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1973 Gremlin Project.... "The Demise of Sanity"

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BrotherBamc View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote BrotherBamc Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Jan/11/2018 at 10:01am
Originally posted by farna farna wrote:

Just spray some clear over it when done sanding.... would work if you were building a rat rod, but I hope not!!

No rat rod.. 
But, I've been getting really antsy to put this car back together. 
I haven't drove it since the early 90's when it broke down and was put into a garage. 
77 CJ5 360
73 Gremlin 401 4 speed
2006 Dodge Magnum R/T AWD
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote BrotherBamc Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Jan/12/2018 at 2:53pm
Found some "before" pics of the front valence... 

This was a nasty crease from thinking I had 4x4 at one time.. 



Some of the shoddy body work from a prior accident that Granny had... 





Going down to Harbor Freight today and purchasing one of the "cheap" flux welders and hopefully it'll do it's job. Have a few holes that need to be assessed. When I had the stud gun I made plugs for all the holes that are too big just to weld up. 



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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote BrotherBamc Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Jan/17/2018 at 7:31pm
Went and purchased a cheap welder from Harbor Freight the other day. 
You get what you pay for. Especially when it comes to welders. It's such a "dirty" welder, I am not going to do any body work with it that can be seen. Just too much work after welding. I call it "the splattasouris". Like the dinosaurs... It works if you just want to put a big blob on something and hope that it holds. LOL
Anyways... I did some sanding after I patched a few holes. I've been contemplating putting the battery in the back. The battery well is in fairly decent shape. I do need a new battery tray as the original was rusted through in a few spots. I cleaned it all up last night and sanded down the lower radiator valance as that also had a few holes that I patched with the "spattasouris". I also patched a couple holes in the fire wall. 
Long story short version. I got out there this morning and most of the bare metal that I had sanded just last night. flash rusted...!!! 
So, a couple more hours of hand sanding again, I got it all taken off and I had to shoot it with epoxy primer this afternoon. 
Now I am just letting that dry for a couple of hours and then hit it with primer. 









Not too happy with some of my body work. Guess my valance is going to wave at you when I go by.. 


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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote BrotherBamc Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Jan/17/2018 at 9:30pm
It's grey now...





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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote LakesideRamblin Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Jan/18/2018 at 12:27am
Looks good! A lot of hard work.
LakesideRamblin
69 Rambler 360
73 Javelin 360
"If you could kick the person in the pants responsible for most of your trouble, you wouldn't sit for a month." T. Roosevelt
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote farna Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Jan/18/2018 at 8:06am
Sounds like one of the short-circuit type flux core welders. If yours is gas compatible you will find it is much better with a CO2/Argon mix gas and solid wire (or even straight CO2).

Wire welders come in two types -- short-circuit and spray (there are actually four metal transfer types,short-circuit. globular, spray, and pulsed spray, but for simplicity the first two and last two are close enough to each other...). The cheap 120V ones (under $400 or so.. but there are exceptions!) are usually short-circuit types. They will weld ok with gas, but flux core wire is nasty looking! They don't actually arc until the wire touches the metal and creates a short circuit to make heat. That's why the "spit and sputter" -- wire is shorting against metal, melting, shorting again -- continuously. They will weld sheet metal well as they don't build the heat of a spray arc machine.

Most 220V machines are spray arc. Takes more energy to make an arc through the plasma between base metal and wire. Once the arc starts the wire is melting BEFORE it hits the base metal, resulting in a "spray" transfer. These actually work okay with flux core wire, but work even better with shielding gas.

None of the specs say short-circuit or spray arc. In general, if it's 110/120V and under $400 it's going to be a short-circuit machine. I don't know about the cheap 220/240V machines. I would think they are spray arc, but might be just higher amp short-circuit machines.

As far as cheap machines go, I'd try the $179.99 170A/240V Harbor Freight simply because it might be spray arc. Won't be able to tell until you get one though. More of a constant buzz when welding instead of a spit-and-sputter means it's spray arc. But with gas it will make acceptable welds that don't need too much clean-up. Better to get the 120V

I have a cheap Campbell-Hausfeld short-circuit machine. Flux core wire wasn't worth the trouble -- too much mess to clean after, but it works fine with gas (I use CO2/argon blend). The only trouble I've had is the duty cycle. I think it's rated at 20%, which roughly means 20 minutes of welding out of an hour. I was welding a gate in the middle of a hot summer day and could only weld about 10 minutes after it got hot before it started overheating again. Made a couple hour welding job a most of the day job. They will shut down when over heated, but start to "act up" before they get that hot. Once it shuts down you have to leave it for at least an hour to do any good welding. If I'd been welding thinner material it wouldn't have got so hot.

