SublimeRT Posted July 17, 2014 Report Share Posted July 17, 2014 Hey guys, finally getting around to putting up a build thread on here for anyone interested to check out and to help me keep track of things and keep motivated since this is the forum I frequent the most. Most of this is just a copy/paste from my build thread I started on another site before I started posting here. The subject is my '94 Cobra #3815. It is a factory Rio Red/black cloth interior car, one of 333 in this combo. Nothing really special, but it is a factory rear defroster delete car which I thought was interesting and somewhat unique. I like it as the back glass is smooth with no lines. I bought this car in early '07 with about 100k miles on it and in need of some TLC. I did a few things to it and it was my DD in TN up till about late 2011 IIRC. Now it no longer does DD duties so I would like the car to be clean, simple, easy to work on, and be a good handling, reliable street car, that may see some play days at various tracks. Progress will be very slow due to time and funds, but I try to work on it at least a few hours a week. I have a loose plan of what I want to do, but it may change a bit as I go along. Basic Plan:-NA SBF - probably just freshen up the 302 currently in the car for now -- Dreams of a stroked CHI headed 351W someday-Carbureted-New fuel system plumbing - planning on reusing the factory tank-Current TKO600 - convert to RR 5th gear-8.8 solid rear-3 link rear suspension-Freshen up front suspension-Run new brake lines and freshen up brakes-Through-the-floor subframes & MM full length subframe connectors-Seam-weld chassis-Torque box reinforcement-Mild steel roll bar-Kirkey seats-Custom gauge cluster-Rewire from scratch-HID Retrofit-Smoothed engine bay and firewall-Repaint entire chassis inside and out dove gray or white-Box in radiator and covert from bottom feeder Here it is the day I brought it home back in 07. Ugly chrome wheels, crappy tires, 4x4, foggy lights, 10 ft antenna, blurple tint, looks like it hasn't been washed or waxed in forever, etc. Busted T5. Junk.GoodiesBBK HeadersTKO600Bellhousing for a 3550SRP PedalsFRPP 96-up DSFidanza Aluminum FlywheelBlack Beauty Headlights. Hated them.MGW Chrome plate frame, '03-04 SVT Trunk emblemNitto tires for stock wheels that came with the car.Engine bay after some TLC. AC, smog, egr delete, hid some wires and other things, new plug wires, painted a few things. Nothing too fancy.LEDs in the dash. They were very blue, not teal like the pic. Hard to photograph.Polk components in the doors. Lowes insulation in the doors. (big mistake)RSD I whipped up.New tintCleaned up the interior, MGW bling, new shifter, new headunit, pedalsSVT Tach decalMy horizontals were faded so 96-98 lights went in and were wired up so all 6 lit when brakes were applied. LED tag lights also.Painted this. Held up great. Still looks good to this day.Front suspension/brakes before (I know, I know, jacking a car up on gravel is a no no, but theres jack stands and the jack, and I wasn't under it)After, new Brembo blanks, pads, painted calipers, flushed brake fluid, stainless braided lines, FRPP B springs, detail, etc. Rear got the same treatment but I don't have pics.At this point the car was looking pretty, running, and driving pretty well aside from the dreaded idle woes.BOI smoked headlights, chopped my antenna, put a airdam under itFast forward a few years......was about time for some new tires and a friend had some original 95 Rs with new tires. He hated the wheels and I love them so we worked out a nice deal. Not much else had changed. I put in some MM rack bushings, Energy Suspension motor mounts, new Ford rack, tie rods, and alternator, new TOB; maintenance stuff really. The paint in some spots was starting to get kinda rough. It started slinging belts off for some reason at one point. Distributor kicked the bucket. Started having some intermittent electrical issues. Left me stranded in Memphis on my way from TN to TX for Thanksgiving to see my family and that was the last straw. So I got the GT you see here. Was cherry, stock, ultra low mile. Unfortunately it got keyed shortly after I bought it so that really ruined it for me. I ended up selling the car for my truck I currently have which is my DD.On the way to Texas. Front bumper wouldn't clear the ramps.A little love for the GT. I really really liked this car. I had great plans for her and I.Detailed the hell out of this thing to get the most amount of money on the trade with the key marks and put back to stock to get traded in on my truck. Sad day.Back to the Cobra. Here it was in my two bays at the Dodge store I worked at in TN. I really miss this job. It's pretty apparent I parked it and didn't give it much attention anymore. Looks about like it did when I bought it.My co-workers LT1 CamaroPulled the console for something, don't remember what, it didn't find its way back in though. Liked to pop fuses too! (all over the floorboard)This happened driving in the snow. Was doing about 10 mph and tried to turn. It turned a little then went straight up onto a curb. I wasn't about to sit around and wait for a tow truck as the night grew darker and the storm grew stronger, so I threw it in reverse and gave her hell while my buddy lifted up on the front end. This is the result of that. Fixable. I'm just glad my Cobra airbag didn't blow up in my face.Pretty grungy under there.Washed her up, put the Rs back on.Love the curvy lines on these carsSits a bit higher than it used to. Those are the GTs springs that I just cut a coil off and threw in there.Started tearing it down.I thought about modifying the factory harness to suit my needs for about five minutes.The glorious task of removing the factory tar-based sound deading.I will proudly rock the horizontals from now on. I like them better anyways.I'm not sure how much this will help but I wanted to try it, stitch/seam welding the chassis. I