Targa project.... WARNING NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART.
05-22-2011, 10:46 PM
#153
Nordschleife Master
Thread Starter
Lot's o progress this weekend!
I finally finished the cart and was able to get the car on the thing with the help of my son who described it as a really big JENGA game (stacking wood in the front to get it up high enough).
The cart works well, pretty easy to move around. I was going to add additional braces to the front but it seems that the front is very stable as is.... It was nice to move it out to clean underneath which hasn't been done since it first came into the garage. The height is about right; no more hunching down. It's also nice that at the end of the day I can shove it up against the wall to give a little more room in the garage for the daily driver.
I did do a little real car work today too, finishing up the fender flares. It was interesting to do. I had to hammer and dolly some of the areas to smooth out the butt weld. The weld went through very nice (photo #9 from the inside) I'm happy with the results.
And one final shot of the pups. Now it's dinner time!
I finally finished the cart and was able to get the car on the thing with the help of my son who described it as a really big JENGA game (stacking wood in the front to get it up high enough).
The cart works well, pretty easy to move around. I was going to add additional braces to the front but it seems that the front is very stable as is.... It was nice to move it out to clean underneath which hasn't been done since it first came into the garage. The height is about right; no more hunching down. It's also nice that at the end of the day I can shove it up against the wall to give a little more room in the garage for the daily driver.
I did do a little real car work today too, finishing up the fender flares. It was interesting to do. I had to hammer and dolly some of the areas to smooth out the butt weld. The weld went through very nice (photo #9 from the inside) I'm happy with the results.
And one final shot of the pups. Now it's dinner time!
05-23-2011, 12:41 AM
#155
Rennlist Member
I stumbled across this project and I'm completely impressed with your motivation and drive. Very nice balance between your family and p-car passion. I've been a wood craftsman most my life and just recently have become intrigued with metal work and welding. I'll be following your progress with much interest and hope to learn from it.
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05-23-2011, 01:22 AM
#156
Nordschleife Master
Thread Starter
Never say Nah...
Thanks! Yes for some reason I've decided to fill my plate more than ever before. Metal work is very satisfying. There's so much you can do with metal, and it's such forgiving material.
I stumbled across this project and I'm completely impressed with your motivation and drive. Very nice balance between your family and p-car passion. I've been a wood craftsman most my life and just recently have become intrigued with metal work and welding. I'll be following your progress with much interest and hope to learn from it.
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05-25-2011, 01:34 AM
#157
Nordschleife Master
Thread Starter
I've added info that I too an unnamed Rennlister which added additional information to last weekends work...
I spot welded (with a Hobart Handler MIG) about every three inches or so to make sure that I lined up the flare right. I made sure that the ends were right and pushed and slide it until the metal butted up against each other without and real tension (to avoid warping from any tension). Initially I laid the flares onto the car and used a small sharpie to outline the cut, but when installing the flares there were areas that didn't jive right, having small overlaps etc. The way I fixed that was by clamping the flare onto the car and running a high speed airsaw (looks like a jigsaw, and is an awesome to BTW, $24 at HF I think?) between the two pieces of metal. After everything was lined up I spot welded spots in rapid succession to avoid blow through. If I held the button too long it would burn through (using .030 at 30-35 feed on #2V of my Hobart welder) One important part was to make sure that the two pieces were inline with each other or in other words, flat, not peaking or making a "V" if it does, when you go to grind out the weld you'll end up making the sheet metal on the sides onion peel thick. If you do "V" the metal it's fixable by hammering out the "V" with the hammer and dolly.
The only time I use the looping method is on the cart, the sheet metal on the car is too thin for my welder and wire.
See above.
Ha! once you get into it it'll be all you're thinking about.
I was going to do that and probably will but after getting the car on it and shaking it around it really deoesn't even shimmy. Also it's not extremely heavy either, if it's not in the right position I can pick up either the front or rear and move it to the side.... It is cantilevered due to the location of the cart wheels but still it's pretty light. I'll put some angled bars that go to the rear from the top. The front of the cart is tapered inwards and those angles will cover two directions of force.
Yeah I agree, that was my intentions but passed on them, I didn't even trim the upper horizontal beams. I'll most likely do it when I'm poking around after another part of the project.
