Capt-Culver
Well-Known Member
It's been about 10 days since my last update.
I practiced a bit more welding...started feeling comfortable with what I was doing....trying to get my welder and I in unison.
I started to prepare the rear passenger side footwell.
Then, it was time to finally weld in my first piece of sheet metal. That's when all hell broke lose.
I get the pan in position after tweaking it a bit. Clamped in place, ear plugs in and welding helmet on. (ie: I can't hear or see ****) I run thru all 18-20 plug welds...bouncing back and forth from side to side as to not warp it. Take off my helmet...and something didn't look right. The welds didn't look anything like I practiced....they weren't bonding and were popping once I removed the grips. I couldn't figure it out...blamed it on the weld-thru primer from Eastwood. They say it's some sort of organic blend...I don't know. But, I couldn't weld thru it...it sent splatter everywhere. ok...grind it all down and try again...same results. Frustrated, I get out of my car and that's when I see it....my argon tank on the ground...regulator busted and an empty tank. About $60 worth gone. I guess at some point, I pulled the torch knocking it over...I obviously don't remember doing that, but I couldn't see or hear anything. It was just a flux core welder at that point and I didn't realize it. I litteraly was able to pull the pan off with no pressure...the dang thing nearly fell off. Instead of rolling the car into the yard and setting it on fire, I ended up walking away for 2 days. Friday and Saturday sent me to the store for more gas and another regulator.
Yesterday, I decided to try it again. This time with no primer. I'm not sure what the initial problem was...the primer or the lack of gas, maybe a combination of both?
But, after cleaning everything up, it's firmly in place now. I sure hope I got the measurments correct. Again, I had no help to put the full floor pan in for an accurate alignment of the back pan, so I just took a bunch of measurments for the alignment and did the best I could. Maybe I should have waited until I had help, but I was bored yesterday and wanted to do something.
I practiced a bit more welding...started feeling comfortable with what I was doing....trying to get my welder and I in unison.
I started to prepare the rear passenger side footwell.
Then, it was time to finally weld in my first piece of sheet metal. That's when all hell broke lose.
I get the pan in position after tweaking it a bit. Clamped in place, ear plugs in and welding helmet on. (ie: I can't hear or see ****) I run thru all 18-20 plug welds...bouncing back and forth from side to side as to not warp it. Take off my helmet...and something didn't look right. The welds didn't look anything like I practiced....they weren't bonding and were popping once I removed the grips. I couldn't figure it out...blamed it on the weld-thru primer from Eastwood. They say it's some sort of organic blend...I don't know. But, I couldn't weld thru it...it sent splatter everywhere. ok...grind it all down and try again...same results. Frustrated, I get out of my car and that's when I see it....my argon tank on the ground...regulator busted and an empty tank. About $60 worth gone. I guess at some point, I pulled the torch knocking it over...I obviously don't remember doing that, but I couldn't see or hear anything. It was just a flux core welder at that point and I didn't realize it. I litteraly was able to pull the pan off with no pressure...the dang thing nearly fell off. Instead of rolling the car into the yard and setting it on fire, I ended up walking away for 2 days. Friday and Saturday sent me to the store for more gas and another regulator.
Yesterday, I decided to try it again. This time with no primer. I'm not sure what the initial problem was...the primer or the lack of gas, maybe a combination of both?
But, after cleaning everything up, it's firmly in place now. I sure hope I got the measurments correct. Again, I had no help to put the full floor pan in for an accurate alignment of the back pan, so I just took a bunch of measurments for the alignment and did the best I could. Maybe I should have waited until I had help, but I was bored yesterday and wanted to do something.
