Mr. G. Brettin's Slow Motion Leg Hump

Rusty

Yea..........................................you need some practice tig welding aluminum. Your welds look like someone blew their nose and snot came out and stuck to your metal. Don't expect it over night. It's going some time. Did you weld it on AC with argon gas?

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gbrettin

Welds were done with AC and Argon.

Yeah man, the square stock and angle stock came out good enough, it penetrated.

The flat stock was atrocious.

End of the day, it was still worth a try. It 100 percent makes me appreciate good welds. It's an art.

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Rusty

It takes time and practice. If I had to tig aluminum right now. It would take me a day to get comfortable again doing it.

For aluminum. I use a mig gun at home. I have a Lincoln 180 Pro with the aluminum mig gun. I want a Lincoln Precision TIG 225 with a water cooled torch. Welding aluminum, the torch gets FVCKIN' HOT!

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gbrettin

HOLY CRAP! I couldn't believe the heat needed to melt the aluminum. The entire aluminum stock was crazy hot. Aluminum melts at something like 1300? So maybe I'm not that surprised. It's really intense sitting there getting it done.

Rusty

Cover up when welding. A weld burn is worse then a sunburn. Aluminum reflects a lot of UV light. When I worked at Fruehauf. We use to rub suntan lotion on the back of our necks and the ears to keep from getting burnt from reflected light. Our safety glasses was a #2 tint to help with welding flash. Hope you never get that. It feels like someone had thrown a bucket of sand in each eye.

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gbrettin

Wow, I found out why my last welds went from bad to impossible. The argon gas ran out... So yeah, that was a problem. I was getting so pissed at the end because I kept taking off the part, cleaning the metal, cleaning the tungsten, lightly grinding the metal and putting it back on just to keep shooting Zeus's lighting bolts at the flat stock murdering what I had JUST cleaned up.

The more you know.

ORB fittings for the valve breathers were at the shop for over a week. Pretty cool... Those were put on and it was very gratifying, and it was such a simple thing too. Probably because the breather system is a completed system where as everything else is in the middle of incomplete. Best part was, that it was really simple to do. I needed that. Easy wins are welcomed every now and then.

After that, the arts and crafts has begun for the air box. I'm starting with paper because it's cheap and easy. The sheets of aluminum I bought were 30 dollars a piece... maybe 25. Something like that. Point being... I don't feel like buying a whole bunch due to mistakes OR trying to flatten out a mistake.

After everything is cut to shape (and figured out), the aluminum sheet will go on the underside of the flat stock. I'll then drill holes and rivet the aluminum together. The sides of the box will be held down with threaded rivets and screws. Well... that's what I'm thinking so far. Sometimes things change as I'm doing it.

Rusty

Metal gets $$$$$$ quick. Try pricing a sheet of 8'x4', 12ga. 316, 2B stainless..................$800.00. Someone wants me to do a project for them. Once I add up the material. I think they will change they mind.

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TheGreyZ

To add a comment to the aluminum welding. The running out of argon will definitly make a difference, but It looks like you are also doing a horrible job on cleaning the part. There's the stock stickers still on some of the pieces and adhesive under one of the welds. You need to actually clean it, with a wirebrush or abrasive that has not been used on stainless or mild steel. Then you need to scrub it with acetone or some type of aluminum degreaser.

It also looks like you are using too large of a filler wire maybe. Thats the only thing I can come up with for those globs. For aluminum the filler should basically be melted and jump to the puddle, if you are having to plunge it into the puddle you have too large of a filler.

gbrettin

The bar stock with the square stock wasn't cleaned, it was fresh metal from the store. I found out later it should be cleaned with acetone no matter what. As for the globs, I 100% used a SH1T load of filler. I talked with my buddy on getting that reduced and how to work the pedal properly while doing the weld.

My need of getting it done way out paced my skill set there. I'm ok with the glob welds considering where the bar is located. I think I'm going to cut the flat stock off and re do the section from the front of the radiator to the angle stock.

Honestly, It's all learning to me and there have certainly been lessons learned. I'll get there, it just will be a bit painful off the get. The good news is that the aluminum stock used there wasn't terrible expensive.

Thanks for the feed back man! Good to see a new name on the thread.

Rusty

Also when wire brushing aluminum. Use a stainless steel wire brush. Use it for aluminum only. If you use a carbon steel brush. It will leave rust marks in the aluminum after a few days. If you use a stainless steel brush that has been used on a different metal. It too will leave rust marks. The particles from the brush will imbed into the aluminum. That what causes the rust.

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gbrettin

IG@gbrettin

Re-do on the box frame. Used new aluminum that is wider and actually cleaned it properly with acetone this time. Most importantly, the weld was done with a full tank of argon as apposed to the tank running out. I couldn't figure out why my welds were not working at all last time. The more you know.

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gbrettin

I can't say last night was incredible productive. As always, something is better than nothing. I put the front clip on to get some measurements of the bottom of the tray and transferred the dimension to paper. Seeing the paper stock on the car helps visually so much. The paper cut out ended up being exactly the right measurement to the bottom of the bumper; but, I noticed rivnuts can be used to fasten the sheet if I extend the aluminum/paper 1". Actually, I may extend it a bit more than that so I can fold the metal back onto its self for strength. .... I need to look that up to see if that's a thing.

For grins, the A2W intercoolers were set in the position to mate up with the turbos and intake plenum. They fit perfectly there as an option. I might angle them upwards towards the plenum later. The big deal here is that there are options. TBH, I kind of like them flat.

jchammond

Coming along
You gonna mount your water tank in the rear & plumb 3/4-1” cooler lines Up & through the intercooler?

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gbrettin

Yup. Water pump, 1" hose, heat exchanger and fill will all be in the rear. My buddy did the same thing on his car with zero issues. Besides, the front is getting cramped.

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gbrettin

I'm kind of pressed for time to do a write up so I'm just posting the pictures now. Well, the pictures pretty much tell the story anyway.