A common joint found in auto repair work, the lap joint is a piece where two pieces of metal overlap each other. An ideal lap weld should have a good amount of weld bead penetration without the upper edge melting back or overlaying. If the upper layer melts too much, the lap joint will be too weak and thin. Making lap welds takes a good amount of practice to get it right, so experiment with your welding angle, arc length and rate of stitching welder travel to find the best combination for you.
Tag: Tig
Project Pile House Shaving and customizing the original dash and glovebox.
While I had the column out I decided to start cleaning up the dash and sort out my brake pedal dilemma on the truck. In order to get under the dash for fabricating the new brake pedal setup and to shave and smooth the dash I needed to pull it out. ….
How to Repair Rust With a TIG Welder- Rusty Door Skin Repair
There’s a handful of ways you can tackle repairing rust in your vehicle and all of them have their place. The most common would probably be cutting out the metal and MIG welding a patch panel in place. While this method is the easiest to accomplish, it can be difficult to blend the weld seam into the surrounding metal. I’ve done repairs this way for many years and they’ve turned out ok, but I’ve always wanted to master TIG welding patch panels and metal finishing the area for a seamless repair. I’ve recently begun switching a lot of my welding projects ….
Shaving the Column- Custom Steering Column Mods
I had previously covered in a few steps how I had come up with the steering setup on the truck. To make it short, I’m using a Packard steering column housing, a custom column shaft, and a Ford steering wheel. To make all of this work together took a bit of work, but I’ve got it all bolted up and it should all jive pretty good when done. Now I need to finish up the small details that will make the column not only look good, but also work smoothly together. I’ll be covering the latter in another post, but for now I decided to show you how I went about shaving the unneeded holes from the column housing.
Custom Hood Modifications- Converting a Multi-Piece Hood to One Piece
One thing that I’ve planned to customize on Project Pile House from day one was the hood. The hood on the truck is a “butterfly” (as I call it) style hood and was a design that Dodge rolled over from 30’s and 40’s trucks. I have taken a 50’s custom type approach to this truck and that style hood wasn’t going to flow. I decided to disassemble the hood and convert it to a one-piece hood.
Welding Supplies- Items Every Welder Needs
Whether you’re a seasoned pro or just starting out in the field of welding and fabricating, there are a few essential tools and supplies that you’ll need commonly. We decided to survey a group of welders (all of different skill levels) and see what welding supplies they commonly reach for when melting metal.
Building Custom Mini Wheel Tubs for Pile House
One thing a lot of longterm builds have in common is that the builder or owner tend to change their minds throughout the build. This has definitely been the case with Project Pile House. Over the past two years I’ve changed Pile House from being a “thrown-together” type build to something a bit more thought out and nicer. Even small items like wheel and tire combo have changed and caused me to go back and adjust things as needed.
Custom Bomber Seat Fabrication
To be honest, I picked just about the worst possible project vehicle I could when starting Project Pile House. It didn’t have much going for it, the body was dented and rusty, the drivetrain was seized and trashed, and the interior was equally as dilapidated. My goal is to show what can be done on a budget with some key tools and a little bit of creative thinking.
Building a Fuel Cell Cradle and Feeding Pile House with Fuel
Lately I’ve changed gears on Pile House and I’ve decided to start working on getting Pile House moving under its own power. I decided to order up a plastic fuel cell from Jegs first. Once I began test fitting it at a few different spots on the chassis it was obvious that the only place I could fit it under the bed was behind the rear axle.