[cdrookie]

What tech tip number are we on? I guess we don’t really need one because I might be off base but welding and magnets don’t always get along. We had to drill out some studs at work a couple months ago. We had a drill fixture plate with a mag base drill lined up on the part ready to be tack welded in place: The welder dude was having a hard time getting the stick welder to work properly. Eventually he realized the magnet was on the drill. I’ve been having the same issue with burn thru with patch panels It just dawned on me about the magnets. Of course it could be the rust I’m trying to weld to..

[73LeMans]

Originally Posted by cdrookie

What tech tip number are we on? I guess we don’t really need one because I might be off base but welding and magnets don’t always get along. We had to drill out some studs at work a couple months ago. We had a drill fixture plate with a mag base drill lined up on the part ready to be tack welded in place: The welder dude was having a hard time getting the stick welder to work properly. Eventually he realized the magnet was on the drill. I’ve been having the same issue with burn thru with patch panels It just dawned on me about the magnets. Of course it could be the rust I’m trying to weld to..

Haha, I'd offer a tip if I actually knew what went wrong. You might be on to something. I'm inclined to go with the magnets as well. I've done the jamb dog legs and never had a problem there, or even on the trunk floor, until of course it got rusty and just kept blowing away. But that was explainable - the trunk needed a patch much bigger than the area I was trying to weld to. Once that was in, it all went fine.

[73LeMans]

Like the rest of us, Ive lost track of how many sets of headers Ive gone through over the years. To name a few -> Blackjack, Hedman, Hooker, Maddog 2x (don't even get me started on that guy). The time had come where I was finally tired of seeing very expensive pieces just crumble to rot in short order. This time around they had to be stainless.

I debated the idea, as I'm sure most of us have; make them myself or send them out? This battle raged for months in my head.

- Pro - I get to buy a TIG welder
- Pro - it will be cheaper to build them myself, even after buying the stainless and the welder
- Pro - I learn something new. Even if its that I don't want to make my own headers

- Con - drastic TIG learning curve
- Con - Time
- Con - dport heads
- Con - expensive mistake if they suck
- Con - If I fail, I still need stainless headers


You know its kinda hard to get good at anything if you're not doing any of the work, so this wasn't an easy decision. The car had been down for so long at this point though, did I want to delay it another 2-3 months finding out what everyone was already telling me, that headers suck to build?

Well, ultimately I listened to "those people" and leaned on a guy in CT to do the work. A few guys near me could do this, but I didn't like any of their attitudes. Those were just the ones who would actually respond. Most never bothered to return a message or pick up the phone. Strange how that is, but all too common with me and contractors it seems. Must be me.

Enough about them, lets get to the good stuff.

Getting headers first means the engine had to go in -



and then I had to load it up -



And drop it off here, at JW Racing & Fabrication, 2hours and 45 minutes from home.



And through the magic of the interweb, and the fact that all of this was completed a long time ago - I can show you the finished product -















Couldn't be happier with Joe @JW and his work. Hes a kickass artist and great guy to deal with. These should last a long time.

The only drawback to all of this awesomeness was a remote oil filter was most definitely going to be needed.

[73LeMans]

So I've been to this blasting show once before as you know.....didn't like it. I certainly wasn't looking forward to it again, but it had to be done. The purple was real automotive paint and it wasn't coming off without a lot of mess. Either media mess, or stripper mess. Media mess is a faster route to paint, so I chose media mess. And man, does this story sound familiar.....

It starts with an undersized portable baster that a friend of mine was storing here for oh, 8 years. Its a Cyclone PT 40. Crappy thing doesn't even have wheels.



How undersized you ask? (you didn't really ask, just work with me here)
• 40 lb. Capacity (smaller than the one I used in 96!!)
• 8 ft. Hose
• Blast hose 3/8" ID
• 1/8" Ceramic nozzle

Not a lot happening fast here but I wasn't about to buy my own blaster only to have it sit also around for years, so I was determined to make this work. It'll do the job, it'll just be slow. After learning a few lessons last time, here is why it will be ever so slightly better:

- The compressor should handle it this time around



- I was going to use aluminum oxide instead of sand
- I bought a blasting gun that you could actually turn on and off

So besides the goggles constantly fogging up because of the respirator type mask I was wearing, which was every 15 effin minutes (insert Covid-19 preparedness joke here), it didn't go too badly.




