Blue91Ex
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- February 12, 2013
- Messages
- 750
- Reaction score
- 26
- City, State
- Maine
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 91 XLT
So I worked on the truck friday.
Ground down the out side welds on the new frame piece so I can put the brace plate on as flat/flush as possible. The bottom looks odd/cracked from how the sun reflects off of the grinder marks, I checked to make sure after I uploaded this picture to my computer.
With the color of that steel the welds aught to be pretty freaking decent.
Oh what the hell...
I do not understand this. The metal obviously got hot enough, every weld I've ever made with a gas mig welder that blued like that went all the way to the other side of the steel and was solid as a rock yet this thing still has little air gaps, I've tried everything with the settings on it, different welding techniques, I just do not understand why this thing has such a terrible time penetrating into the metal...
I'm going to leave the outside of this plate with the bead not ground off to help keep some more strength just in case, even though it won't look as pretty..
Some overall shots of the truck again.
Explorer in the background and most of the work to the passenger side is finished on the ranger frame.
So right now the list for just the frame work is this:
-Add 3/16 flat stock to underside of frame rail below crossmember (right behind the cab)
-Pull fuel lines and wires away from frame rail under the cab and grind down any reachable rust inside the frame rail
-Add brace plate over the hole in the frame where the crossmember attaches, approx. 2 feet long (8" past the hole on either side to make sure I'm welding to solid metal)
-Build new crossmember out of 3" channel iron (close to the original but much heavier) in almost the same place as stock but use the box design from before on the passenger side to make it more removable
-lots of grinding and wire-wheeling to prep entire frame for paint/bedliner
Ground down the out side welds on the new frame piece so I can put the brace plate on as flat/flush as possible. The bottom looks odd/cracked from how the sun reflects off of the grinder marks, I checked to make sure after I uploaded this picture to my computer.
With the color of that steel the welds aught to be pretty freaking decent.
Oh what the hell...
I do not understand this. The metal obviously got hot enough, every weld I've ever made with a gas mig welder that blued like that went all the way to the other side of the steel and was solid as a rock yet this thing still has little air gaps, I've tried everything with the settings on it, different welding techniques, I just do not understand why this thing has such a terrible time penetrating into the metal...
I'm going to leave the outside of this plate with the bead not ground off to help keep some more strength just in case, even though it won't look as pretty..
Some overall shots of the truck again.
Explorer in the background and most of the work to the passenger side is finished on the ranger frame.
So right now the list for just the frame work is this:
-Add 3/16 flat stock to underside of frame rail below crossmember (right behind the cab)
-Pull fuel lines and wires away from frame rail under the cab and grind down any reachable rust inside the frame rail
-Add brace plate over the hole in the frame where the crossmember attaches, approx. 2 feet long (8" past the hole on either side to make sure I'm welding to solid metal)
-Build new crossmember out of 3" channel iron (close to the original but much heavier) in almost the same place as stock but use the box design from before on the passenger side to make it more removable
-lots of grinding and wire-wheeling to prep entire frame for paint/bedliner