I went to visit a buddy down in Boston this weekend, so not much progress to report.....
...but there is a SOME.
Last night I logged about 4 hours, and managed to get some additional finish welding completed, and then starting plating-in the heim brackets.
I did the "corner-to-corner" fitment which is a real challenge to weld properly. It tends to melt off the corners of the two plates, and in this case since it was slightly uphill the puddle wanted to drip downward a bit as well.
Once I got those front heims boxed-in, I moved my attention to the rear mount.
As always, templates are the key to getting things done more quickly and accurately.
A bit of cutting and a bit of shaping on the disc grinder and the part was ready to burn-in.... Here's how it all ended up at around midnight last night:
If you look at the progression of these pics you can also notice that I was back-stepping the welds on the long side plates throughout the evening.... starting from the center. I'd weld a couple 3" passes.... then work on some plating.... then go over and lay down another 3" pass or two on each side then let those cool while I worked on something else. By the end of the night those 24" long weld sections were complete with minimal warping or distortion.
It was definitely challenging working on the welds close to the heim areas though. There were some fillet welds inside the "pocket" where the heim installs, and I knew that when I removed the heim to get the welding done it was almost certain to shrink and pull the pocket inward....making it almost impossible to get the heim re-installed. I was right.
Fortunately with a little leverage I was able to get the heims (and 0.010" shims) reinstalled and the pressure held them in place perfectly. Then, as I made the weld passes on the outer part of those brackets (along the large flat plate) the shrinkage pulled the pocket back out the opposite way and started to give back the heim clearance I'd lost from the first series of welds. In fact, the pull was good enough that the heims almost wanted to fall out. So I reinserted the 3/4" bolts and snugged them down while all the welds were still hot so that it would cool to the correct final dimension.
The more I get into fabrication like this the more I realize that to do it well, you really have to think about the welding sequences and plan ahead for the inevitable shrinking and movement of metal. If you ignore those realities, and just try to plow ahead and lay down long welds everywhere it's easy to end up with a twisted mess....
-G
