Youtube welding school pays off!

 

With a glorious sunny 52 degree day on Saturday I was thrilled to be able to open the garage door and seam weld the car. But after my disastrous attempt at welding the frame rails to the floor I decided I must have some help in the welding department.

I looked at taking a class at the college but the timing is not right to make that work. So the next best thing is a 2 minute youtube video right? LOL! Well it very effectively pointed out I was doing EVERYTHING wrong. The video was certainly helpful but as usual experience turned out to be the best teacher and this is what I learned at my 2nd attempt at welding:

1 it takes about 1/2 second to set the cardboard and blankets covering things on fire

2 if the weld is on fire as it cools you did not clean the seam well enough.
3 keep the air hose handy, it is great at putting out fires.
4 lack of hair on your left hand means welding gloves do not make you superman.
5 the video was right, if you weld for more than 1/2 a second or a 1/4 inch at a time you WILL burn a hole in the floor.
6 it takes more than 3 minutes for a weld to cool and if you sit on it you will fry your butt.
7 the air hose is much less effective at cooling a fired butt in coveralls than it is putting out a blanket on fire.

I think I am SLOWLY starting to get the hang of it!

If you don’t know what seam welding is I’ll explain it quick. All cars are spot welded or tack welded together and of course the manufactures try to use the least amount of welds as possible to hold the car together. So they leave gaps from 1 to 3 inches between the welds which is fine for puttin over to grandmas house but under high G loads on the track those spaces between welds flex and make the chassis mushy. The fix is easy you just weld between the factory welds and it firms things up. So here is a shot of the passenger side corner gusset before welding:

I put arrows to the little factory tack welds every inch or so around the gusset.

This is a shot of the drivers side after welding:

No my welds are still not pretty (yet) but this fully welded corner will not flex or move at all.

It would be too much work and not necessary to weld every single seam on the car but there are a number of key stress places that welding makes a big difference in the performance of the chassis. Even not doing the whole car it is still a huge job to remove the paint and seam sealer from the seams, weld them, then prime, seal and paint them again. By the time I am done I will have welded about 85 feet of seams on the car. Unfortunately I only got about 15 feet done and ran out of argon so my beautiful sunny day was missed. This is what a weld looks like with no gas:

Looks like a bunch of decayed teeth or something. The good news is there is NEVER any lack of things to do on the build! So with no welding gas I continued work on the rear end.

 

Over all it was an outstanding weekend but not for the car work. It was for the joy of blowing the roof off the church Easter Sunday with a kick butt worship band and exceptional preaching of the word. For sure the best weekend in the build and I hardly got anything done!

So I'll leave you with the words of a great song by Tim Huges we did yesterday to enjoy. This is the good Stuff!!

 

The greatest day in history, Death is beaten
You have rescued me
Sing it out Jesus is alive
The empty cross, The empty grave
Life eternal You have won the day
Shout it out Jesus is alive
He's alive

Oh happy day, happy day
You washed my sin away
Oh happy day, happy day
I'll never be the same
Forever I am changed

When I stand, in that place
Free at last, meeting face to face
I am Yours Jesus You are mine
Endless joy, perfect peace
Earthly pain finally will cease
Celebrate Jesus is alive
He's alive

Oh happy day, happy day
You washed my sin away
Oh happy day, happy day
I'll never be the same
Forever I am changed!