My "Build that thing and get it out of my spot!" Shoebox build

So I wasted 2.5 hours the other night starting to weld in my passenger floor patch. Started the spot welds to the floor brace, and the shitty "weld-thru" primer from Eastwood f**ked it all up. Now I need to make a new patch.

On another note, just bought this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/261167072925?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649

I didn't win the Gambino drawing (damn you EBW! ), and I don't know if I'm going to use the notch or not, but at that price I'm basically getting the notch for free.

 

Sorry about that

 

Well I guess Alex Gambino made a mistake on that uprights/steering arms/notch eBay listing, and listed it way too cheap. I totally understand, I'm no stranger to mistakes. So we talked, cancelled it, and he took good care of me on my purchase of the uprights and notch. Good man.

Cut out the passenger floor patch, disassembled it, and started making a replacement patch.



Today I sold my Millermatic 140 on CL (for more than I paid for it last year!) and brought home this:



Millermatic 211. Spent some time tonight assembling it and dialing it in.

 

Did you get that bad boy new!? New tools are sweet! Most of the time I don't have the cash so I end up with used stuff..your a lucky s.o.b. haha. Hope it works well for ya. I'm a miller guy as well good choice.

 

Yeah bought it new. Nobody parts with their used Millers, that's why I got top dollar for my 140. My local Miller dealer has better pricing than I've even found anywhere on the web. I went in there expecting to ask whether they'd match pricing, but didn't have to.

I need to add another 220v outlet and get an extension cord. Not sure why Miller thinks a 10' cord is sufficient.

 

Yeah I have a 170 and the lead, ground, and power cord are all kinda short... Good thing my shop space is small to make up for the lack of reach....

 

Drool Drool Drool. Jealous! Damn that is nice. I bought the Miller 140 when it first came out. The place I got it from said I bought their first one. I'm very hard on tools and it has never let me down. I love it. My next welder will be a Miller TIG something although my neighbor did offer to teach me how to torch weld.

 

I liked the 140, but bought it used and I'm not sure it didn't have some issues. I figured I'll have my welder a very long time, so I might as well get one I won't outgrow. I didn't lose any money on the 140 and got a year's use out of it so I feel good about it. Someday I'll talk myself into springing for a tig.

I wish I had someone to teach me to gas weld. I seem to live in a "car guy" black hole up here. I've got a torch setup, but pretty much just for heating and bending metal. I'll probably give it a shot at some point.

 

You never mentioned the mount for the Volvo box.....where did you get it...?

 

It's a Fatman mount.

 

Gas welding works on the same principal as TIG; the flame provides the heat. A major difference is that there are many ways to adjust the gas mixture to achieve different quality heat. This information can be found on the net. (http://www.wikihow.com/Set-Up-an-Oxy-Acetylene-Torch ) Somewhere to start.
Be sure to observe the safety aspects as the potential for accidents is always present.
Have a go; if I can do it,you can, also.Good luck.
Davo.

 

Thanks, I've never TIG welded, either. First time I touched a welder was 11 months ago. I will give the gas welding a shot at some point. Thanks for the link!

 

Just let me know, I'd be happy to teach you. Not that MIG is "wrong" , but with some instruction, and some practice, you'll never want to MIG sheet again.

 

Tinbender - PM sent

 

Why is hammer welding better tinbender? What about spots where you cant get to the back of a panel?

 

You are kicking ass on this thing! Keep up the good work. You seem to be moving right along.

 

Any progress with your new toy?

 

I didn't have the proper 220v receptacle for the welder, so initially I just did some practice welds on 110v to get the wire tension set up. Tonight I finally got a chance to put in the new 220v receptacle for the welder, and had to spend some time modifying my HF welder cart so it would fit properly. It's wider than the 140 by a hair, so the bolts on the cart were interfering with it sitting all the way down on the shelf. I welded the top shelf to the uprights and cut down the left side so the welder door would open properly. One thing's for sure, with it set on the same settings as 110v, it gets tons more penetration for the same weld time.

I didn't get a chance to work on my floor patch any, because I need to get some thinner cut-off wheels so I can get proper gaps. Tomorrow hopefully (if anyone's open).

On Saturday I met with a local guy with a hot rod shop (his shop was a big part of the black AMBR entry) about possibly chopping my car. He's gonna come Monday to check out the car and give me a better quote. Just not something I can do myself. Checking out some of the projects in his shop, he seems to do pretty good metal work, so hopefully he'll be able to do a nice job on my car. One tip I got from him was to set the welder (110v settings) all the way up on voltage and wire speed when tacking the sheetmetal together. I'll have to give that a try.

 

It's like late Christmas at my house!

Got some dropped uprights/steering arms from Gambino:


And got an NOS right front door from the big grey dog:


It came with a little damage to the lower front corner, a little hammer and dolly and all straight again. I never really used the off-dolly technique effectively before, but there was a pretty deep ding in the door handle hole, and BAM! all gone. It was almost magical.

Started re-fabbing my passenger floor patch. Used the higher settings and technique that Darrel from Gunner Productions showed me, seemed to work pretty well! Still a work in progress.

 

I like your use of old hard drive magnets. Those things are freakishly strong. Nice build.

 

Got a call from the machine shop that my shortblock is done. Still gonna have him put the heads and roller rockers on, then it comes home next week.

 

Sweet! My shoebox and I are jealous....

 

Saw this chopped four door at the Scottsdale GG show and it reminded me of your build for some reason. I wasn't there, someone posted it on Facebook, I think. Bummer, I HATE missing that show!!!

 

Very nice! Aside from the tribal flames, I love it! I like that he kept the '51 grille.

 

I agree.. The chop looks nice, I like to see the 51 grill, but not my taste with rims and paint scheme.

 

I wish I knew whose car it is. He eliminated the vent windows, which in a 4-dr is tough to do on the rear doors because of the dogleg. Maybe the cut-down windows was enough to allow the rear window to roll down. Curious exactly how much chop. Looks like maybe an inch more than I'd want to do.

 

If you look at the back closely, the rear of the window DOES not flow with the rear of door jam ... maybe that is how he got it in the chop.

 

The back door window/c-pillar area on a 4-dr is odd, and kinda chunky-looking. That's the way the rear window/jamb is shaped. He eliminated a lot of the chunkiness, partly by shaving the rain gutters. There is a strange crease there, but overall looks like a decent job.

You can see the shape pretty well in this pic:

 

Ok, now I see it.. thanks for posting that pic !

 

Clever use of hard drive magnets.