Boy i can not wait to see what you do with this one this year. Dang I have been waiting to see another great mod from you.

Subscribed!!

Wow. This is going to be incredible. Not that we expected anything else from the great Boddaker.

Thank you guys, I will try not to disappoint!  :)
 
 

i cant wait 

This is going to be another one of your cool mods!

Please tell me a massive radiator is going up front in the grill!

Subscribed! Always look forward seeing what you come up with Boddaker.

This is going to be epic, cant wat to see more

Looking forward to seeing more 

Thanks guys!
 
So I went ahead and grabbed me a pack of Alumiweld rods, and gave it a go today.  I think it went fairly well!  There was certainly a learning curve, but it wasn't too difficult to figure out, and I got the hang of it pretty quickly. 


I was going to practice on some spare parts, but didn't really have anything comparable to the 3/4" thick bars, so I just dove right in and started on the first joint:  Welding the two longest pieces together.


I had my hands full with one hand holding the torch and the other feeding the rods, so I couldn't get any in progress pics.  But here's how it went down...
1.  Cleaned parts thoroughly with soap and water, using a wire brush around the areas to be joined.
2.  After drying completely, it got wiped down with acetone.
3.  Bolted down parts to steel plate.  Made sure the two parts could not move at all.
4.  Began heating parts with torch.  This took about 4 minutes to get the aluminum to the correct temperature (in this case, 750ºF)
5.  Started drawing the Alumiweld rod across the joint until it melted into a pool.  This was key to knowing when the alu was hot enough.  Before, the rod would just break off and away, and wouldn't stick.  Once it pooled up, I could work it into the gap with the rod. This took some finesse to get the pool where I wanted it.  I ended up dabbing the rod as it melted along the gap.
6.  Once the gap was filled, I slowly worked my way around the piece, bringing the heat with me as I went.
7.  After going around the entire thing, I quickly moved on to the next part to be joined.  After all three areas were welded, I let the whole thing cool for about an hour.
Here's the result of the first weld:




The welds are pretty messy, but I wasn't concerned about getting a perfect bead on my first try!  I just wanted to make sure I had enough weld built up to close the gaps and be able to grind it down smooth with no pits or sink-holes.


Once it cooled down, i could unbolt it from the steel plate and check it out.


Next step was to stick it in the vice and start smoothing out the welds.  I initially used my bench grinder to get the big chunks, then I moved to the dremel and files.


After the files, I used my orbital sander with 80grit to get all the file marks out.  Next I'll move to 220.


Other side:


A couple close up shots of the welds:




Over all, I think it came out pretty good considering it was my first try.  It really pays to do your research!  I heeded all the warnings about contamination, and made sure everything was as clean as possible.  And it helped to watch all the vids available too.  :)
Tomorrow I'll do the other side, and I'll set up my video camera and see if I can capture some in progress shots for ya.

Didn't get as much work done this weekend as I had originally planned.  On Saturday, I was at my kids' school helping clean up and get ready for the new school year.  Then on Sunday it was just too danged hot, and I tend to get quite lethargic when temps get into triple digits lol.

Anyway, getting to what little progress I did make...  I didn't feel like filing or sanding in this heat, so I decided to just mount the headers to the case.


The first lug mounts in its factory location, then all the others had to be drilled.


A view from the back.  I had a little bit of play to work with, and was able to get them looking symmetrical.


I then proceeded to mark and cut the bottom of the side trim away.  I thought about cutting separate holes for each lug, but that would have made it very difficult to feed the header lugs through since they are all different orientations.  So I just cut the entire area out.




From the side you can't tell where the cut is.


Even when you get down to the header level, it's hard to see the cut line.


And finally a view from the back.


Now that I have one side cut, I can transfer the cut area over to the other side.  Any adjustments I need to make should be minor if any. :)

Nice, the side panel assembly will really be something to look at once you're done.

Hey guys, I'm back on this project!  Got my other obligations out of the way for now, so I can continue on with the Cruizer.  :)

Unfortunately, I don't really have much new progress to show.  I'm still working on the form for the side panel and scoops, adding bondo and sanding.  So nothing new there.  I did get some patching done tho, so I can at least show that...

Due to the bottom rails being transformed into hot-rod style exhaust headers, I only need one of the holes in the trim piece at the bottom.  And since I'm relocating the top rails to the center, I won't need either hole up there.  So I need to plug them up.

I cut out six oval shaped discs and beveled the edges so they fit into the holes.


Here's one of the holes...


And here it is with the disc.


I marked each one so I knew which hole they went into, since they are all different.


After using plastic epoxy to glue them in, I got out the body filler.




Sanded it down smooth.  I started with 80 grit on my orbital sander, then went to 220 grit.  I used some glazing putty to fill in any small imperfections.


After a final light sanding, I shot it with primer.


I'll sand this down with 400 grit, then scuff the entire trim piece and shoot one more coat of primer once I get all the other modifications done on it.

Feels good to be back on this, and I'll be posting more regularly now as work continues. :)

Ok, so I was hoping to have made more progress on this over the weekend, particularly some fiberglass work, but it just didn't happen.  Still sanding and perfecting the surface because it has to be absolutely flawless.  Any blemish on the plug will be transferred directly to the finished fiberglass piece.  So better to try and eliminate all the issues now, than have to fix it later.  :)

That, and this was the last great weekend weather-wise before the rains come this week, and I spent it with the kids doing Halloween stuff.   :)

But I did promise pics, so here's my progress thus far...

When all is said and done, the side panel trim piece will be integrated with the new fiberglass panel, so it will all be one unit.  So more preparation was done to the trim piece.  Holes were drilled all along the inside edge to help facilitate the adhesion of the fiberglass to the plastic.  Typically, the two materials don't stick to one another, so the holes will allow the resin to flow through the plastic.  I'll add the fiberglass cloth to the back side as well to sandwich it together.


I bent a sheet of aluminum to match the curve of the side panel.  The bend was very slight, all I had to do was set it over a 4" acrylic tube and apply a small amount of downward force to replicate the curve.


I set the trim piece face down onto the alu sheet.  Here's a closeup of the curve.


Using the trim piece as a guide, I placed the plug on the sheet and marked it.


Here's a closeup again showing the curve of the alu sheet.  It will serve as a backing for the fiberglass, and support for the plug.


I set the trim piece aside, then removed the plug from the sheet and applied contact cement to both parts, and put them back together.  This was to ensure the plug didn't move while I added epoxy putty all around it, shown here.


Here's the plug in its current state.  The putty is all smoothed out, and creates a nice curved transition between the alu sheet and plug.  It's getting real close to being done!  It will start looking a whole lot better once I get some primer on it and it's all one color.


Once I get a few coats of primer on it and sanded smooth, I'll have to polish it and apply a couple coats of mold release wax, so the fiberglass won't stick to it.  Only then will I be able to start the layup process!