MIG vs. TIG" debate, just wondering what guided you toward the decision.

I don't think it is superior but I think for these long welds it may be a good solution. This is the forum article I was reading that intrigued me: Tig welding body panels - No hammering method - Metal Meet Forums

 

[Vae Victus]

the biggest issue about doing MIG for body-work is you get a harder weld - it's not a huge deal, but you have to be careful about warping both in the weld and in the grinding smooth... that said, I can't remember the last time I TIG welded a body panel on. That said, I was TIG welding tonight on a stainless bracket - so it's not all obsolete.

Inverter welders are cool - I've seen those, but refuse to be a guinea pig to figure out if they're a good buy or merely another welder company that comes, goes bankrupt and leaves you with a welder you can't get parts for... ESAB survived and has thrived but every every ESAB there are hundreds of companies that didn't make it.... heck, even my dad produced and sold a welder in the 70s.... that company didn't survive either

Inverters seem to be a new category that all manufacturers are adding to their product lines. I don't understand all the benefits but there are several nice features about them.

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

they are easier to control the heat which gets you better weld-quality. Plus, you can also get those nice, stacked dimes with even pirate-level of ability

simply put - the welder varies the amount of energy put into the weld, thus it welds/cools/welds/cools and by doing that it can put more energy into each pulse without blowing through because there's cool cycle in-between. With older welders, they use large coils which do not give it the same ability to vary the frequency so quickly (square wave vs. sine wave).

computer vs. old school.... the big issue, prior to these welders was the inability of the chip to handle the energy... now they can, so they're a lot lighter as well...

 

[Bambi Girl]

That's a cool welding stand VV .
Watch all the Aussie comment on when I say I have not seen a seen a stand like that down under.
The welder has lots knobs and switches and looks fun to learn how to use.
Just back from China and I was watching this China guy mig welding 0.5 mm mild steel sheet . He was making shelving and what a beautiful job.
His wire size was 0.35
One the other side of welding in China check this guy out.
He is building a mezzanine floor for me.
No need for welding masks with these guys.
The guy on the ladder had just stopped welding when I took the photo.
Must have thick skin as molten weld on the skin did not seem to worry.

...via IH8MUD app

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

the trick is remembering where the sparks are going to go - I've been known to rock my OSHA approved flip flops and shorts as well when welding...

 

[Vae Victus]

Here is the next installment of news: picked up the frame today from powder coating. This is another "big moment" as I can now start actually reassembling the truck. Looks great - very dusty in the photos but the finish is better than I hoped.

Unfortunately I do have to spend more money, since I put the suspension kit I bought on the '70 truck (STPCHLD). At least I know what to order. OME kit

 

[Vae Victus]

That's a cool welding stand VV .
Watch all the Aussie comment on when I say I have not seen a seen a stand like that down under.
The welder has lots knobs and switches and looks fun to learn how to use.
Just back from China and I was watching this China guy mig welding 0.5 mm mild steel sheet . He was making shelving and what a beautiful job.
His wire size was 0.35
One the other side of welding in China check this guy out.
He is building a mezzanine floor for me.
No need for welding masks with these guys.
The guy on the ladder had just stopped welding when I took the photo.
Must have thick skin as molten weld on the skin did not seem to worry.

...via IH8MUD app

Holy crap - no mask (wait I do see a mask now), no shirt, no shoes. Crazy stuff. They must really think we are uhm, how do I keep this family friendly, felines (use the other word for that animal) here in the US. I don't screw around when welding. I wish I had a ventilation mask.

And welding thin sheet steel with .035 wire - that's surprising. I guess they are spot welding and need a good heavy lay of metal.

FYI - the welding stand seems common here in US. Go to Amazon.com and enter "welding cart". This one is a Grizzly unit. Good maker of power and shop tools here. Good cart - $100.

 

[Weber Sarge]

My first aluminum project when I got my Miller 200DX tig/stick unit was the cart -

I designed it this way so can be moved on a flight of stairs and still fit through a 28" door opening if necessary . Cart only weighs in at 45lbs and have upgraded to a 150 size tank since this photo .

Be warned , using tig on body panels is going to require an aluminum backer or purge box to trap the argon , otherwise you'll introduce oxygen to the back side of the weld/panel . Using dc pulse is great on thin stuff , just watch out for heat building as a tig can warp panels just as easy as a mig , if not worse .

Sarge

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

My first aluminum project when I got my Miller 200DX tig/stick unit was the cart -
View attachment 1161458
I designed it this way so can be moved on a flight of stairs and still fit through a 28" door opening if necessary . Cart only weighs in at 45lbs and have upgraded to a 150 size tank since this photo .

Be warned , using tig on body panels is going to require an aluminum backer or purge box to trap the argon , otherwise you'll introduce oxygen to the back side of the weld/panel . Using dc pulse is great on thin stuff , just watch out for heat building as a tig can warp panels just as easy as a mig , if not worse .

Sarge

That's really cool, but don't you have a winch for moving it upstairs