Posts: 1,068
Paint flexes.
I use brushed enamel BTW, not rattle can. The properties when dry are totally different. This is what my very flexible sway bar looks like after nearly two years of use:
Attachment 4858Attachment 4857Attachment 4856
(Please ignore the control arms and springs -- they are currently off the car, getting 10 fresh coats themselves).
Bill Robertson
#5939
Location: Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Posts: 3,047
My VIN: 16510 and carbureted
Club(s): (GCD) (SEDOC) (DCUK)
What is that metal plate we see attached to your frame? Some sort of reinforcement? I love seeing pictures of your mods.Originally Posted by content22207
Location: Dahlonega GA
Posts: 2,462
Club(s): (SEDOC) (DCUK)
Just wait til you see the rest of it.
eBay selling at it's best I can tell you stock Delorians and quite a bit of slugs so the Turbo is a super nice up-grade.
K-Jet: Causing electrical issues since November 5th 1955
Posts: 1,068
The Grand Canyon:
CrumpleExtensionRepair1.jpg
Top side of the Grand Canyon -- only the underside flops loose:
CrumpleExtensionRepair12.jpg
Let's fix it...
Aluminum channels:
CrumpleExtensionRepair13.jpg CrumpleExtensionRepair14.jpg
(Lower front edges have been reshaped slightly since those pics were taken)
Big plate across the front:
CrumpleExtensionRepair28.jpg
And of course some bling (aluminum horn brackets):
Paint10.jpg
Repair was made February 2009. Despite dire predictions at the time that I was going to KILL SOMEBODY, the little car has logged at least 15,000 trouble free miles since. Repair was in place when Louie and I drove to New Orleans last year.
Bill Robertson
#5939
Location: Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Posts: 3,047
My VIN: 16510 and carbureted
Club(s): (GCD) (SEDOC) (DCUK)
Wow. That is pretty amazing. Its a shame you aren't in the Delorean repair business.
Posts: 1,068
I have the templates if you want a set.
#2508 got them:
2508NewFrontEnd2.jpg 2508NewFrontEnd1.jpg 2508NewFrontEnd3.jpg
BTW: Please excuse the rusty suspension in #5939's pics. I am in the middle of fixing that -- I promise:
5939NewFrontEnd2.jpg 5939NewFrontEnd1.jpg
Bill Robertson
#5939
Location: Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Posts: 3,047
My VIN: 16510 and carbureted
Club(s): (GCD) (SEDOC) (DCUK)
It is pretty tempting although I don't think my frame is that bad. Maybe 16510 can get an evaluation at DCS.
Posts: 1,068
The Grand Canyon is a PO weld repair that failed.
Having welded #2508's crumple extension, I can attest that it is an extremely difficult area to work in, especially using flux core wire. You will burn a hole straight through it very quickly.
I suspect #5939's welder vaporized the metal underneath his bead. The bead was only hanging on by its edges, and ultimately let go.
My new suspensions should be common knowledge by now:
ByrneArm9.jpg
I anticipate loads on the crumple extension will be negligible thereafter. #5939's extension did do just fine with the full force of the LCA's pushing and pulling on it. Now, all it will have to deal with is the sway bar doing what sway bars are supposed to do (using the sway bar as backwards thrust arms was madness -- the damn thing is too flexible for that).
Bill Robertson
#5939
Last edited by content22207; 09-07-2011 at 08:04 PM.
Location: atlanta, ga, usa, earth, sol, milky way
Posts: 1,088
My VIN: 2072
Club(s): (SEDOC) (DCUK)
Um, yes. Flux core is not the right welding process for our frames!
I'd recommend tig for the thin metal on our frames. _MAYBE_ mig, but tig is probably best.
--buddy
Posts: 1,068
You work with the tools at hand. I have two welders: a little 110 flux core MIG and a gasoline powered stick welder -- I chose the lesser of two evils (I can only dial the stick welder down to 70 amps).
It isn't pretty, but it worked.
There actually is an art to flux welding. Gas welders like to look down their noses at us, but if you ever hand one of them a flux gun they are as helpless as babes in the woods (they keep trying to draw a puddle and end up burning holes in everything they touch).
Bill Robertson
#5939
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