TheSilverBuick's 1967 Thunderbird

[TheSilverBuick]

Re: TheSilverBuick's 1967 Thunderbird

Put the new alternator in, the voltage fluctuation is still there > BUT it seems a lot of the actual signal noise that was transfering to the system seems to be gone (my duty cycle and pulsewidths appear to be waaay more stable) PLUS I have one full volt more across the rpm range from the old alternator, which makes me feel better. Seems to be running pretty good too Idles at 650rpm in neutral, 475-500rpm in gear, has a slight stumble snapping the throttle, but will accelerate. I think tomorrow I'm going to swap out the voltage regulator with another one I have and I'm going to do some re-plumbing of the headlight door vacuum system and go for some test drives to see if I run into any hiccups. I'd really like to drive this car out of town on my next trip out, it's spent at least a year confined to Ely and work.

[TheSilverBuick]

Re: TheSilverBuick's 1967 Thunderbird

Drove the car a lot today! It's running real good, and I think I got the communication problem I was having, staying connected to the laptop, solved. I changed the flow control from "off" to "hardware", and after at least an hour's worth driving around and such no lost communications!

The car is running good too, a few lean spots, just have to work on those. The car rides so smooth and silently I really did accidently find myself cruising at 90mph down the highway :o coming home from a short visit to work. Fun fun fun. I'm going to go swap out the voltage regulator and mess with the vacuum lines.

[TheSilverBuick]

Remember when I got the car and said it had a rusty gas tank? And it was the first thing I changed out on the car? Well that gas tank has been sitting in my backyard ever since, and today I thought to myself, "Hey, that could be some good practicing metal for welding on." So when I got home I cut a corner off and practiced. I now know what burn through is! But the real shocker was how much crud was inside the tank

Here is the tank, all the dents and such were on there when I got it.


You may recall the three pennies brazed on there.


Check out the pile of rust! The few leaves are likely from time in the backyard.




Cleaned off the rust where I was going to weld it back together. I got the inside the best I could as well. It measured out to 24 gauge thickness.


Still need to work on the zig-zagging. The top is where I started and blew through several times. I still need lots of practice. I couldn't tell from the community college website on when they are next going to offer a welding class

[milner351]

When working on thinner stuff - try making a series of spot welds - instead of laying a worm of metal on top of the seam.
I'm not an expert - but it looks like you went from too much power (burn through) to too little power with not enough penetration and the filler metal sitting on top of the work piece. Ideally you want the welds to be much flatter. keep playing with it - practice practice practice!

Are you using a guide for the welder settings? If you didn't get the millermatic slide calculator - get one! They're a couple bucks at weldfabulous . com

[SuperBuickGuy]

24 gauge is tough to weld... even worse when it's a rusty Miranda roof, but I digress. If you have to weld anything lighter then 20 gauge, it's sometimes easier to do stitch welds down both sides of the cut, then weld down the center (you build up the metal). Otherwise, it will pull apart after a few hot/cold cycles because the metal is so brittle from welding.

and I'm sure you're using the inside of the wire cover to set the machine - remember those are tips, not gospel.

[TheSilverBuick]

Yeah I used the chart on the inside of the cover. I had the power cranked as low as it would go the whole time and I played with the wire feed settings. I had also put 5cfm more on the gas than my last attempt.

On the top part (the ugly) I practiced just a few tack welds before I tried sealing it off, which resulted in burn through =P On the top I also worked on building up the metal, so all the burn through holes I made, I went back and just practiced laying down some metal until the hole was sealed back up.

I'm going to practice with it some more, and once I have a stock pile of metal to play with I'll invite someone who has welded for a living over to really teach me some lessons. Oh, BTW, thanks to all that gave their two cents in my welding thread, I noticed more what was talked about and what to look for with the heat. Still more to learn and get a handle on.

[SuperBuickGuy]

get some 18 ga. mild steel (beg/borrow/steal) and practice on that. Once you can run a good bead on that, then the rest becomes modification of the skills you learned on 18 ga. Practicing on 24 ga. may be counterproductive since you have to (kind of) throw out the rulebook to even get a weld on it.

[squirrel]

yeah, 18 ga would be better to learn on.

Also it looks like you might have left the protective coating (zinc? tin?) on the gas tank. Learn on plain steel, not coated steel, It's enough of a pain without having to deal with the coating!

[milner351]

Great point Jim -
I think it's a general rule that if the smoke from welding is thick STOP - clean more or re evaluate - welding on clean steel or aluminum doesn't produce much smoke - welding galvanized produces a thick white / yellowish smoke that is nasty stuff! If you think it's galvanized - proceed with caution and wear a respirator.

[TheSilverBuick]

Ok, how can you tell it's coated, even after taking a grinder to it? I'm not using a scotch brite pad or wire brush to clean it, I'm using a grinding wheel on a 4.5" Makita grinder. Looks like clean rustable steel to me. I'm not seeing any weird smoke coming off it, and several times I flipped my helmet up right after letting up on the trigger to see the cool down and effects of the heat.

[squirrel]

Gas tanks are coated. Maybe that one has no coating left...hmmm....but usually there's some left on the inside.

You're making it more difficult than it needs to be Randal. Start with nice shiny clean steel, so you can learn how to weld under optimum conditions, then when you get good at it you can introduce more challenges.

[milner351]

your location is a bit of a hindrance here - you could pick up some pieces of angle, flat bar, square tube, etc at a home depot and practice on that.... or if you were close to a fab shop - see what cut offs they had in the scrap pile.

I guess I feel more lucky than ever to be so close to a good community college welding program.

[TheSilverBuick]

Home Depot I'd have to check where I got my Argon/CO2 bottle from, plus I need to look in the scrap bins around work.

[milner351]

Home Depot I'd have to check where I got my Argon/CO2 bottle from, plus I need to look in the scrap bins around work.

hence the location reference - shipping such raw materials is prohibitive - perhaps next time your'e taking a weekend trip to vegas or Cali you can pick some up - you should get enough to build a welding cart or some such useful project - and what's up with the slow response in the reply windows? I have to wait a few seconds for the screen to catch up with my typing.

[SuperBuickGuy]

Home Depot I'd have to check where I got my Argon/CO2 bottle from, plus I need to look in the scrap bins around work.

Bingo, or simply drive one of the dumptrucks home and practice running a few beads on the doors