Cab swap

[Irishman999]

I wish they would just plow the snow and leave it at that. Then it would be just about impossible for the idiots to drive, leaving the roads open to the folks that CAN drive.

All the methods used seem to provide everyone with traction to get their car moving right up to the point they try and stop, and slide into another car. That seems to be every road departments goal, maybe an insurance conspiracy...

 

[dee123]

i know the bolts are 1/2", but does anyone know how long the cab bolts are? mine all broke and the old cab is scrapped already.

 

[Christian Nelson]

Sounds like mag water to me. You even rinse the crap off your vehicle on your lawn, it kills your lawn. ODOT was using it on 2 very bad bridges we have here, that are on extended in the air for miles and riddled with accidents in bad weather. I had heard their intent was to monitor these bridges remotely and able to spray mag water thru electonic sprinklers in the road. I think after manaully using the stuff for about 2 years, and they realized how bad the stuff was even though it works great for melting ice, I believe that have decided to cancel the automated plan due to the harm that mag water does.

Funny you should mention that, since Minnesota recently had a bridge collapse due to fatigue.. It was ruled a design defect, yet it was fine for how many decades?? I cannot help but wonder if the salt had something to do with it..

 

[StuB]

We tried to get a little more done this weekend.

Last week we ran into a problem with the 115v MIG welder not being powerful enough, so we decided to take the cab to my buddies shop...

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I used a wire cup to clean up the undercoating on the hump...

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I also cleaned up/trimmed the edges on the donor cab...

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Then we started trying to tack weld it into place with the 240v MIG welder...

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Parts of the metal are just too thin for the big welder and it's making holes...

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He had the voltage turned down to it's lowest setting and held the tip as far away as he could get away with but it still made holes.

We're going to see if we can borrow or rent something that can handle the job.

We're also going to see if we can do the welding from the underside of the cab, since the metal is a little thicker on both pieces there.

We could then weld a fillet along the edges on the inside of the cab.

I really wanted to get it to the body shop next weekend but now looks like it isn't going to happen.

 

[89Suburban]

 

[foamypirate]

What wire size are you guys welding with? I'd recommend 0.023 wire, it will require fewer amps (a little cooler). Also, if you are burning through, you may want to try turning down your wire speed as well. This will help decrease the amperage (and heat input) as well.

Remember, MIG is CV\VA (Constant Voltage/Variable Amps).

 

[StuB]

What wire size are you guys welding with? I'd recommend 0.023 wire, it will require fewer amps (a little cooler). Also, if you are burning through, you may want to try turning down your wire speed as well. This will help decrease the amperage (and heat input) as well.

Remember, MIG is CV\VA (Constant Voltage/Variable Amps).

We were trying to use .035 wire, with the amperage turned all the way down and the wire speed slowed down...and with the tip held as far off as possible. I picked up some .024 wire last night and we're thinking that it will do the trick this weekend.

Hopefully I can get it ready to go to the paint shop by next weekend.

 

[HotRodPC]

Lets see plenty of pics of your welds guys. And if you remember, let us know your wire size and amp setting on the pic. We wanna see the good bad and ugly welds and you guys can figure out what works well for the rest of us.

 

[StuB]

We had alot of crap going on this weekend and didn't really have much time to get anything done.


That being said, we changed out the wire (.035) for some .024 wire (and a new .023 tip) and it made a HUGE difference.

We did a couple of test welds (circled in green).....

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....and we were very happy with the results.

It worked great, even in the thinnest places, so now we are going to clean up/grind off all the earlier attempts and pretty much start all over again.

Even though it will all end up being covered up with mats & carpet, we are going to try and make it look as neat and tidy as possible.

So, not all that much done, but I feel like we just took a major step towards gittin' it DONE!

 

[89Suburban]

Nice.

 

[HotRodPC]

We had alot of crap going on this weekend and didn't really have much time to get anything done.


That being said, we changed out the wire (.035) for some .024 wire (and a new .023 tip) and it made a HUGE difference.

We did a couple of test welds (circled in green).....

You must be registered for see images attach

....and we were very happy with the results.

It worked great, even in the thinnest places, so now we are going to clean up/grind off all the earlier attempts and pretty much start all over again.

Even though it will all end up being covered up with mats & carpet, we are going to try and make it look as neat and tidy as possible.

So, not all that much done, but I feel like we just took a major step towards gittin' it DONE!

Cool, I'm that way too. Just cuz it'll be covered I still like my work to look neat cuz I'll remember what it looks like under there and won't sleep right if I know its ******.

 

[89Suburban]

Man I remember this thread like it was yesterday. Really sucks when some of these guys disappear in the middle of such great work being shared here.

 

[HotRodPC]

Man I remember this thread like it was yesterday. Really sucks when some of these guys disappear in the middle of such great work being shared here.

Use them mod tools and send him a direct email with a link to the thread and see if you can get him back.

 

[89Suburban]

Use them mod tools and send him a direct email with a link to the thread and see if you can get him back.

We allowed to do that?

 

[HotRodPC]

We allowed to do that?

Go the Mod Cave for an update.