The plan was to keep the front end together to keep the car portable and then wire wheel/brush with a drill what I couldn't blast once in the garage and disassembled. The suspension and steering components (minus the box/pitman arm) were all going to get powder coated or replaced, so I didn't have to worry about those and the core support would be blasted separately.

This physical blasting took about 12 hours. covering both a Saturday and Sunday. I was constantly stopping with goggle issues, filling up the hopper or just taking a break. Factor in time to get the car up/down/back in the garage and clean up the driveway so I'm not "that guy" in the neighborhood, and they were pretty long days.

Here is the car once back in the garage with the moving parts, removed.(ha!) You can see the areas where steering and suspension parts kept me from reaching.



Life kinda got in the way that week. I came back to the car after work on Tuesday and started the cleanup process. Looking at the cross member however, one of the earliest of the basted pieces, it had looked like some tiny spots had been missed. So I got them with the wire wheel and the drill.



Then I noticed the same type of spot on the on the firewall......and the frame rails. Then it hit me, like ah, a two ton heavy thing... (what song guys. cmon?) These were not places I missed, this was rust starting to form. Well #$@, @#$^&#$#&%#* mother%$&$**$@@#

So here's the thing....New England weather, unless its 20 degrees outside, is pretty humid all the friggin time apparently. So lets start off with a tip.

Tip#8 - When media blasting, be prepared to protect any exposed metal as soon as you are done blasting.

I may have cried here, I may have blacked out, I really don't recall. All I remember was thinking there was no way I could keep up with this. With work and other commitments, there was no way I could get this cleaned up and epoxied any time soon. It was going to take me days if I was going to do it with a drill and my drill wasn't sounding too good after the last pass with this stuff. This would all have to be blasted again. I had blasted too much area and the rust was coming in faster than I could keep up.

Tip#9 - Don't take the suspension off until you are sure you don't need to move the car again

#%^.

OK, so not only do I get to live the blasting hell all over again, but now I need to figure a way to get this thing back outside? Hold my beer....

Solution (minus one tow strap to keep it all together):



No I didn't steal it. A friend of mine gave it to me. (really!) It worked like a charm believe it or not. It rolled smoothly and the big casters allowed it to easily make back over the 1 inch lip to get back in the garage. And if I'm thinking positively about all of this, at least now I could take out the engine mounts that I left in place for some reason.

Blasting was considerably quicker this time around, so it allowed time the next day to clean up any rust formations, make the booth and get to painting.

Before:


After:


All dressed in Nason 491-35 DTM Primer/Sealer

I must be getting better at something...this shot was NOT at 3am, (just before midnight on a Sunday) I might actually be rested for work in the morning. Wonder what that's like?

I wet sanded and painted all of this two more times (320 / 400) in the coming days just because I love pain. (and to make sure I had proper coverage and enough base to stand up over time). I guess we'll see.

In an effort to actually help someone, let me say I do believe sealer can go over those tiny rust formations and stop it from getting worse or ever coming through. It bonds with and seals the metal, much like the zinc chromate of yore. So yeah, I probably freaked out over nothing, but I wasn't gathering crystal clear information so in the wake of not being sure, I opted to play it safe. Probably should have asked a question here. I'm so stubborn sometimes.

[73LeMans]

The core support was blasted the following weekend. (no pics) and I epoxied it same as the car. (no pics) Came out fine, buts that's when I noticed the additional cracks I had mentioned in a previous post. (no pics) Small cracks, but they need to be addressed. Those are highlighted in the yellow weld-through primer shown here, but you cant really see them:





I hate weld-through primer. It never works. This time was no exception, so I cleaned it down to metal for a good weld. And yes, ya gotta grind away some of the sealer to get a good ground. I have no pics of that mess thankfully. Once complete, I wet sanded (400) the core all over again to get a good second coat of sealer on it to cover up all I took off. I'm only doing this once, and I'm not taking any shortcuts. Once dry, I wet sand it again (400) to get it ready for the color coat.

