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Because of wet/snowy/salty feet, the pedal cluster tends to rust and corrode quite a bit.  While I, too, recommend a good penetrating oil like P-B Blaster to help loosen things up, you’ll probably end up heating the heck out of it to get it to loosen up.  Expect to repaint the cluster when you’re done converting.  

Last edited by Gordon Nichols

Hey, @Robert M!

billthecat01

  Actually, my MIG welds versus my gas welds are polar opposites.  No one ever really taught me how to MIG weld, but one of the last of the "Lead Men" auto body guys around here (Frannie Maroney, long passed) taught me how to gas weld, so I can do sheet metal butt welds, overlaps, modified spots, you name it, on steel or aluminum with Oxy/Acetylene, MAPP, Butane or Propane cocktails  (gas mixes - those last two more for light brazing or silver soldering).  I inherited my late brother's torch set when his wife was afraid to have it in the garage and got his MIG & TIG welders, too.  I cleaned up my gas heater plenum box seams that Chris did on his MIG with my torch to make them pretty without grinding and they came out great.

Frannie taught me gas welding around 1970 - 1971-ish, when I was just getting started on my '46 Ford coupe which had rotted rocker panels, etc.  I fab'd new steel pieces and welded them in with his guidance.  Unfortunately, he passed away from alcoholism not long after that and never got to show me MIG welds.  

Just to impress the neighbors, my brother had a blow-torch tip for his gas torch that I inherited - it looks like the afterburner on an F-16 when you light it up, can produce a 15" plume and the roar is tremendous.  It eats a lotta gas, but BOY!  Can that thing heat stuff up!  Trouble is, if you get too much acetylene it blows thick clouds of soot all over everything and with a bit too much oxygen in the mix it blows itself out with a bang like a 16-gauge shotgun.  That's especially loud if the garage doors are closed.   The closest neighbors must be getting used to it - haven't seen any neighborhood social media notices of gunshots, lately.  

But, yes.........    My MIG welds still look a lot like bird poop.  What I need is a big welding project, like Chris had when he built my car hauler, to learn by doing.

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  • billthecat01

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...it looks like the afterburner on an F-16 when you light it up, can produce a 15" plume and the roar is tremendous.  It eats a lotta gas, but BOY!  Can that thing heat stuff up!...

..if you get too much acetylene it blows thick clouds of soot all over everything and with a bit too much oxygen in the mix it blows itself out with a bang like a 16-gauge shotgun...



Reading this, Gordon, I'm more comfortable than ever with my decision not to take up welding. And I'm certain the world is a safer place for it.

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I did this yesterday with my 110v MIG.20210726_111552

It isn't the prettiest, but it will hold just fine. The top one I had to grind, I didn't leave enough room for the bead . The bottom one I spaced better and left a groove. It filled in pretty well.

This is DOM steel, .120" wall x 1.25".

This is a removable bar above the transmission to facilitate removing/installing the engine and trans together. It's a Vintage Spyder, but not mine. Just linear compression and tension on this part of the frame, no bending or twist loading.

Oh, and I highly recommend 3M Scotch Brite Clean and Strip discs to clean the mill scale and weld slag off the workpiece. It makes priming and painting a piece of cake.

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Last edited by DannyP
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