71K5 - BP71K5's Just for fun build

[454Sub]

Brazing with brass, lead, and sometimes old wire coat hangers was common practice when these vehicles were new. Its fallen out of favor as the dangers of lead became known, but if you sand down just about any old muscle car, or trucks of that late 60's early 70's era, it will be a common site. They were wrecked on the regular. But it was different times back then, Vietnam, the Liberal Movement, and blah blah. Drive fast, take chances.

 

[bp71k5]

Yea, the brass isn't so much of a shocker, just that it makes it difficult to hammer out when a giant blob of brass is behind that small hole that was patched. Plus, I didn't want to fuss with welding around it.

So, my wife left to go pick up our daughter from a bday party, so I had another hour I could spend on this.

Everybody like the panel clamps with tack welding pictures right?

 

[BAYBLAZER]

nice work

 

[70jimmy]

Yea, I knew there was some bondo, but not quite that much.

I just decided to get outside and cut some away.

And rough trimmed the patch to check alignment.

Then took my son out for a ride around the lake in his big wheel. I dug out my old skate board for the first time in 15 years. Pretty relaxing day so far.

Nice work Brian!! Hey kid get on your own side of the road!!!

 

[K5 Jess]

Yea, the brass isn't so much of a shocker, just that it makes it difficult to hammer out when a giant blob of brass is behind that small hole that was patched. Plus, I didn't want to fuss with welding around it.

So, my wife left to go pick up our daughter from a bday party, so I had another hour I could spend on this.

Everybody like the panel clamps with tack welding pictures right?

Nice work!

 

[bp71k5]

Update 2/15/13:

This fender clearancing is a lot more complicated than it looks. I was unhappy with the fender line where I sliced a wedge out. You can see a slight pinch in the arc in this picture near the area where the wheel opening line transitions into a horizontal line.

Another shot:

So I did some more slicing and pushed that pinch inward away from the tire and welded it back up to get here:

I was trying to stay all "purist" on the bodywork and not use any body filler, but it just wasn't going to work. I'm just not that good no matter how many times I watch the you tube video of the guy hammering a fender into a perfect shape and not needing any filler.

Theres a small amount of filler along the weld seams of the patch and some more out towards the door, but its mostly metal otherwise.

It needs a little more hammer and dolly work but it's close enough to start blocking the flat areas out to check for high spots.

 

[woodchk502]

Looking good!

I've been wanting to do the fender mod for years I just couldnt convince myself to do it. On my last outing the front tires made their own room.

 

[76zimmer]

as Jim and I discussed today Brian, body work takes lots of experience or lots of time!
Nice persistance on the panel repair!

 

[bp71k5]

Thanks guys, a little more work and I can finish the other side.

 

[NorCal69]

Very nice work, Brian.

Those "Lips" are such a pain in the arse..

 

[bp71k5]

Very nice work, Brian.

Those "Lips" are such a pain in the arse..

Yea, I tried fabricating a section of it and it's really tough, I think I got it worked it though. I still need to tack weld the inner fender reinforcement lip on the underside near the top. That was even tougher to fix, but I can get some pictures of what I did to make it work.

 

[bp71k5]

Update 3/29/13: two steps backward.

Or rather 250 steps backward. My new radiator is leaking badly from the core somewhere. :angry:

Checked into the warranty process and I have to pay a deposit of $140 in to/return shipping to SC to have them check whether its warranty-able or not. New one is ~$250. I'm not sure I want to risk $140 just to have them tell me it's not covered. Seriously looking at another decent radiator option or putting some goop in this one to try and repair it.

 

[Z71paramedic]

That's not good news. Sorry to hear it Brian .

 

[70jimmy]

I just find a decent radiator shop and have them go thru it. Unless you have one of those fancy shmansy ones. Costs about $100.00.

 

[Greg72]

Update 3/29/13: two steps backward.

Or rather 250 steps backward. My new radiator is leaking badly from the core somewhere. :angry:

Checked into the warranty process and I have to pay a deposit of $140 in to/return shipping to SC to have them check whether its warranty-able or not. New one is ~$250. I'm not sure I want to risk $140 just to have them tell me it's not covered. Seriously looking at another decent radiator option or putting some goop in this one to try and repair it.

Try CATS Radiator up in Fremont. Scotty sent me there when I had a radiator issue. They are a small shop but they do good work andi recall they were reasonable on prices too....

-G

 

[bp71k5]

Yea, the "stop leak" stuff doesn't seem to be a good idea so maybe having a pro look at it is better. If I gotta spend $140, I want to be sure I get something for it.

 

[bp71k5]

Update 3/31/13: leak testing

Happy Easter! Between church an visiting family, I had some down time and decided to take a closer look at the radiator and figure out what is leaking. I clamped hoses onto the inlet and outlet and simply hooked up my air hose at 15psi for a couple seconds.

Then I did the old "spray soapy water on anything that hisses" trick. And I found 4 leaking joints between the core and the side tank. Kinda like this:

I found some YouTube video for something called "Super Alloy 1" welding rod which is supposed to be a low heat repair option for stuff like this.

It looks like a good option, but I have to decide if I want to try it and void my warranty. I found a dent in the lower half of the tank and it looks like the other side tank is ballooned a little bit. I have no idea of the dent or ballooning was there when I got it. I will go get the radiator cap pressure tested to confirm if it could have failed and over-pressurized the radiator. If it tests good, I'll risk the $140. If it tests bad, I'll try soldering the failed joints. They are right near the edge and accessible so I think there's a good chance of success.

 

[76zimmer]

Brian, if the leaks are that small, I would think a rad shop would have an easy time of it...not sure about the repair solder you mention, but I would give that a shot as well, pressure check it again and see where your at!
Clean, clean, clean before your repair though. Good luck man!

 

[bp71k5]

Still doing more research... It looks like Griffin uses an epoxy on the joints for extra strength which would make soldering impossible. A few others on pirate also had this problem, although much later on.

 

[swettysblazer]

Look for some Accu-tech epoxy. That's the only stuff we use to repair Aluminum radiators. It dries an off white color though, so if you wanna keep the aluminum nice and shiny like that I wouldn't do it.