welded crossmember advice Spider 2000

[backyardbill]

manoa matt: I added more text to the pictures. Both sides of the crossmember have a 6mm plate welder on the horizontal lip the attaches to the bottom of the frame rail. Only the right side though has a 5mm shim plate welded to the vertical part. Does this seem right?

[backyardbill]

Matt: I added more text to the pictures. Both sides of the crossmember have a 6mm plate welder on the horizontal lip the attaches to the bottom of the frame rail. Only the right side though has a 5mm shim plate welded to the vertical part. Does this seem right?

[manoa matt]

The two shims on either side horizontal surface are stock for that crossmember. I don't know about the shim on the vertical surface, every one I've taken off did not have that. Does it appear to be "homemade", is it welded to the rest of the crossmember, what do those welds look like compared to the rest of the crossmember welds? I have seen somewhere recently someone selling a crossmember with an assortment of shims for the vertical surface. Sorry I can't difinitively answer the question, maybe someone else will know.

[backyardbill]

I won't be able to thoroughly clean and inspect the whole cross-member until Sunday. But, they do look homemade at this point.

I will then add close ups of the welds. Thanks.

[backyardbill]

This is the status of the crossmember and frame rails as of today.
http://www.glocktech.net/fiat/restorati ... t%2010.htm

What do you think?

[azygoustoyou]

It's looking good

[backyardbill]

Welding questions.

Ok, I bought the Harbor Freight 94056 90 amp flux wire welder. I decided if it didn't work out, I would take it back and get a Lincoln: http://cgi.ebay.com/MIG-135G-FLUX-MIG-M ... 35a6d08f70 which I might do anyway.

When I grounded the 6mm bar while trying to weld the through tube, it just sputter and kicked splatter around. Nothing held. I went to Lowes and bought .030 Lincoln flux wire. Then I tried grounding the thin tube instead of the thick bar. Bingo, the weld worked pretty good, although ugly. http://www.glocktech.net/Fiat/restorati ... t%2010.htm

Is it correct to ground the thin material? And aim the torch at the thick bar?

Thanks.

Now I have to leave for the super bowl party (if I want to stay married ).

[pope]

Bill, make sure the wires are connected correctly to their positive and negative posts on the machine (rosin core welders usually attach the opposite way that gas welders do). Spattering usually means that the metal is not clean or that the power is too low for the thickness of metal. The ground does not matter which piece you put it on, its usually best on the most stable piece. Welding is not like soldering, in welding, you are trying to melt the two pieces of metal together and not just connect them with some hot metal wire. I think you might have to crank the dial up much higher and practice on some scrap metal first for a while. You should see a orange glow of molten metal being pushed with the wire from your welder.

[So Cal Mark]

I hope you bought a sand blaster at Harbor Freight too, that crossmember is pretty nasty looking

[backyardbill]

Wire brush and sandpaper. A sandblaster would be nice but its a little too dirty to use in my garage.

[backyardbill]

I finally got the suspension installed. Ugh. I hate messing with coil springs.

http://www.glocktech.net/fiat/restorati ... t%2010.htm

It all fit together nicely. But...

I centered the steering wheel ( 1/2 of roughly 2.9 turns lock to lock). Then I installed the tie rod sleeves with the hubs is a straight forward position (eyeballed). The tie rod sleeves appear to be too long. They are 220mm. Is that the correct size for this car?

Thanks

[backyardbill]

Never mind. Vick's verified that the tie rod sleeve is 205mm. The one that were on the car were actually 238mm. I cut that down to size.

[pope]

Keep going Bill, enjoy your posts.
Today is 45° and I am a sandblasting fool. The crocus have busted through. Spring is on the way.