Roll Bar Install

[Brian Oatway]

That's a great idea!!!

I've been practicing on the bench and am doing fine but it could get ugly in the car, it's time to get cracking though.

I'm not sure how I feel about wearing a strap-on but heck I'll try anything once I guess!!!

Thanks

[nocheepgas]

The coolest thing I've seen for the out of position TIG welds is a strapped to the knee pedal. This rigged up a knee pad with a pedal on inside of his knee so it could be pressed by his other knee. Just need to be cautious of the cord when moving around and getting in to the out of position position, and of your leg getting tired hovering above the pedal (it'll wake you up.)

A long time ago I purchased an east/west finger controller, I would have rather smashed my pecker in a vice and beat it with a ball peen hammer than use it to try and weld with. About 6 months ago my foot controller was giving me some problems, I was desperate enough to try the finger controller again! After strapping it to the torch, my attempts were again futile, back to the vice and hammer!
Then I had an epifany...rather than strapping it to my torch which caused all kinds of erratic movement, I put it in my rod hand. After all it had to move around a bit to feed the rod anyway. It works awesome! I've all but thrown my foot pedal away and use the hand controller 99.9% of the time now.

[Brian Oatway]

I got alot of work done on the roll bar install this weekend. Bars are all in and welded. I was able to weld all of the base platesonto the tubes on the bench after a quick tack in the car and I was able to weld the cross bar into the main hoop on the bench as well so I only had to make 6 tig welds actually in the car: the two where the rear bars attached to the main hoop, two where the driveshaft tunnel braces attached to the main hoop and two where the door bars attached to the main hoop. Turned out to not be as difficult as I was worried about. I spent alot of time resharpening tungsten on the out of position welds but they came out OK.

The hardest welds were actually the ones I never worried about. MIG welding the 1/8" base plates to the whisper thin sheetmetal floor boards.

I'll take some pics once I get things cleaned up a bit.

Next I need to cut out the door bars to install swing out hinge kits.

Thanks everyone for all the advice.

[nocheepgas]

The hardest welds were actually the ones I never worried about. MIG welding the 1/8" base plates to the whisper thin sheetmetal floor boards..

If you haven't already, you'll need a plate under the sheet metal as well as the one your tubes are welded to. Don't make them the same size or you'll end up with a huge weak spot. Make them at least 1" bigger or smaller all the way around (depending on the size of the uppers). Bigger is better. They also don't need to be fully welded, but check with your sanctioning body.

[Cgotto6]

The hardest welds were actually the ones I never worried about. MIG welding the 1/8" base plates to the whisper thin sheetmetal floor boards..

If you haven't already, you'll need a plate under the sheet metal as well as the one your tubes are welded to. Don't make them the same size or you'll end up with a huge weak spot. Make them at least 1" bigger or smaller all the way around (depending on the size of the uppers). Bigger is better. They also don't need to be fully welded, but check with your sanctioning body.

Is this a nhra rule? I have read the nasa and scca rule books very carefully and never heard of this.

Sam

[Cgotto6]

Just read the gcr again last night, you only need backer plates if you are bolting the structure to the tub. Thats road racing rules at least, don't know about nhra.

Sam

[Brian Oatway]

I just checked NHRA again and it's the same...only needed if bolting.

Thanks for the heads up....definately better to double check than to miss something.

[Brian Oatway]

I have a couple of tubes that meet a shallow angles (nearly parallel) and I've been practicing on the bench how to weld the very inside of the angle. I'm not happy with my current results.

Basically I've been extending the tungsten way out of the cup (about 1") in order to reach into the joint but I'm obviously not getting proper gas coverage and it's a mess.

Any advise on how to do this joint. Been using a size 17 torch with a #6 cup and just cant get anywhere near that joint.

[Vegas Racer]

Have you tried a gas lense with the longer stick out?

To keep it in the ITW family, here's a bit about use of a gas lense at Weldcraft. http://www.weldcraft.com/2008/01/gas...asics-for-tig/

[mikewalker11]

As far as I know you cannot weld chromoly with any thing but tig. A you have to pre heat and be carful not to over penetrate.

[Brian Oatway]

I switched up to the gas lense and things went much better....what a difference. I'm not certain the job I did would be good enough for an airplane or a 6 second car but for my first go in a car just tickling the required times for a roll bar I'm thinking everything worked out pretty well.

[H80N]

As far as I know you cannot weld chromoly with any thing but tig. A you have to pre heat and be carful not to over penetrate.

NOT Correct....

OXY FUEL was the preferred method for many years, long before TIG....

here is an overview of 4130 TIG from the Weldcraft site...

http://www.weldcraft.com/2007/08/tig...me-moly-steel/


How do you think all of those Piper Cubs got built before TIG was invented..??

This is how it was done 70 years ago...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=Q6q1VKsTeKQ

[H80N]

I switched up to the gas lense and things went much better....what a difference. I'm not certain the job I did would be good enough for an airplane or a 6 second car but for my first go in a car just tickling the required times for a roll bar I'm thinking everything worked out pretty well.

Brian...

the gas lense will make a huge difference in gas coverage and reducing turbulence...

[dandeman]

NOT Correct....

OXY FUEL was the preferred method for many years, long before TIG....

here is an overview of 4130 TIG from the Weldcraft site...

http://www.weldcraft.com/2007/08/tig...me-moly-steel/


How do you think all of those Piper Cubs got built before TIG was invented..??

This is how it was done 70 years ago...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=Q6q1VKsTeKQ

Watching the Piper construction brought back many memories.. As my older brother earned his flying time expense in trade for labor rebuilding aircraft at a local, small airport, I as a young 8 - 10 year old had free run of the place and saw many a disassembled aircraft engines and air frames under repair. The '50s were of a different era before liability lawsuits, etc closed off this kind of access to the younger generations.

As mentioned above, gas welding was the method to build and repair the Pipe chromealloy frames..

my brother in his earlier years...
http://home.4x4wire.com/deddleman/Hal-Piper-J3-s.jpg

[H80N]

Watching the Piper construction brought back many memories.. As my older brother earned his flying time expense in trade for labor rebuilding aircraft at a local, small airport, I as a young 8 - 10 year old had free run of the place and saw many a disassembled aircraft engines and air frames under repair. The '50s were of a different era before liability lawsuits, etc closed off this kind of access to the younger generations.

As mentioned above, gas welding was the method to build and repair the Pipe chromealloy frames..

my brother in his earlier years...
http://home.4x4wire.com/deddleman/Hal-Piper-J3-s.jpg

That is a really nice pic..... am sure that the family cherishes it...