Diary of a Madman; TitaniumTT's see you @ DGRRXI RE-REbuild

[vex]

He's a Miller Whore.

[Force13b]

Originally Posted by vex

He's a Whore.

Fixed for accuracy

[To_Slow]

Great build....!! nice work.... !!!

Will check it out more at Deals gap...

[TitaniumTT]

Originally Posted by tweiss3

Ok, i have read your entire thread, and thats some damn good work. Much props to you.

You read the entire thread in one sitting? Damn, how long did that take? And thanks!

Originally Posted by tweiss3

I do have a few questions, since I am looking at some tooling purchases.
1)What grade steel do you use for your body work and what thicknesses?

I haven't had to do much body work that required steel. Cutting out the rust I want to say it was standard A36. It was .063" thick. All the work that I did to the hood was all AL, that was mostly .063", some .050" and that would have been 5052 for it's formability.

Originally Posted by tweiss3

2)what type of welder do you use, I'm assuming TIG.

If I'm welding steel, it's almost always MIG welding, SS sometimes MIG, sometimes TIG. AL is always TIG. I tried the spoolgun thing, and it just doesn't work cery well, for me anyway... well it works, but it looks like bubblegum birdshit

Originally Posted by tweiss3

3)what gas do you use for your welding?

Depends on the base metal. SS is tri-mix, steel is 75%argon 25%Co2, AL is 100% argon.... I've been meaning to try the helium mix on some of the thicker AL, but haven't really been welding much thick stuff lately. That is changing though as I'm helping a local Rotor head twin-charge his FD and we're mounting the Eaton SuperCharger where the P/S pump once lived.

Originally Posted by tweiss3

4)do you just cold bend all your pieces, or do you have a sheet metal bender?

I built a sheel metal brake out of some 5/16 or 3/8 mild steel "L" Cost like $30 in materials to get a 36" brake... I think it's 36" It works well. For smaller, tighter bends I've got a vise mounted brake that works well... actually I think it's the only thing that I've ever bought from HF that was actually worth the shipping :smilielol:

[TitaniumTT]

Originally Posted by vex

He's a Miller Whore.

That is correct....

Hypertherm plasma cutter though. Cheaper and more power compared to the Millers.

Originally Posted by Force13b

Fixed for accuracy

You would know

[TitaniumTT]

Originally Posted by To_Slow

Great build....!! nice work.... !!!

Will check it out more at Deals gap...

Thanks man!!! Yeah, I would LOVE to talk to you at Deals.... we'll have to figure something out before hand so we don't miss the opportunity!

[tweiss3]

Yes, in one sitting, between this thread and real work, it took almost 6 hours.

I'm supprised to hear you mig almost everything. That's good to know, cause I'm looking at welders, and can mig passably, and can tig sorta, but was going to try to learn more, but the more i hear people using mig for everything, the more i would rather stick with what i'm comfortable with.

A36 is reasonable to find, I was just making sure. I've done a ton of 4130 chromealloy in school, (structural design project start to finish).

[TitaniumTT]

Yeah that's right, 1/2 cage and the bumper support in the front were all chromoly.

MIG is great, fast, easy to learn. TIG is slow, time consuming, more accurate though.... so it depends on what you're doing.

I bought my TIG a bunch of years ago before I started the engine swap, lots o' custom shit on this project. I had never picked up a TIG torch in my life. I'd seen it done a bunch. Bought the machine, bought a book, talked to a bunch of pros that I knew, and just started messing around with it. I am by no means a pro welder, but I can get by

Unless you're planning on using a bunch of AL for your build (which I was, I wanted everything AL to save weight because I knew I was going to be adding a bunch of weight with everything), just go with the MIG. Miller just came out with a 211 auto-set. If I we're looking for a new first welder, I would go with that one.

[TitaniumTT]

and damn! 6 hrs... I don't think I could sit still for that long... nor woulf my eyes tolerate it... even with my glasses

[tweiss3]

Honestly, thats just about a perfect choice, nice recomendation. Price is right about the max i want to use, decent specs, and is a 110/220 compatable. My dad's truck we need to do some restoration (new fender arches, typ. rustout in door rockers) that it would work perfect for.

[WE3RX7]

Originally Posted by TitaniumTT

and damn! 6 hrs... I don't think I could sit still for that long... nor woulf my eyes tolerate it... even with my glasses

Somehow between AZ and TX, I feel like you may have sat in one spot for 6 hours, lol..

[TitaniumTT]

Yeah well, that was a 21 hr straight stretch.... but the scenery kept changing

[tweiss3]

I'd have to agree, making the 19 hour trek from akron ohio to saginaw texas isn't bad at all cause the scenery changes

[TitaniumTT]

Lots of scenery too... head to DGRR man, probably the same amout of seat time

[TitaniumTT]

So it's time for an update I suppose. We hit a snag with the landi build when the firewall came back a different color, so I decided to spend the weekend working on the 7. I really didn't do much aside from winterize it and start tearing the interior apart to fix the shitty sound quality in the Sirius, and add a 12V adapter specific for the Laptop. I decided I don't need an inverter, I'd rather buy a DC adapter for my Laptop for $20 than go through the hassel of finding, mounting, wiring an inverter. So I raped a beautiful socket from an old XJ dash and mounted it in the glove box. After a trip to the boneyard later this week I'll have that finisihed.

Mechanically I didn't do much, I was too disgusted. After I pulled the elbow off the TB to get the fogging fluid in there I happened to glance into the intercooler and saw a POOL of oil in there..... turbo's puked AGAIN. That's a total of 6 turbo's that I've killed in the course of 6 weeks.... I'm done with these Hitachi's. I got in on a GB for some BNR's and I'll be pulling them off tomorrow night and sending them out for coating assembly on Wednesday. Plan is to break the old record with them of 426 rwhp. More importantly, they should be RELIABLE!!!! That's the key right there, if they last a few years I'll be happy.

Originally I was going to rock a supersecret turbo, and I may still do that next winter and use the FC as a year long test bed so everything's pretty much sorted out for the FD. But, I've been through too much with this car to make it sequential, and I just can't see going any other route with it. So yeah, BNR's for DGRRXI! and a 6-spd, and a 4.3 Torsen. If the TC works well I should be able to LOG 0-60 in 4s!! WEEEEE!!!!!!!