PabloCruise
SILVER Star
Georg is the man!
I got to meet him in person at Cruise Moab this year. I thanked him for going through @gonzopancho H55/split case that are now installed in my Pig.
Builds A pig for Father's Day (3 Viewers)
- Thread starter WarDamnEagle
- Start date
This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.
I got to meet him in person at Cruise Moab this year. I thanked him for going through @gonzopancho H55/split case that are now installed in my Pig.
RUSH55
SILVER Star
That’s cool! Meeting an LC celebrity
Hopefully all that fame hasn’t gone to his head?
Yeah, but when you get that shiny new frame the euphoria kicks in and you want to do something with it…
WarDamnEagle
SILVER Star
- Thread starter
- #1,044
Exactly. Like run some brake lines up the passenger side. And install some springs, and axles, and….
PabloCruise
SILVER Star
No way, Georg is straight up!That’s cool! Meeting an LC celebrity
Hopefully all that fame hasn’t gone to his head?
WarDamnEagle
SILVER Star
- Thread starter
- #1,046
Got home last night from a 3 day, 1850 mile trip to pick up the frame from chemical cleaning and get it e coated. Although it was a total pain logistically, I couldn't be happier with the outcome. I also couldn't be happier with the two businesses that I used: American Metal Cleaning in Toledo, Ohio and Lippert Components (Coating) in Elkhart, Indiana; two very different businesses. American Metal Cleaning is a small mom and pop shop but they are very good at what they do. Lippert is a huge company but I found this particular plant to be very customer focused. They treated me like I was running stuff through their plant all the time. Highly recommended if anyone wants to go this route on their frame or body or anything in between. Snapped photos of a 1967 Jag body that was being picked up the same day and some maybe late '60s or early '70s convertible? The guy didn't happen to know what it was. My WAG would be something like a 1970 Pontiac GTO convertible.
I drove north of Cincinnati Monday and then picked up the frame Tuesday morning around 9, drove 2 hours to the e Coat plant, and then on to my sons in Highland, Indiana which is about 90 miles away; very near Chicago. They said they would put the frame and other parts straight into the plant. True to their word, I left the Lippert facility the next morning (yesterday) at around 8:15 am with everything.
Pretty sure my next step will be to have everything that I had e coated, powder coated. The e coating is a very robust, baked on epoxy primer but you can see that there's a lot of variability in the finish sheen. It really needs either paint or powder on top to get everything to a universal sheen. Lippert does top coat and powder coating at this facility but that would have taken several days and I thought it was easy enough to get that done locally. There were stacks and stacks of box frame trailers going through this plant. They come in as clean, raw steel and leave e coated and powder coated.
I had American metal cleaning do several other pieces, mostly heat shields, that I didn't have e coated. Plan is to go with high temp paint on those components.
Cleaned and derusted frame. They spray a water soluble rust inhibitor on everything to prevent flash rusting. According to Lippert it's compatible with their aqueous epoxy system so the components can go straight into the plant without additional prep.
e Coated frame:
'67 Jag and ??
I drove north of Cincinnati Monday and then picked up the frame Tuesday morning around 9, drove 2 hours to the e Coat plant, and then on to my sons in Highland, Indiana which is about 90 miles away; very near Chicago. They said they would put the frame and other parts straight into the plant. True to their word, I left the Lippert facility the next morning (yesterday) at around 8:15 am with everything.
Pretty sure my next step will be to have everything that I had e coated, powder coated. The e coating is a very robust, baked on epoxy primer but you can see that there's a lot of variability in the finish sheen. It really needs either paint or powder on top to get everything to a universal sheen. Lippert does top coat and powder coating at this facility but that would have taken several days and I thought it was easy enough to get that done locally. There were stacks and stacks of box frame trailers going through this plant. They come in as clean, raw steel and leave e coated and powder coated.
I had American metal cleaning do several other pieces, mostly heat shields, that I didn't have e coated. Plan is to go with high temp paint on those components.
Cleaned and derusted frame. They spray a water soluble rust inhibitor on everything to prevent flash rusting. According to Lippert it's compatible with their aqueous epoxy system so the components can go straight into the plant without additional prep.
e Coated frame:
'67 Jag and ??