None of the HF 110/120V welders are gas capable, only the cheap 240V machine is -- which leads me to believe it's a short-circuit machine due to price....  Better to save up and get that MigMax 140A 120V machine for $549.99... it's got to be a spray arc machine at that price, and you will not only like it, but be able to weld just about anything up to 5/16" thick. Should work well on sheet metal too. Remember, wire speed affects amperage!! Faster speeds draw more amps, but you can get too high a wire speed depending on voltage setting (wire feed machines are constant voltage, draw amps as needed up to limit of machine settings).


Edited by farna - Jan/18/2018 at 8:17am
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote BrotherBamc Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Jan/18/2018 at 9:00am
Part of my problem is that I don't have a 220 outlet in the garage. Years ago I had a new 110 outlet put in and at that time I remember the electrician asking if I wanted a 220. I was on a budget, of course, and could only afford to have the one 110 outlet put in.
And yes Frank, it's a cheap flux core welder. Dirty, dirty, dirty welder is what I call it. And it's cheap. I think I mentioned cheap..??  :)  Less then 100 bucks. 
Friend of mine has a flux core welder from Miller and it's a decent welder. Didn't have any real problems with the spit, spitting and splatting when I used it last fall on a few holes on my hood. It's about a 400.00 dollar welder. 
Welding a fence, or something that will not be seen. Works great. When the time comes to do the rest of the body work. (I have some metal work that needs to be accomplished around the rear wheel wells) That work will be done with a gas welder as I am not going to take any chances with that looking like a pile. :) 
And thank you. This car has been an awful lot of work and when I am done, I am hoping that it will be a nice car too.. 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote BrotherBamc Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Feb/01/2018 at 11:05am
The ole "spattasorous" hasn't been too bad to learn to use. I've learned to easily plug small holes with out blow out..!!!  Big smile

Had a small plastic fire extinguisher mounted here on the drivers side pillar... 



Front of the drivers side rocker had screw holes from trim that plugged up well. 


Other then that, it's been rather slow to say the least. I did manage to get all the old seam sealer out of the interior. I am decided to not re seam seal the firewall or the cowl. The car will never see weather once it's done, so I choose to not mess with it. Filled all the extra holes from the bucket seats that I had in the car. Cleaned, bead blasted, cleaned again and then lightly painted the seat tracks. Plans are is to attach an aftermarket seat to them. Then I can work on the original set of bucket seats that I have. 
Little rusty on the ends. Looks to me that the window was left down and rain filled the back seat well. 
This was after they came out of a soak and a scrub in the solvent tank. 


Good enough.. for now.. 
Been working on the dent in the passenger side lower rocker.. but that's for a different time.. Big smile
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote BrotherBamc Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Feb/06/2018 at 10:15pm
This is what you get when you think your Gremlin is an off roader and this is what I get for thinking my Gremlin was an off roader. The job to fix your stupidity. 
Used a stud puller for the start of it and it was only going to go so far with the studs before I started pulling holes in things. Ouch





So I got this idea... 
And then use the slide hammer. 
I tried to make an attachment by welding a nut to the end of the screw end of a cheap pair of Harbor Freight vise grips. They didn't have enough grip to hold on. 
Plan B.. 

Plan B... 
Another trial and error but ended up winning in the end. 
Drilled holes all the way up and down... 
Had to figure out how to use the bigger slide hammer too.. Little one pounder just wasn't going do the job. No matter how hard I hit it... 




Needs a little touch up on the sanding but it's a lot better then what it was. 





The other side was a little bit easier and almost pulled too hard one to many times and almost pulled it out too far. 
Don't know why I put so much effort into the rockers, I'm gonna cover them with covers anyway. And that's on the list next. Figure out where to put the clips figure out how to install them. Those won't be here till Friday, so let me see what else I can find to do.. Wink
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote mrblatzman Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Feb/07/2018 at 8:35am
That's looking much better...those can be a real challenge....One of the things that really bothers me on cars is to stand back a ways and see wavy/bent lower rocker edges...Lots of redone cars have had no effort put into fixing this common problem...Even if you use the wide stainless moldings and not the thin ones, this area still shows from a distance....Glad to see you are taking the time to do it right....Bob in Alabama
Thankyou....Bob
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