Welding | Eastwood Blog

Posts Tagged ‘Welding’

Mocking up the Bed on Pile House.

Nov 30th, 11 / 0 Comments

Now that we have the cab and front end sheet metal mounted and they are a “bolt-on” affair, it’s time to start tackling the job of making bed mounts, as well as stretching the bed to fit the chassis. I initially was going to shorten the chassis to match the original Dodge wheelbase, but after some time of staring at the truck, and pictures of other trucks, I decided that I think I dislike how “unproportioned” these old short bed trucks look. After some measuring of the truck, and looking at pictures of other trucks, I think the overall appearance of the truck will look more “balanced” with the front of the bed lengthened to meet the cab.

So today we chopped out the metal that was fouling the chassis from the original bed floor first, then once we dropped the bed down we found that the S10 gas tank was hitting the bed and not allowing us to move it around freely. After removing the tank we got the bed sitting about how we wanted it height-wise, and tacked up some metal rods to hold the front part of the bed at that ideal height. We also added some cross bracing inside the bed to keep it from twisting while we are chopping it up and locking it into place. This should be a great exercise to hone my metal brake and bead rolling skills that I need some freshening up on! Check out the pictures below, and keep an eye here on the blog for a lot more updates to come.

1950 Dodge Pickup Project

Somewhere to Lay the Cab

Nov 10th, 11 / 1 Comment

Now that we are back from SEMA, I’ve gotten a big kick in the butt to get some real progress done on Project Pile House. I saw a ton of cool rods out in Vegas, and it helped me gather some ideas and inspiration for this project.

So this week we have dug into the truck pretty good. The big problem we’ve been having is trying to get both front wheel wells center over the front wheels. It seemed each time we changed one little thing, the other side was off and we were chasing our tails. So we decided to take the mounting of the body one step simpler. Instead of trying to get the cab and front end lined up at once, we decided to start at the front, center the front end over the wheels and chassis, and tack weld them into place. We used some scrap metal and tied these into the inner fenders and right onto the chassis. Now we can wiggle the cab around to fit against the fenders with out changing the spacing of everything. Perfect example of where we should have started with the K.I.S.S theory!

After lining the cab up with the front end, we could then eyeball where exactly the cab mounts were going to sit, and how to strengthen the floor of the cab to hold the weight of the cab on the new mounts. You may remember in some of the last posts we welded some plate into the A-pillar post and the kick panel. We need to do the same in the rear as although the rear portion of the floor is fairly solid, we’d rather add some extra integrity while we are there.

The first thing we did was trace out some patterns out of manilla office folders (don’t tell the bosses thats why we needed a pack of 50 folders from Office Depot!), and cut the patterns out of 1/8th mild steel with our Versa Cut Plasma Cutter. Once cut and test fitted I needed to clean the area of the surface rust, then etch the surface clean with our Fast Etch, and lastly add some of our Self Etch Weld Thru Primer to keep the original floor sealed from rusting further.

Once the original floor was prepped, we laid the 1/8″ plates in and got them welded into the cab with our MIG 175. We tied into some of the heavier gauge metal in the floor as well as the B-pillar post where it meets the floor. This should keep the mount area sold while the cab is sitting atop of the chassis. You’ll notice the bolts tack welded to the plates, more on this little trick later.

Now that we have these parts welded in place, we can begin measuring and drilling the holes in the plates in the floor to sit the cab down on, as well as begin making some of the front floor/kick panels to replace the old rotted stuff we took out. Once the floor is solidified a little more, we can make the body mounts for the front end so it’s all a bolt-on-affair from here on. More to come soon, watch this space!

-Matt/EW

1950 Dodge Pickup Project

Pile-House- Somewhere to rest it’s cab

Oct 6th, 11 / 0 Comments

After another week span, I got a few minutes to work on Pile-House today. I began by measuring, aligning, and clamping the original ’50 Dodge cab mounts to the chassis. It looks pretty close to the original holes in the cab. Therefore, all I should have to do is move the holes towards the outer edge of the cab a little more to align with where the cab mount holes currently sit on the brackets.

After I had them clamped in place I used our MIG 175 to lay the first tacks/beads to hold the mounts in place. Once I get the cab to chassis height situated, and the front end mounts welded in, we will be removing the entire cab and front end to begin digging into the suspension, chassis, and running gear. Stay tuned!

1950 Dodge Pickup Project

Building a Battery Box with the MIG135

Mar 10th, 11 / 0 Comments

Once you have spare metal and a MIG135, you start making things just for fun! I made a custom battery box for one of my projects the other day and thought I’d share some pictures. I need to use the metal break here at Eastwood to finish it off with a nice top. All metal is 16 gauge. This car is my “patina queen” and a bit of a “rat”, so it’s all business! I’ll welding tabs onto the sides at the bottom so the battery box can be bolted into the car, but removed if I need to get into that area of the car. Let us know if you have any cool ideas to build with your welder for your project car!

Matt's Motor head Talk, Tech Corner

Welcome back Impala, you have been gone so long!

Mar 27th, 10 / 0 Comments

Everyone loves a good project right? But at times there is a point where some are “too far gone”. Well with the technology of restoration tools/products and the wealth of information found on the Internet these days; one can rebuild most any car with the right patience and skills. In comes this 1961 Impala Convertible project that we have stumbled across on www.Impalas.net .

According to the current owner this car spent 20+ years in a ditch before it came into his caring ownership. This car has appeared to have been quite plagued with rust and rot. Also, it has been in a collision at some point to make things worse. Along the way he picked up countless donor cars, including a 62 Buick convertible and two 4 door 61 Bel Air donor cars, etc. With the use of those donor cars, some pretty amazing work is being done to save a car that most would have parted out on site. Some of the interesting metal work being done includes converting the one spare Bel Air trunk to an Impala trunk, replacing the rear quarters, windshield frame, cowls, front clip, window channels, dash, and so on and so forth. Basically there isn’t going to be a piece of this car that hasn’t been gone over (and possibly replaced!) completely along the way. This is no simple job, and takes some dedication! So hats goes off to a dedicated enthusiast, we can’t wait to see how it turns out in the end! Please see the complete thread with very informative, detailed pics of the build here: http://www.impalas.net/forums/showthread.php?t=686 .