Quote:

---

Great looking welds but a small piece of advice, you should just tack weld all your pieces until you get everything mocked up and into position where everything fits and lines up because if you have to adjust something you will not be happy, trust me I made that mistake and I was not happy. Remember.....progress is progress.

---

Just use some heavy tacks for time being. It'd suck if the DS didn't clear and you had to cut that all out....

Vertical Downs

Otherwise looks great

Quote:

---

Interesting thread and to the OP.

But I'm curious, to those that do these modifications for a living or whatever, what price range would this kind of work (4 link back half)cost if the car was dropped off at a shop, not including rear end, brakes?

---

Quote:

---

R5p7: I am assuming you mean that welding vertical down is a no-no?? I thought that I read that is the way to do a vertical weld. Please advise...I don;t want to compromise penetration or strength . Also, do you weave a joint like that or straight stich? I did a slight weave on these.

Greg.

---

Yes Vertical down welding is a big no no on structural components. If you are doing light sheetmetal work it is applicable, but with something your life is relying on, I'd keep it all vert up.

As stated above you can turn the wire down a bit and be at the edge of short circuit welding almost to globular transfer that will help in keeping the puddle from building to quickly or you can turn the voltage down but you will have to move quicker.

On a vert up weld, you want to move from piece to piece and pause for a brief moment. The heavier the material the longer the pause. On thick steel 3/4" and up you can expect to pause til the count of 3. On this this stuff I'd say maybe the count of 1. Get a couple practice pieces of steel the same thickness to practice with. You'll get the hang of it.

Once you get the hang of it you won't need to count in your head anymore you'll be able to read the puddle and know when to move...

Quote:

---

Quote:

---

R5p7: I am assuming you mean that welding vertical down is a no-no?? I thought that I read that is the way to do a vertical weld. Please advise...I don;t want to compromise penetration or strength . Also, do you weave a joint like that or straight stich? I did a slight weave on these.

Greg.

---

Yes Vertical down welding is a big no no on structural components. If you are doing light sheetmetal work it is applicable, but with something your life is relying on, I'd keep it all vert up.

As stated above you can turn the wire down a bit and be at the edge of short circuit welding almost to globular transfer that will help in keeping the puddle from building to quickly or you can turn the voltage down but you will have to move quicker.

On a vert up weld, you want to move from piece to piece and pause for a brief moment. The heavier the material the longer the pause. On thick steel 3/4" and up you can expect to pause til the count of 3. On this this stuff I'd say maybe the count of 1. Get a couple practice pieces of steel the same thickness to practice with. You'll get the hang of it.

Once you get the hang of it you won't need to count in your head anymore you'll be able to read the puddle and know when to move...

---

Thanks for the advice R5P7. I will follow your words. Is there anything I need to do for the welds I ran vert. down? Or they will be o.k. ? Also, I could slow the wire speed down some or (did you mean)turn the heat "UP"? You stated "down" but maybe that was not what you meant??

Thanks,
Greg.

Quote:

---

It should be, turn the wire and heat down not "or". Since the vert up is a slower process it has time to dig in and fill at lower heat and slower filler material. It will take a little practice to dial the welder in, once you get it dialed in write the settings down somewhere so you always have them.

When changing from flat to vert the heat needs to be turned down. Overhead you can still run the same settings as flat but you gotta move

For the most part the E70 series wire I'm assuming you're using can weld pretty decent in all positions.

Edit....

I looked at your pics again. The verts on the plate should be fine since you were burning edge of the material. But the verts on the tube I'd hit with the grinder and redo them. Just for the simple fact that when you were going down the puddle doesn't have enough time to get into the joint. I'm willing to bet money that some of that joint is untouched, it's just the edges of the weld that are actually fused.

Now there are gonna be guys that have done vert downs and they are fine with that and their cars are holding together and have no problems.

Vibration can wreak havoc on poor welds and where its not properly fused in joints is where the crack will start. Then it's only a matter of time before the whole part fails.

---

Thanks a ton for the guidance. I am going to take your advice and grind down the verts on the tubes and re-weld them the way you said. Once I practice on some extra tubes to get the settings right, I'll use those to reweld them.

On a joint like that, do you weave back and forth as you move up, or just in the middle and straight up .

Thanks again,
Greg.

Quote:

---

Yeah you will want to do a weave from one piece to the other pausing briefly to let it fill a bit.

It's hard to explain without being able to show someone, but once you start practicing you'll see. if you go to fast the sides of the weld will be cold lap, if you go to slow obviously it will fall out. When you get the welder set right and figure out travel speed the edges of the weld will flow into the base metal like your vert downs.

---

Quote:

---

Looks like your coming along fine with your project. Is the cage next or sheet metal to make it look like a car again?

---

Quote:

---

Keep the pictures coming, This is better than a magazine story.
the only advice would be to install the wheel tubs higher then you think so you can go lower in the rear without any problems. and or bigger tires if you want.

Good luck!

---