A few more pics from Steve's cage install

Steve sent me a few pics he took while I was working, since I was otherwise occupied with actually doing the work.

Here is the "outside" fit of the main hoop and cross bar:

 That's not too bad. We don't have pics of the inside fit, but it was not very good.

I hit the copes with the flap wheel to clean up the dross left over from the plasma cuts:

 Welds:

Not the best looking, but strong enough for the job!

That's about it. Next week I'll weld the main hoop in and get to work on the rear legs. Yay! 

Steve's CRX cage install: Grrrrrrr . . .

I'm not exactly happy with the company (S&W) that bent up this cage. If you remember, last time Steve and I were having some issues figuring out how the heck the middle cross brace tubes are supposed to fit. Steve called them up and from what he related to me of the conversation he had, we're just SOL. There is no way for those tubes to fit as coped with the cross brace being bent as it is. Again, I'm not particularly happy about this or the fact they have no vehicle specific help/pictures/anything. Meh.

Anyway, I did do some work. I didn't take many pics, but here's what I do have:

That's me putting a bevel on the ends of the cross brace tube. Leveling the edge can give you a stronger weld by allowing better penetration. Done incorrectly, and you'll get a weaker joint if the weld isn't made in a manner to allow for enough material to be added to add strength to the joint. On thinner tube like this, it isn't likely that will happen, but it is something to be aware of, so don't go too crazy beveling everything.

Then some TV magic happens and I just so happen to have this one in the oven:

Honestly, the fit wasn't really great. I managed to deal with it, but the bends on the cross bar were about 5* too much. The "inside" of the cross bar had a pretty large gap, which is solidly welded up, but is have preferred a better fit so I could just do one pass and not put so much heat into the joint.

Meh. It's together, pretty level with the top of the main hoop and it is where it needs to be.

That's pretty much it, except I had to deal with this boot thief:

As you can see, he was punished thoroughly! I still don't know why anyone would want to steal my work boots. Ew.

Busy busy busy, but not entirely productive.

So, last week ended with my birthday on Friday. Thursday I went home to celebrate with my family since some of my friends wanted to take me out on Friday. One of my sisters completely forgot about plans for Thursday, so . . . we ended up having dinner really late. I woke up Friday and did a bunch of yard work. YAY! Best way to start a birthday EVER! Right? Friday afternoon comes around and I get a call from a friend. Her car died in a Walmart parking lot . . . I cancel dinner plans and fix the car. Then I drive 3 hours through nasty thunderstorms to attend a funeral Saturday, crashing at a friend's place in the Philly area. I think I'll just stop there . . . Needless to say, the end of last week was pretty effing crazy. This week has been better, but still not as much has gotten done in the shop as I would prefer. Not that I have been completely idle . . . 

I managed to get the last pieces to the seat pan made up for Mike's CB750! Cutting the rear hoop/collar part out was interesting, at least for the inside radius, as it was just barely too small to make it in one cut since the blade on my bandsaw is too wide. Eventually I'll get a proper upright bandsaw . . . but for now, I think everything has turned out pretty well:

I started bending the seat pan:

Here are the sides before and after bending and tweaking:

I think those will do nicely! I think things are looking good. Mike certainly liked to see this pic:

I've been giving a good amount of thought about how to mount the battery tray and the seat pan so that they are secure and yet easy to take off if needed. One of my many side trips over the past week was to my storage unit, which I re-discovered a box of hardware. This is what it looked like after I dumped it all out of the box:

Much of what was in the box were these doohickies: 

That is a threaded insert. They work sort of like a rivet, but instead of just binding two pieces of sheet together or sheet to something thicker, when the smooth part is pulled up into the splined part, you end up with a secure, threaded boss that is very unlikely to strip out. I am going to use a few of these to bolt the seat pan and battery tray in place. I think I might have enough of them:

Another small thing I did for a customer who sent me an ECU to chip was to correct a dent in the bottom cover of the ECU that was actually pushing on the board!

As you can see, the dent was pushing the plastic protective sheet against the bottom of the board, and it was nearly worn through, which would lead to a short and likely destroying the whole ECU! To fix the issue, I took a punch and flattened the area out, but, look at the pic below for a tip on how to save your fingers!

NEVER hold a punch with your fingers when you are hitting it with something that can break your fingers. There are specific punch/drift holders, but simple vise-grips work just fine, too! Save your fingers and keep on working!

I flattened the dent out enough to not impinge on the board:

Inside:

My friend's new truck needed to have the tailpipe welded on to pass inspection. I don't think it is supposed to sit like this:

I haven't used my MIG welder in a while. Can you tell?

Yes, I cleaned it up a bit. MIG welds NEED good grounds to start the arc when the wire hits the work. 

I blocked the wind with a moving blanket, as I only had Argon:

I am going to get my small bottle exchanged for C25 next week. 

This is under the hood of that truck:

It's got a 5.2L V8 with a 5-speed. It is fairly fun to drive! 

This is something I never like seeing on any vehicle:

Please don't let your terminals get like that? PLEASE?