Crusty Rusty Leaky Squeaky 67 Step

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by sduckworth13

Nice work Vic! That does look really nice!

Thanks, Scott... and thanks again for coming over and helping us get the hood off CRLS. Now I can pull the fenders and get the last of the welding done on them.

[sduckworth13]

Your welcome Vic. I'm always more than happy to help.

[Low Elco]

God help the moron that backs into this at Home depot. "cuz you know, it's gonna be there a lot, just pickin' up 2x4's, and mulch, and flowers and stuff.

Good lookin' work!

[tune_1]

Good work, like the changes you are making. Glad to hear that you and your Dad are doing good.

Dwight

[Bennett68C10]

Wow Vic, that bumper mod looks amazing. Awesome job!

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by Low Elco

God help the moron that backs into this at Home depot. "cuz you know, it's gonna be there a lot, just pickin' up 2x4's, and mulch, and flowers and stuff. Good lookin' work!

I'm more of a Lowe's kinda guy, Chip, but I get your drift. Even if you park out in the middle of the lot with no one around, when you come out of the store there'll be a clapped out halftrack parked so close you can barely get in. I'll have to remember to take a "Quik Trip" photo with my first load.

Originally Posted by tune_1

Good work, like the changes you are making. Glad to hear that you and your Dad are doing good. Dwight

Thanks, Dwight!

Originally Posted by Bennett68C10

Wow Vic, that bumper mod looks amazing. Awesome job!

Thanks, Keith... now the nitpicky stuff starts.

The filler panel that forms the step across the bottom of the grille is glued in. The adhesive has only about a 10 minute work window, so you gotta hustle when it comes out of the applicator. It's solid as a rock now. Before I removed the fender to do the final welding, I welded some tabs to the bumper to add some stability to the ends. They will connect to tabs welded to the fenders. Right now, they're just mocked up, and I'll finalize their location when the fenders go back on. The problem with all this is that every time you remove components, they never seem to want to go back on in the exact same spot.

[Elliot949]

This is really starting to come together... Looks great Vic...

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by Elliot949

This is really starting to come together... Looks great Vic...

Thanks, Dan, it's slowly but surely getting there. I finally have both fenders welded, ground and ready for self etch primer and filler. Felt a bit like Dr. Frankenstein looking at his creation once the welding was complete. Looks like the outboard tabs should sturdy enough to keep the ends of the bumper from vibrating. The last thing I'll do is scribe the lines on the bumper to set the gaps to 1/4" everywhere. But there's a lot of bondo work before that can happen. More later.

[hotrod1]

Victor

Why did you use bronze instead of a ER70s-2 or -6? Grindability? What about strength?

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by hotrod1

Victor

Why did you use bronze instead of a ER70s-2 or -6? Grindability? What about strength?

According to posts on WeldingWeb...
Min UTS and YS of SiBr filler is ~ 50ksi and 25ksi, respectively. ER70S-2/6 wires, on the other hand, have a Min UTS and YS of 80ksi and 70ksi, respectively. Brazing is strong given proper joint prep and application. Its all about the design of the joint. Brazing in general won't stand up to any kind of heat above 200-300 degrees, but in a properly designed joint, I have read it can have a tensile strength up to 70KSI which is about equal to ordinary hot rolled steel. Sockets and laps work well with brazing. If you're not loading it near the fatigue limits of steel, bronze makes a plenty strong joint for almost all situations. It's great for tool making when dealing with high carbon steels that are not normally weldable.

I've used SiBr for many years in non structural applications. I wouldn't recommend it on a roll cage for instance, but on sheet metal it works pretty well. It welds at a lower temperature (unless you get in a hurry ) and if you take your time using a low amperage setting, it shrinks a lot less than the ER70S. It grinds much faster than EZ Grind wire or equivalent TiG filler rod. It has it's downsides, such as not playing well with gaps, which is why the joint prep is so important. It also has a tendency to be sooty at higher temps.

The bumper material is about .100" (12-13ga) and welds fine at around 40-50 amps with my Miller Dynasty DX inverter TiG. If I dial it up to 85-90, it goes a lot faster but it puts too much heat in the material and it warps. I'd have problems running ER70S-6 at the lower heat setting so the SiBr was my filler of choice.

[hotrod1]

Originally Posted by Vic1947

According to posts on WeldingWeb...
Min UTS and YS of SiBr filler is ~ 50ksi and 25ksi, respectively. ER70S-2/6 wires, on the other hand, have a Min UTS and YS of 80ksi and 70ksi, respectively. Brazing is strong given proper joint prep and application. Its all about the design of the joint. Brazing in general won't stand up to any kind of heat above 200-300 degrees, but in a properly designed joint, I have read it can have a tensile strength up to 70KSI which is about equal to ordinary hot rolled steel. Sockets and laps work well with brazing. If you're not loading it near the fatigue limits of steel, bronze makes a plenty strong joint for almost all situations. It's great for tool making when dealing with high carbon steels that are not normally weldable.

I've used SiBr for many years in non structural applications. I wouldn't recommend it on a roll cage for instance, but on sheet metal it works pretty well. It welds at a lower temperature (unless you get in a hurry ) and if you take your time using a low amperage setting, it shrinks a lot less than the ER70S. It grinds much faster than EZ Grind wire or equivalent TiG filler rod. It has it's downsides, such as not playing well with gaps, which is why the joint prep is so important. It also has a tendency to be sooty at higher temps.

