Think most Okies dream of living in mountains. Did it for 10 years now back home but still love the mountains.
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- Thread starter
- #22
You're not raining on my parade @Augustiron - it's literally comments like this that I'm here for. I wire-wheeled for about 3 hours today and about 98% of the frame is in good shape, really solid. The portion with the patch, which is on the right main chassis beam is easily the worst of it. This section is also bad on the left beam in the same place. Not sure what caused this area to be hit so hard when a few inches ahead and behind are solid (or appear so). In any case I'll take it down to bare metal and assess.
What does a fix look like in your eyes? Remove the entire chassis sidewall and weld in top to bottom plate?
Cut the cancer out and replace with new metal with quality welds, reinforce as needed.
How to accomplish that depends on your skills and tools or visa card.
That slab welded on there is not the way.
How to accomplish that depends on your skills and tools or visa card.
That slab welded on there is not the way.
- Thread starter
- #24
Spent another couple hours wire wheeling and stripping. The frame overall is in good condition, which got me thinking about why the rust was concentrated in that one area. Then I jacked up the front to take the front tires off to start assessing the knuckles and it became very obvious. Any water that entered inside the chassis (rain, snowmelt or whatever) would naturally collect at just that spot if the vehicle was angled slightly uphill, as the chassis jogs sharply upward over the rear axle at that point.
Anyway, I cut out the rot and blew out the interior with compressed air. The sidewalls seemed to be fine except in the area I removed, wall thickness roughly 4-5mm. The slab patch is 6mm.
I'm going to weld a patch back in. I don't see much point in removing the existing patch - it's good steel and welded to good steel. My plan was just to fill in the hole I've cut. The bottom of the chassis is much thicker than it would appear in this photo. I'm going to add a couple weep holes to try to prevent this from happening again.
So, question for the forum - is there an appropriate type of steel for this application, or will whatever I get out of the scrap bin work?
Anyway, I cut out the rot and blew out the interior with compressed air. The sidewalls seemed to be fine except in the area I removed, wall thickness roughly 4-5mm. The slab patch is 6mm.
I'm going to weld a patch back in. I don't see much point in removing the existing patch - it's good steel and welded to good steel. My plan was just to fill in the hole I've cut. The bottom of the chassis is much thicker than it would appear in this photo. I'm going to add a couple weep holes to try to prevent this from happening again.
So, question for the forum - is there an appropriate type of steel for this application, or will whatever I get out of the scrap bin work?
You should practice on some scrap before you get too far into that frame.
Tell us about your welding setup.
Tell us about your welding setup.
- Thread starter
- #28
You're not kidding. Subscribe, this build thread will be full of such hilarity.
In actuality I did practice on some scraps of similar thickness, until I felt comfortable. But...it came out a lot better on the table than it did on the frame. I think the vertical orientation had something to do with it, and I also wasn't getting a very good ground - had to grind a fresh shiny patch in a new spot for the clamp. That helped.
The setup:
Lincoln Weld-Pak 140 HD, 120V
.035" Inner Shield wire
I varied the feed rate and amperage a bit after starting with whatever the chart recommended - was getting a lot of splatter. It got better as I went.
The patch thickness is 1/8", the wall thickness of the frame there was 1/8" to 3/16" or so.
Tomorrow I'm going to tackle the patch to the right of what's pictured with some 1/4" material (this is directly above the spring perch). I've practiced a bit on 1/4" and the welder can handle it if I go slowly (but only just).
I'm here to learn, so fire away with the comments, or just laugh at me, all good.
Right off the bat, welding gas is going to be a tremendous help.
Back your welds with a piece of copper, it will help dissipate some heat, and help keep your puddle from blowing out the back. Hammer a short piece of copper pipe flat.....
Somewhere down my thread in the first part when I was welding body panels I posted a long list of tips that I got from a fellow mudder here. It was a huge help.
If I have time tomorrow I'll try to find it.
Back your welds with a piece of copper, it will help dissipate some heat, and help keep your puddle from blowing out the back. Hammer a short piece of copper pipe flat.....
