Damn, Steve, that roll bar looks fantastic, and so does the front end. Your chrome buddy does really nice work and from the sounds of it gives you a good deal. Hope you and Sue have a nice New Years, and take it easy on the cider New Year's eve. Nah, second thought, get blasted. Don
Just caught up with this. Saw the roadster build as well. Wow Steve. Subscribed for sure to this one!!! Can't wait to see paint on this incredible build.
hi Langy , i'm going to some meets in the UK this year ,hayride, hot rod drags ,are you going to one of them?
Here's one of the wheels fitted, ignore the fact i put the springs back on the wrong way round , the pins are off set and i didnt notice till it was back on the ground. Fitting the spindle mounts did exactly what i wanted by moving the wheel inboard a few inches, the old wheels were pushed out by the adaptor in the disc kit and the answer would of been to narrow the axle slightly. Today i took the wheel to an expert, he was a really nice bloke and even let me have a go on a scrap magnesium rim, Its very much like welding ally, except the gas mix is 50/50 argon/helium and the rod is obviously different, we used a az101 filler rod. The arc is also much shorter than aluminium and everything has to be very very clean. Also he preheated it. I learn't a lot of this old guy today and now would'nt hesitate to have a go myself. Unfortunately he didn't finish the job as he ran out of rods .
So Langy, I have had a question about welding magnesium and perhaps now that you are experienced you can answer it. Magnesium burns ferociously because it supplies it 's own oxygen. It even burns underwater, I've been told. Soooo, how do you prevent the magnesium from burning when welding it?
That's one of the things that was puzzling me mate, I've done aluminium welding but the thought of burning magnesium put me off having a go so i took it to an expert, it was the first question i asked, apparently it only ignites when it gets too hot, I was told if it did ignite plunging it into dry sand would put it out.
Magnesium welds ok but you muct not have mag filings or chips around. Be very carefull grooving a crack out that you do not cause any sparks. It's been a long time since I welded it but it welds much like aluminum but a casting is very likely to crack faster than you can weld up the crack. last year an "expert" tried to weld one of our cast mag blower manifolds that had developed a crack. It split from a simple 1 1/2" crack to about 4 inches the very first hit with the tig. then developed another couple of cracks farther down. It was a huge mess. We took it back and sent it out to the mfg and it came back with a bill for about 2/3 of a new manifold plus shipping. Mag rod can get to $90+ a pound. Make sure you know what to do if you get a fire....
Langy, I suppose the sand cools the magnesium down enough that it puts out the fire. You basically answered my question mate. Thanks bentwings, so even an expert has difficulty welding magnesium. It seems to be one of those materials that it is better to melt it down than try to repair. Soooo, what do you do if you get a fire? Plunge it into dry sand as Langy wrote?
Langy, I suppose the sand cools the magnesium down enough that it puts out the fire. You basically answered my question mate. Thanks bentwings, so even an expert has difficulty welding magnesium. It seems to be one of those materials that it is better to melt it down than try to repair. Soooo, what do you do if you get a fire? Plunge it into dry sand as Langy wrote?
Like all your builds- fantastic work Langy! Subscribed on every site I see them. I worked do a while at an aircraft parts factory (Harlow, Essex)where one day the flame cutter jammed while cutting a 1/2" sheet (8' x 4') it went up. I was in the next room. It was like a scene from The Tommyknockers. Green light emminating from every nook and cranny of the room. The whole building was evacuated until the fire services sorted it. Also saw a chap at a scrap yard flame cut a gearbox out of a VW Golf (Rabbit) once. The mount went up for a few seconds! Don't know why it didn't continue! Be careful. , I've seen the carnage.
The guy doing it welds the mag wheels for the Historic racers so i reckon he knows what he is doing, but thanks for the tips.
Steve, as you know I work in a historic Formula race team, we race all types of cars F1, F2 , Group C, all are wheels are magnesium, any time we have a wheel failure through accident and they get damaged regarding how slight these have to be scrapped, as no one we use would consider welding them due to the Health and Safety implications. Should any wheel fail the outcome would be catastrophic, therefore you need to take great care with the wheel you have had repaired. Brian
Thanks Brian, Appreciate the advice, He has said it will be crack tested as a matter of course, We will see what happens. It seems that welding magnesium castings on aircraft is quite normal practice
No not running yet Ray, I'm building a 514ci for it with a 8/71 blower for it, yeah got your message and replied. Sent from my iPhone using TJJ
Well not much progress to speak of but today i'm a very happy chappy, Got a call from the wheel repairer to say my Spindle mount mag welding was done, They did an absolutely outstanding job and you would think it had never been damaged !!! They also sent it for crack testing and gave me a certificate to prove its ok. They couldn't remachine it as their lathe was down but luckily i knew someone that had a big faceplate on a lathe, 24 hrs later it was done (thanks Brian) Before After
Glad to see those saved, Steve. They are too nice and rare to see them become scrap. Are you going to be able to run tubeless tires (or is it "tyres" ) on them or will you have to use tubes? Say hello to your good looking helper for us. Don
Thanks Don, no one is happier than me about it After chatting to the repairer for 1/2 hour i knew i was in the right place. Sue sends her love & kisses. have to run tubes in them anyway as they don't hold air terribly well.
The Jalopy Journal