WarDamnEagle
SILVER Star
- Thread starter
- #1,047
Photos of the components that I only had cleaned and the other parts I had cleaned and e coated. I tried to get all the major components that bolt onto the frame cleaned and e coated. Thinking I might powder coat the engine heat shields black as I don't think they get that hot and then paint the ones further back on the exhaust with some type of silver/gray, high temp paint. I think we concluded earlier that they were probably galvanized from the factory.
RUSH55
SILVER Star
This is saving you a ton of time
And they look great too
WarDamnEagle
SILVER Star
- Thread starter
- #1,050
Sometimes it's the little things.
d
d
RUSH55
SILVER Star
Going with the 70 series rear springs?
WarDamnEagle
SILVER Star
- Thread starter
- #1,052
Staying with them. PO had them installed. I need to refurbish them a bit and I am considering removing one rear leaf. Stance is slightly stink bug and I will not be carrying much cargo typically.
They had them bolted on with regular SAE bolts with about an 1" of extra thread showing. Those are grade 12.9 M10-1.25 bolts and grade 10 flange nuts. I had to drill the frame holes out slightly to 10 mm so everything is very tight. Since it's going into a powder coat oven, I didn't think nylon lock nuts would hold up; thus the welds. I torqued them to 60 ft-lb first. It should all blend in well once it's powder coated. I did have to stop myself from asking the welder to fill in the allen head holes. Maybe I'm maturing a bit in my old age?
Speaking of powder coating, I'm going with a 55% gloss satin black. Pretty sure OEM was a bit glossier but I think a little less gloss will look better on a 49 yo frame.
bobm
WTF, WTF, WTF!!!!
Smart move on Nylocks, they wont take 400° 
. They will melt 
. They will melt 
How do you feel about welding on an hard alloy bolt?Smart move on Nylocks, they wont take 400°
I like the "Distorted-Thread Locknuts" for applications like this..
We were just talking about those for my header collector bolts. I'm going to try the Stage 8 fasteners first.
I've use them on several cars with headers and they work great with the Remflex gaskets but I still use standard flange bolts with flange distorted-thread locknuts on the collectors often without any issues...
WarDamnEagle
SILVER Star
- Thread starter
- #1,057
You make a good point but it's not just hard alloy bolts, it's basically any bolt. Every situation is different and exact literature is hard to find but most references mention reduction of tensile strength of anywhere from 20% to 50%. With that bolt and nut, even a 50% reduction in tensile strength results in a tensile strength higher than any solid, steel rivet of that approximate size that I can find.
Fully agree it's far from best practice but I'm not overly worried for this application.
Can You Weld Hardened Steel? Here’s What to Know
Do you want to know if welding hardened steel is possible? In this article, we’ll explore the various types, methods, precautions, benefits, and common challenges. Dive in and learn more!
whatiswelding.com
I wouldn't be overly worried but I wanted to point out the risk of welding alloy hardware.
Cracking After Welding
Hardened steel can crack due to rapid cooling. Look for visible cracks. To prevent this, preheat to 400°F (204°C) and control the cooling rate.
I love learning new stuff like this. 
WarDamnEagle
SILVER Star
- Thread starter
- #1,060
After 40 years in the chemical industry I am well aware of the importance of proper welding procedures. I can't ever recall a discussion around hardened steel but I have probably seen just about every exotic material you can imagine from normal 316L to Hastelloy C276 and everything in between. To be honest though, I didn't give a tack weld on those bolts a second thought. Guess I really am retired. 
Sort of a funny story, we were experiencing stress corrosion cracking in some 1.3 million gallon, double wall, stainless tanks and nobody could figure out why it was occurring. This was when I was a young project engineer straight out of college. It was being picked up on the welding radiographs. Turns out the welders were peeing in the tank instead of coming out and the salt content of the urine was just enough to cause the issue in a heat affected zone. These things were something like 30' tall and 50' in diameter so they had a pretty long climb every time they wanted or needed to get out. The issue was solved by lowering a portolet inside.
Sort of a funny story, we were experiencing stress corrosion cracking in some 1.3 million gallon, double wall, stainless tanks and nobody could figure out why it was occurring. This was when I was a young project engineer straight out of college. It was being picked up on the welding radiographs. Turns out the welders were peeing in the tank instead of coming out and the salt content of the urine was just enough to cause the issue in a heat affected zone. These things were something like 30' tall and 50' in diameter so they had a pretty long climb every time they wanted or needed to get out. The issue was solved by lowering a portolet inside.