Somewhere down my thread in the first part when I was welding body panels I posted a long list of tips that I got from a fellow mudder here. It was a huge help.
If I have time tomorrow I'll try to find it.
FWIW, I'm not a welder, not even close. I'm like you, just wanted to fix my junk.
At 1st you dont need to practice welding seams, you can run beads on flat steel. Try Cursive e's, or maybe u's. Watch your puddle and penetration. Then progress to seams. Then practice vertical welding on scrap.
Play with heat and wire feed. I'm not a welder either but can get by.
Play with heat and wire feed. I'm not a welder either but can get by.
It is my opinion that you will never get great results with flux cored wire in a MIG.
I'd rather stick weld than flux core
Also the Lincoln 140 is not really big enough to weld the thickness of the frame, I've had a similar machine for a long time and it is great for thin sheet metal, but it cannot really weld 1/8" thickness or more, Sure, it will lay a bead on there, but it lacks penetration.
I'd rather stick weld than flux core
Also the Lincoln 140 is not really big enough to weld the thickness of the frame, I've had a similar machine for a long time and it is great for thin sheet metal, but it cannot really weld 1/8" thickness or more, Sure, it will lay a bead on there, but it lacks penetration.
- Thread starter
- #33
Thanks all, that's helpful. I'll do some more testing tomorrow. @Augustiron you're not wrong about penetration, I have to really go slow and let it heat up to get all the way through anything over 1/8". The machine literature claims it can handle 1/4" at max settings with 35 mil wire, so I'll do some practice runs with 1/4" seams and see how it goes. In theory I don't mind taking it to someone with a stouter setup but really I think I want to do it all myself. No doubt I'm running some risks considering the spring perch location.
As long as you never use the full specs capacity of 11 people in the troopy maybe you will be fine
Rated capacity is always done with bright new clean materials in ideal conditions by pro's. +1 for backing, pre-heat will help and gas of some kind. Not a welder either.
In the pic that is #26, that patch on the left 2x6 when finished out and ground flat could be backing for a larger plate
In the pic that is #26, that patch on the left 2x6 when finished out and ground flat could be backing for a larger plate
- Thread starter
- #37
Yeah, that's a good idea actually, I might do that.
What do you make of all those holes? I thought they were random when I first looked at them but they are mirrored exactly on the other side.
50 years of PO's could be anything, lighting for spotting, brackets for flaps, steps, rock sliders. frame lightening ....
- Thread starter
- #39
Well, after some events in my personal life shortly after my last post derailed progress for most of December, I have resumed work.
Regarding the frame welding, that's on hold for a couple unrelated reasons which I'll go into in a later post. I moved on to rebuilding the knuckles.
The truck had been parked with the differentials removed and a spare inspection cover in place in the front axle; the rear axle housing was left open and I could see the ends of the axles poking out:
Not so the front axle. I removed the hub only to find myself staring into a dark cavity - no axle shaft or birfield inside:
I removed the inspection cover in the front. While the condition of the interior of the axle housing was a lot better, definitely no inner axles in there.
Regarding the frame welding, that's on hold for a couple unrelated reasons which I'll go into in a later post. I moved on to rebuilding the knuckles.
The truck had been parked with the differentials removed and a spare inspection cover in place in the front axle; the rear axle housing was left open and I could see the ends of the axles poking out:
Not so the front axle. I removed the hub only to find myself staring into a dark cavity - no axle shaft or birfield inside:
I removed the inspection cover in the front. While the condition of the interior of the axle housing was a lot better, definitely no inner axles in there.
- Thread starter
- #40
While I tried to find replacement axles & birfs I continued on with the knuckles. The knuckle ball was very rusty and pitted.
I cleaned it up and applied a very thin layer of JB Weld over the whole thing and sanded it smooth. I had to do this twice to fix the defined groove at the back where the seals met the ball and the corrosion was worst.
The rest of the removable parts got cleaned up, primed and painted.
I cleaned it up and applied a very thin layer of JB Weld over the whole thing and sanded it smooth. I had to do this twice to fix the defined groove at the back where the seals met the ball and the corrosion was worst.
The rest of the removable parts got cleaned up, primed and painted.