I'll have to look it up I can't remember. It cost $121 for 2 20' tubes (cut into 10' each)
I figure if I need to I'll modify this into a rotisserie, as it stands I have a long ways to go before I need one.
I recently built my first custom tool with my welder, a brake piston puller. Was doing brake work on our Ferrari Dino. All I wanted to do was change front pads, but taking out the old pads, I found the original dust boots torn open. Crazy design, but to replace the dust boots you've got to pop out the pistons. They're dual piston calipers so once one piston pops using the brake pedal the second had to be pulled out some other way. No problem... welded together a little puller thingy with a long screw that I had laying around. Worked like a charm. It's these kind of solutions that I'm happy I can tackle on my own, now that I can "glue" metal. When you don't have the proper tool, don't forget that you may be able to make one. I was sitting there wondering what the hell I was going to do, when finally the light bulb flashed on. LOL
More good luck with the Targa.
X
That's pretty sweet. Metal is really a great material. The wife wants rose trellisis (SP?) and I'm thinking of building a nice frame (with cover) for a BBQ kitchen area in the back yard.
Get working on that Bugatti! I might post this email to add to the thread since we really detailed a lot of the work that I was too lazy to write about.
Ed
Originally Posted by Eharrison
Originally Posted by Mr.X
You've done more in a couple months than I've done in two years on my Camaro.
About welding on those flares. Are those welds all quick spots with the MIG? Brett
or are some of them continuous?
About welding on those flares. Are those welds all quick spots with the MIG? Brett
or are some of them continuous?
Originally Posted by Mr.X
If continuous do you use a looping motion or drag straight.
Initially I had to remove some spot welds and realign the flare since it wasn't fitting right. The best thing to start with is small spots and tack it on all the way around. Don't comprimise on the fit and use the airsaw to cut the welds if you want to remove the spot weld.
Initially I had to remove some spot welds and realign the flare since it wasn't fitting right. The best thing to start with is small spots and tack it on all the way around. Don't comprimise on the fit and use the airsaw to cut the welds if you want to remove the spot weld.
Originally Posted by Mr.X
I know you don't want to weld continuously for any distance to avoid warping, but what was your exact technique that worked well for you?
Originally Posted by Mr.X
Thanks. I appreciate your help. I'll be facing some patchwork soon. (By soon, I mean sometime within the next ten years. LOL)
Originally Posted by Mr.x
Also, about the front of your cart. I would like to see some braces on those two uprights. You probably still have the scrap tubing around. At the very least, some triangular gusset plates would make me feel better.
Originally Posted by Mr.x
And maybe some gusset plates on the flat bars up top that are bolted to the front crossmember mounts.
Originally Posted by Mr. X
What gauge tubing did you use for the cart?
Originally Posted by Mr.X
I'm debating whether my ElCamino needs to go on a cart/rotisserie. I'm thinking I really should scrape and fully re-protect the underside, which a rotisserie would make so much easier.
Originally Posted by Mr. X
I recently built my first custom tool with my welder, a brake piston puller. Was doing brake work on our Ferrari Dino. All I wanted to do was change front pads, but taking out the old pads, I found the original dust boots torn open. Crazy design, but to replace the dust boots you've got to pop out the pistons. They're dual piston calipers so once one piston pops using the brake pedal the second had to be pulled out some other way. No problem... welded together a little puller thingy with a long screw that I had laying around. Worked like a charm. It's these kind of solutions that I'm happy I can tackle on my own, now that I can "glue" metal. When you don't have the proper tool, don't forget that you may be able to make one. I was sitting there wondering what the hell I was going to do, when finally the light bulb flashed on. LOL
More good luck with the Targa.
X
That's pretty sweet. Metal is really a great material. The wife wants rose trellisis (SP?) and I'm thinking of building a nice frame (with cover) for a BBQ kitchen area in the back yard.
Get working on that Bugatti! I might post this email to add to the thread since we really detailed a lot of the work that I was too lazy to write about.
Ed
05-30-2011, 09:59 PM
#158
Nordschleife Master
Thread Starter
Oh my...where to start. Seems like I did a lot this weekend. 1. Primered the exposed metal.