Lets just focus on the positive.



Looks good, but the first time I painted it, I has some issues with the finish. I was using something different this time around (Martin Senour - 7243 - Chassis Black) and it came out rather rough feeling (but not looking) in many places when dry. I just chocked it up to not applying enough paint as I knew my conditions were pretty decent. (75 degrees, and humidity less than 30%)

So I wet sanded it (400) and hit again with color the next night. Same thing, but less texture this time. Hmmm...maybe it was the paint? Conditions similar, and the coats were going on wet, but by the time I completed a pass, some of the finish looked like it had already dried.

The core support finally got smooth after wet sanding it again and painting it a third time with more overlap and more speed. It seemed to work.









If any of sounds familiar, that's because I documented it in a previous post but with the frame rails. "OK fellow Michelangelos, what do you think is going wrong" SPOILER ALERT - painted frame rails in that post!

[Brian Baker]

Keep it coming. Enjoying the story line and pictures.

[73LeMans]

This is where any idea of a schedule just starts to fade out of sight. Not necessarily due to the nature of the fix but more from my indecision on how far I want to go with it all. We all suffer from it to some degree I'm sure.


For years now, I could lean on the drivers side front fender and get a very audible squeak from the front end. Through the course of time, I had replaced shocks and springs, but the squeak was still there. I just assumed it was a poly bushing I hadn't lubed enough. I was told they were noisier that stock, so I was resigned to live with it.

Amazing what you discover when removing 20 years of history. This is the inside frame rail, behind the engine cross member, drivers side. I think I just found the source of my squeak:



Well, %^^/ . Add another setback to the list.

So in cleaning this up, I couldn't help but be astounded how shoddy the factory weld was in such a critical location. Take a look. Do these edges have any evidence of good weld penetration? No wonder it cracked. As a matter of fact, I cant believe its not worse considering what I put this car through.



Don't worry, I got the angle and die grinder in there to fully dig out the crack before welding it up.


A little too much splatter, but this ought to hold it together. This is pass 2, over a narrower bead in pass 1.



Trying to control the heat so I didn't melt the paint and still get a solid weld was a balancing act.

The passenger side of the cross member was almost as bad - here is the fix for that:



Now I wish I could say I thought to check the rest of the welded joints after this discovery, but I was so angry about being further behind schedule and scraping off sealer now in TWO friggin spots, I couldn't really see straight. The focus was getting these locations sanded, blended and resealed as quickly as possible, which I did, so I could move on to color.

Then it kept gnawing at me over the week. Eating, digging and grinding away in my head - check those other welded joints. Eating breakfast; check those other welded joints... Brushing my teeth: check those other welded joints... In a meeting at work: Check those other welded joints!

ME: Do I really need to? They're probably fine. They were on there for almost 50 years!
ALSO ME: Just take a look at them......
ME:But setting up to weld and repaint is a royal PITA...masking, sanding, cleaning....
ALSO ME: You only want to do this once, right?
ME: Maybe??

Friggin ME.


Fine, I'll look at them.


You tell me - good decision? Passenger side, rear lower control arm bracket:



I understand for a passenger car in the 70s, this was probably fine. Heck, it stood this long, so it cant be all that bad. Did I really need to "fix" it though? Considering the hard hits on the pavement the front end may see going forward, I thought it best to put a full bead both inside and out on every suspension bracket that didn't have one, which was pretty much all of them.

After -




BTW, don't be concerned about that washer welded to the backside of the bracket or all that metal on the inside. That is finely crafted, precision work done by me to clean up an elongated hole in the mount from a previous transgression. Remember, this car went though the entire family before it got to me~!

I don't have pictures of the other locations but they were all pretty bad. The only suspension locations that didn't need reinforcement were the upper control arm mounts, and the engine cross member to frame on the radiator side of the car.

[Grand73Am]

Glad you mentioned that. It's something I'll look for when I do mine. Thanks!