The bumper material is about .100" (12-13ga) and welds fine at around 40-50 amps with my Miller Dynasty DX inverter TiG. If I dial it up to 85-90, it goes a lot faster but it puts too much heat in the material and it warps. I'd have problems running ER70S-6 at the lower heat setting so the SiBr was my filler of choice.

Thanks for the great explanation. I think I will try it. Any other settings on the Dynasty? Have you ever pulsed it with SiBr.

[jlsanborn]

That is coming together buddy! Not that I had any doubt you'd get there but I was sure clenching once you got into all that cutting. I can only imagine the mess I'd have on my hands at this point!

[Xeen]

It came out beautiful Vic, Impressive work!

[snipescastle2]

Vic,
What? No paint ? You're slackin' seriously, outstanding work! I've just about have the engine buttoned up from the cam change. Hope to crank it up tonight or tomorrow evening.next project will be the power steering gear box, it seems my pitman arm seal is leaking pretty good, and its soaking the bump stop rubber bumper and every time I turn right it would spit out the rubber bumper....$10 a shot. Time to get it done. Have a good one!
Ben

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by hotrod1

Thanks for the great explanation. I think I will try it. Any other settings on the Dynasty? Have you ever pulsed it with SiBr.

My Dynasty DX is one of the earlier models (digital readout, analog knobs) and has no pulse feature. The only thing I do is turn the start amps down to the same setting I use for welding to keep it from burning a small hole thru thin sheetmetal when I light it up.

Originally Posted by jlsanborn

That is coming together buddy! Not that I had any doubt you'd get there but I was sure clenching once you got into all that cutting. I can only imagine the mess I'd have on my hands at this point! tj

Thanks, John, I was holding my breath a few times myself. The fact that kept me going was that it was only a $100 experiment more or less. I could have run over to Classic Parts at any time and got a new bumper.

Originally Posted by Xeen

It came out beautiful Vic, Impressive work!

Thanks, Brian!

Originally Posted by snipescastle2

Vic,
What? No paint ? You're slackin' seriously, outstanding work! I've just about have the engine buttoned up from the cam change. Hope to crank it up tonight or tomorrow evening.next project will be the power steering gear box, it seems my pitman arm seal is leaking pretty good, and its soaking the bump stop rubber bumper and every time I turn right it would spit out the rubber bumper....$10 a shot. Time to get it done. Have a good one!
Ben

Hey Ben, glad to hear you're getting SB sorted out. As for paint... I'm underway with the body work. Filler now on both fenders and starting work on the tight spaces. Fortunately, 75% of the fender mods are hidden under the bumper.

[Vic1947]

I know bodywork ain't the most glamorous topic... just didn't want you to think I was slacking off with all this good weather we've been having. Well, maybe a little bit.

[Ol Blue K20]

Looking fantastic!

[Low Elco]

Beddy Beddy nice.

[jaros44sr]

Vic, you nailed it, nice work

[snipescastle2]

Vic,
Lookin' good! won't be long now! by the way, how did your bed situation with the new chassis mods turn out? did everything fall back into place afterwards? I finally got my truck fired up yesterday, need to do a little "Finesse" on the tune, but it's running again. I kinda miss the lope I had with the old Cam, but the drive ability factor is better, and the clanking noise I had been hearing is long gone, I'm guessing that balancer was "Ringing" the pulleys during deceleration causing that clanking sound, because no matter how hard I tried, I could not get it to do it again....
now to fix my steering gear box leak.....
Have a good one and I'll stop by one day here soon.
Ben

[Bennett68C10]

Awesome job Vic!

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by Ol Blue K20

Looking fantastic!

Originally Posted by Low Elco

Beddy Beddy nice.

Originally Posted by jaros44sr

Vic, you nailed it, nice work

Originally Posted by snipescastle2

Lookin' good! won't be long now! by the way, how did your bed situation with the new chassis mods turn out? did everything fall back into place afterwards?...

Originally Posted by Bennett68C10

Awesome job Vic!

Thanks, guys!
Bed ended up in a much better place than before, thankfully. I'd probably be under supervised care if it hadn't.

The front bumper is pretty much solved with the exception of spot filler, a coat of slick sand and blocking. I used some fine line tape to lay out the gap I wanted between it and the valance. Some careful sanding and filing and it looks pretty good. I've turned my attention to the rear to tidy it up a bit. I picked up a painted rear fleet bumper at Classic on Monday and took both it, and the front, to Eagle Stripping. They returned the front bumper to clean white metal everywhere and removed the EDP from the rear bumper. I only plan a few mods out back. I'll narrow both sides to tuck in closer to the quarter panels, make a filler panel to eliminate the gap and weld in the fasteners to smooth out the bumper. Shouldn't be anywhere near the level of pain I endured up front.

[Vic1947]

Some starter shots of the rear for reference...

[Elliot949]

That has,worked in great Vic...can't wait until it is primed so we can see all the lines... Great work buddy ..

[Ol Blue K20]

Doing great Vic. Keep up the great work. It's going to be a fantastic looking truck!