2. Worked on the long dreaded front suspension (which came with a surprise).
3. Popped the rear shock mount out (what?, yeah popped it back into place, more on that later).
So after waking up on Saturday to morning rain, I figured it wouild be best to primer the expsed metal. I was starting to get flash rusting on the sanded areas (in addition to the rust from my wife spraying the car while washing hers in the driveway!). So I primered the bumper and rear area where the new fender flares where attached. I will use some filler to clean up the fenders. The wifey was concerned that I was not only putting on the paint, but leaving the fenders the way they were. I assured her that this was only the primer (PPG). Filler and real paint are on the check list! Yes the fenders look bad but wait for the first filler then it'll look better! the primer was to make sure I stop any more corrosion. There's a lot more body work to be done. The bumper turned out not too bad. I would say $60 well spent (or was it $75?)....Anyways
Last edited by Eharrison; 05-30-2011 at 10:51 PM.
05-30-2011, 10:02 PM
#159
Nordschleife Master
Thread Starter
So two big issues showed up this weekend. One was that I had a suspicion that the car had a front left repair done on the corner. I thought this since the battery box was pretty beat up and there were some bead welds on the front. Well after wire wheeling a bunch of areas to get to the metal. I realized that the front suspension pan has been replaced before! (OMG I'd never drive a car with a replaced suspension pan!)
So here's photos of the front...
Picture #1 shows the replacement connection from the original to the fix.... Looks like a lap weld to me.
In Picture #3 you can see the free flowing shapes that the corner is left in. No biggie, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to want to go with a donor corner from some sorry(er) 911.
In Picture #4 you can see that they repaired the left lateral gas tank support buy over laying a piece of metal on top of the support.... Which I'm sure speed up any rust proliferation since it trapped the moisture.
Pictures #7 & 8 are the spot welds cut out of the later gas tank support. The remainder is seam welded thanks to the previous repair.....
)So here's photos of the front...
Picture #1 shows the replacement connection from the original to the fix.... Looks like a lap weld to me.
In Picture #3 you can see the free flowing shapes that the corner is left in. No biggie, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to want to go with a donor corner from some sorry(er) 911.
In Picture #4 you can see that they repaired the left lateral gas tank support buy over laying a piece of metal on top of the support.... Which I'm sure speed up any rust proliferation since it trapped the moisture.
Pictures #7 & 8 are the spot welds cut out of the later gas tank support. The remainder is seam welded thanks to the previous repair.....
05-30-2011, 10:22 PM
#160
Nordschleife Master
Thread Starter
My final project this week end was to fix the right rear shock mount that was pushed in..... How it was pushed in is beyond me. But after an email with a fellow lister who was discussing making their own tools for special projects and thinking about that topic for a few days, while on the way to the grocery store I thought about the shock and made a quick trip to Home Depot. I picked up a 3/4" bolt two washers and an end cap to a 3" pipe. I drilled a hole in the end cap and made a pseudo puller out of the parts. I used a healthy amount of lithium grease between the bolt and washers to reduce teh amount of friction when pulling the part. Which turned out to be a good idea since the amount of effort to wrench was HUGE! Photos as seen below....
I need to weld the top back on since it partially separated from the cap... I'll wait since I'm not sure which type of suspension will be going on the car and what type of renforcements I'll need to add.
I need to weld the top back on since it partially separated from the cap... I'll wait since I'm not sure which type of suspension will be going on the car and what type of renforcements I'll need to add.
06-13-2011, 12:27 AM
#165
Nordschleife Master
Thread Starter
Just a little work this weekend. I had a fair amount of house repair... Started with recaulking the shower in the master bath... Easy enough, until I went to take a shower in the guest room and found out the temp control valve was not working..... So one job turned into two...
Anyhow, picked up some Evercoat Rage Extreme bodyfiller to take car of the fender flares and smooth out the front bumper. I'm 80% done on the sanding. I need to apply one 0.5mm coat in a couple spots where you can't see anything but when you close your eyes and rub across the filler, you can feel it (That's what she said). So little more sanding and another coat of primer to cover it all up. It came out pretty darn nice too if I can say that myself.
Anyhow, picked up some Evercoat Rage Extreme bodyfiller to take car of the fender flares and smooth out the front bumper. I'm 80% done on the sanding. I need to apply one 0.5mm coat in a couple spots where you can't see anything but when you close your eyes and rub across the filler, you can feel it (That's what she said). So little more sanding and another coat of primer to cover it all up. It came out pretty darn nice too if I can say that myself.