Biodiesel Piggie #2 Buildup (was Sad Sad day...)

[dieselcruiserhead]

No problem thanks Ken and I appreciate it, I defeinetely thought about it but I had thought enough about how I was planning / did do it that I think my plan is OK..

Nick those are some excellent examples, I have definetely seen those pics before.. I plan on something similar basically exactly as you describe.. With luck, if my friend forest is around tonight at the welding shop he works at, I'll cut out and do the plating tonight..


The good news is last night was the last night of our summer lacrosse league (we went all the way to finals, lost by two goals last night!) so this will open up a few more nights a week to get more work done, but the bad news is Burning Man is coming up in just a few weeks so not sure how much time extra $$ I'll have to put towards this for the short term, so i might be on a temporary hiatus, we'll see I guess... Anyway, as updates happen of course I will post.. andre

 

[PHAEDRUS]

Pretty welds suck dre,
Strong welds are where it is at. I like the scap blate idea, Possibly lapping on top and bottom of the frame in 1/4". Could be intersting.
Dave

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

OK guys, I did end up getting most of the plating done on Friday night.. I was on mud a few times over the weekend but did not get a chance to post yet so here it is...

First went over to the shop where a friend and local cruiserhead works which is a few miles away... He showed me how to use their iron worker which I used for both making the shears in the plate metal and punching holes in the plates for rosettes...

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

The total plates were:

- 4 plates 4" wide x 24" long for the top & bottom scab plates with 4 holes for rosettes
- 2 plates 24" long x 6" wide with 3 holes for rosettes (outside of frame)
- 2 plates 21" long x 6" wide for inside of frame (longest piece I could fit inside
- 8 gussets...

All 1/4" thick...

__________

Next, took the top and bottom plates, and the corners of the scab plates (the big long plates) and lopped off with plasma cutter...

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

This is a photo of the iron worker, the machine that did both the shearing of the steel and popped the holes in the plating.. Pretty neat, instant cut, instant hole punch.. Sorry photos a little out of focus...

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

These were the pieces left over from the top and bottom scab plates. Because in theory this should be the same angle as the side plates I welded on earlier, these pieces should work as gussets (once I remove excess material) and they did...

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

I also did some welding lessons with Forest (guy in pictures above, awesome guy and super friendly... I am going ot help him do his SOA with 60 axles when he is ready to do it as trade with him helping me with this). He has been a welder for something like 30 years and of course is an awesome fabricator.. We went over all sorts of welding techniques and he showed me how to take advantage of good techniques and what really makes a strong weld.. Sounds kind of dumb but I really wanted to make sure all the welds on this were my own mostly I guess cause of pride I suppose... Here are some of the different samples I did before I actually did any of the structural welds on the frame itself.. I also used the 1/4" setting for pretty much everything, including at the frame... The 1/8" frame material was actually pretty strong and held up fine to the higher heat.. Also interesting enough is that Forest for the most part uses a burn in straight type technique versus the swirling I have pretty much always been doing ealier.. So this is the technique I used for the frame plating.. I also learned a lot about push versus pulling technique and why you pretty much almost always push with Mig welding when I have been pulling now for years.. Forest stopped by around midnight to see how I was doing and inspected all of my welds and gave the thumbs up... They of course were not perfect but are very strong...

A couple of test welds:

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

By now it was close to about 11AM and I hadn't even started putting on the plates.. Took a lot longer to make the plates than I anticipated, about 3 hours in all but we took our time and again it was a neat expereience with all those badass tools.. Goal was to get it all done in one night so I was up pretty late on Fri night of course...

First, started grinding...

The next pictures showed my previous welds from the plates I welded on.. In all not that bad I thought, at least cosmetically...

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

then started putting on the plates... First put them on, then used a combo of heat, hammer, and clamps to get the scab plates to bend correctly and in the right places..

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

More...

You can see here I have plates on both sides in here, and everything basically tacked in plate to make sure I didn't screw up anywhere..

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

One more shot of roughly how I started out with the plates and would bend them.. Pretty cool how it all worked out I thought... In the end did it 4 times for each plate... Each took maybe 30 hour to about 45 minutes to put on and get bent up and tacked in place...

Once in place, burned in from the top. Then did the same side piece below me, so did the top outside, and the bottom inside, before rotating frame to other side...

You can also see what the purpose of the holes in the plates were, these are called rosettes and you use them as one more anchor point for welding to make sure the plate is in place and isn't flexing..

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

Then I burned everything in.. The frame itself got so hot that it took a good 1 hour at least before it was cool enough to touch.. Smoke was also pouring out of it from the powder coating from the inside sizzling away, pretty nasty smell that required decent ventilation...

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

Then I flipped the frame over and did the whole thing again...

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

Here is final product.. I put the top and bottom scab plates I made (1/4" thick again on the top and bottom and I did not like how they look.. Granted this would be a super beefy option but honestly with the gussets and everything in place I am not sure that I will need them. So at this point I am thinking I will probably leave exactly how it is on the top, and maybe use a thinner scab plate on the bottom (probably 1/8" - same thickness as the frame) so that it cosmetically looks a little better though I don't mind showing that there was a frame cut (which a bottom plate would hide once covered) because the job I did I think looks good enough. Another thought is that I might put another cross member in at the rear of the two inside scab plates, connecting them, something with a dip for the rear driveshaft (similar to what you posted earlier USM / Nick) and that will add some strength to it too.. Bottom line though is that this is beefy and I am pleased pretty with it.. Here are two last photos all cleaned up with the wirewheel...

 

[Bennett]

Looks good for a guy welding in short pants...

 

[PHAEDRUS]

Well Andre,
I think you can safely say that the weakest point of that frame is now not where you made the splice, Good work and get back to it!!
Dave

 

[lowtideride]

lookin good brotha...


So whats your plans for making the the body mounts on the frame?

Measure the old fame and make the mounts from measurments off the old frame or postion the body over the frame and make mounts to it that way??

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

thanks Dave....

Mr Lowridetide / Al basically the plan is to do it by scratch, because the FJ80 frame is significantly wider in the rear.. So I am going to have to move or fab up new body mounts on both the frame and the body of the piggie... I wish it were that simple! I'll post up some pics when I get home either tomorrow or Mon..

Otherwise when I did all that welding, my carharts finally crapped out so I made some other work pants into shorts.. And ended up sunburning myself badly from the welder, I have never done that before.. It is peeling and all, so for Berg here is a pic

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

OK some more updates!

The frame cut was a big level to progress so it means we can now attempt to get the body on the frame... So, I started prepping everything to bolt back together.. Did one more coat of paint on the axles, painted up the links, and painted sections of the frame that will be tough to paint when bolted up.. It is not too much work to remove axles but I figure when I tear it all down again to paint the frame (after body and engine and trans mounts are in place) then I can paint it as a rolling chassis....


First, I LOVE this paint.. Zerorust.. It thins with zylene, like a bed liner type material, so my thought on it is that it is sort of like a bed liner without the rubberization or something like it.. It leaves a hard plastic coating that is very tough to penetrate, sort of like a powdercoating almost except that you stray it on. Also again when you do the math, it is super cheap, $58 a gallon but all of this paint (three coats on the axles, two on the links, and quite a bit on the frame where there are two coats, all less than a 1/2 gallon.. cheaper than rattle cans!

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

More photos, my paint "booth," painting the frame where it will be tough to when I have the springs / axles in place. Two coats. Another closeup of the paint when it first dried. Takes about 3 weeks to fully harden supposedly...