The frame segments are coming together, slowly but surely. I made a good bit of progress this weekend, though there’s not much visually interesting to share besides the handful of pictures I’ve posted in the image gallery. The best news is that I’ve gotten the side plates welded together on one of the two frame segments, and it looks like my plan for assembling everything is actually going to work out.
I’m happy to say that the viewing distance of my TIG welds at which they could be mistaken for “good” welds is decreasing, gradually. Six months ago it might have been 15 meters, obscuring the embezzlement of most of my “stack of dimes” (welder’s term for an evenly rippled, well-executed weld bead) by unknown parties invisibly shaking my torch hand. Today it’s more like 3 or 4 meters, enough for the eyes to glaze over the tiny pinprick holes that I occasionally find in my finished weld beads, a sign that I was less than thoroughly vigilant in grinding the scale, rust or other impurities off of the steel before welding. I’ve found that if the parts aren’t completely clean (including the edges!), you’ll hear the sizzling of burning oils and contaminants under the arc, and your weld puddle will bubble like soda. This is happening to me less often these days though; I feel like I’m getting the hang of it.
For a while, the sound of Mark Farver’s MR2 has been a topic of amusement. Not the shhhh sound during acceleration that’s characteristic of its 1000-amp Zilla motor controller, or the sounds of shock absorbers and other parts you don’t normally hear as clearly in a gas-powered car. These are common features of electric vehicles, ones that offer little remaining surprise or novelty. (Read on …)
I looks like the timing has worked out better than I’d thought. On Wednesday I belatedly ordered a set of Heim joints for the 4-link from the friendly folks at AED Motorsport, and happily they arrived today so I’ll be able to use them as spacers when I try to assemble the front mounts this weekend. (Read on …)
What I’d hoped to be a small task for the first part of the day ended up being an all-day affair, but I’m glad it’s done and I think it turned out well. You may recall having seen in previously-posted pictures of my plan drawing, a top hole in the suspension front mount that seemed to be separated from the others. It appeared to be separated because it actually wasn’t provided on the parts I had. In fact, I would need to add the piece of metal in which this extra hole would be drilled. The purpose of this hole and the reason it wasn’t provided end up being a nontrivial story. (Read on …)
Short post again, and again no pictures ready.
I’ve recently been cutting out the inside pieces, again with finish cutting generously provided by Erik Bigelow (huge thanks for the help!) who was able to make quick work of them this week.
In the meantime, I’ve also been working on some test welds of different varieties, the same sorts of welds I’ll have to do on the truck. With proper fitment, I’m now pretty confident that my TIG skills with 1/8″ stock are adequate for doing butt welds, lap joints, T-joint fillets and outside corners (that being the big one, since the frame rails will require long continuous welds of this type). The welds may not look terrific as one tends to expect from TIG, but I think they’ll be strong.
Finally for tonight, I have a happy product endorsement to make. After being dissatisfied with a wide variety of different options, I’ve finally found a product that really works for removing the dark grey mill scale from mild steel, which must be done prior to welding. Norton 3X Rapid Strip wheels for angle grinders are exactly what I’ve been looking for. Every other product I’ve tried so far has had a difficult time getting through this hard, low-friction coating, even stone grinding wheels; you can really feel the grinder start to pull when you finally hit steel and the grinder starts to dig in, indicating that you’re just wasting time grinding on the mill scale as the tool doesn’t want to bite. Not so with the Rapid Strip wheels. These bright blue abrasive coated mesh wheels (imagine a loosely woven Scotchbrite pad with abrasive glued to the fibers) bite in instantly, and have enough flexibility to conform to the surface and leave a bright, wide streak of perfectly clean steel, ready to weld. I have no idea how long they’ll last, and honestly I don’t think I care very much. The only downside is they don’t seem to be available without the threaded hub; I’d rather use my grinder’s clamp nut instead and avoid paying for the extra part.
This will be a short post, and unfortunately without pictures. I’ve been working at trying to form the strips to match the contour of the top and bottom edge of the side pieces, and in doing so I’ve realized that with the tools that I have, there is no way I will be able to achieve a perfectly straight bend (with the bend axis perfectly perpendicular to the strip itself), which would have been the advantage to forming them to the proper shape before attempting to attach them. (Read on …)