will be doing the whole car as I go along. I leveled the car out on stands and plumb bobbed/measured the car out according to the factory chassis diagram to verify the car was straight before starting all this welding work. I also put the car back on the ground with its weight on the tires before the actual welding started, double checked measurements throughout the process and always kept an eye on door gaps and made sure they opened and closed fine. I'm confident the car is straight. Starting work on the through the floor subs. They are 2x2 and 2x3 11 gauge steel. The 2x2 lays in the front frame rail and the 2x3 goes into the rear frame rail. It was a real pain in the ass but I didn't see any on the market like this, and this is how I wanted them so that's that. How people do these in a few days is beyond me. I bet I have at LEAST a weeks worth of work in these over the course of a couple months.Access hole I cut to see inside the rear frame rail.2x2 laying in the front rail pretty good now.Getting the 2x3 and the angle of it to meet the 2x2 into place.It goes into the rear rail a good amount.What I did with the 2x3 is slice it with a thin cut off wheel on 3 sides of it and bend it over with a pry bar until it was at the right angle. I'd bend it till the gap was gone, put another thin slice in it, bend it till the gap was gone, slice it, etc. Snuck up on it.Got it where I wanted it, tacked it.Checking the fitStill working on the dreaded sound deadener removal as you can see. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SublimeRT Posted July 17, 2014 Author Report Share Posted July 17, 2014 Got the dash and seat back outta the way.Starting to get the drivers side fitted up before any welding of them.This is the passenger side into the rear frame rail. I've heard of guys putting the 2x3 far enough in to reinforce the LCA bolt which I wanted to do but that must be a Fox only thing because on my car there is a big divot in the frame rail that prevents it from going in any further. Perhaps the cut that divot out so they can go past it......Eyeballing my engine bay....the wheels are turning...Hole for the 2x3 on the drivers side. About that divot I talked about earlier in the pass side.....this one wont even allow me to put the 2x3 into the rear rail at all.I thought about notching the 2x3 to go around the divot OR cutting out the divot and welding in some flat stock later on. I chose the latter. Forgot to take pics though as I was kind of pissed about it.Got the 2x3 in and lined up with the 2x2. Same process as the other side so no pics of that.Nothing is welded yetI plan on painting the insides of these things after all welding is complete. Since putting these inside the frame rails is essentially making a metal sandwich I want to try to prevent my frame rails from rusting from the inside out as much as possible. I know what its like dealing with and repairing a rusty car and its not anything I want to deal with in the future with this car if I can help it. I cleaned the insides out well, scuffed up the insides of the frame rails, scuffed up the outside of the connectors, and applied primer. Like I said I will saturate the insides with paint and cavity wax when I'm finished welding.Heavy metal broom.Inside the 2x2I drilled drain holes in the 2x2 in the same locations as the factory rails. Figured it'd be a good idea.All tacked in. No turning back from here.....without copious amounts of cursing.The way the 2x2 sat in the rail I had to tack it to the floor pan basically. This didn't seem very sound to me so I added these little strips on the sides. They got fully welded up later. Also I drilled 5-6 small holes in the sides of the rails afterwards with a spot weld drill bit and plug welded the 2x2 to the front frame rail. These aren't going anywhere.I did many practice welds on extra 2x2 and 2x3 tubing to ensure I was getting full penetration with my setup before doing the deed with these.Whipped up these little plates for the rear bulkhead where the 2x3 enters the rear rails, inspired by Griggs. They didn't turn out as nice as I wanted but it's okay. I think they're mostly aesthetic, and they'll be covered.Made covers for the sections I cut out.This is about where I left it. I was more than ready to move on to another part of the car. Still a few loose ends to tie up but I will tend to them later when I come back around to the interior.Starting the engine bay. Long road ahead of me. Holes everywhere. I'm going to shave almost all of them. Lots of plugs for holes tacked in. Installed some MM C/C plates so I could get the holes in the towers squared away.How I make all these plugs.How it sat as of today. The amount of time up to this point is ridiculous but I am fairly close to finishing up the metal work on this front end.Got a few hours to the car this weekend. I wanted to remove this bracket, IIRC this is where the evap canister was mounted. I don't need it there though so I decided to remove it by drilling out the spot welds and popping it off.It was fairly rusty between them I found out. This has been the only rust I've found on the car so far that's needed metal replacement. Prior to cutting out the bad metal I took a wire wheel on a drill to it to clean it up and there were still deep pits in the metal as you can see.Got a new piece fitted in.All welded up. I'll grind down the welds and smooth it out later and clean up the back side then also.I also got a few rounds of welds in on the drivers inner fender. The bottom will need some hammer and dolly work to get lined up good before I weld it; ran outta time for that today.March 10thGot to work on the car today for a few hours. Cleaned up the welds on the patch.Got this patch on the inner drivers fender almost fully welded up. The welds still need some cleaning up, but outta time.I removed the front bumper, sway bar, wiper motor and linkage, any remaining clips or anything else in the front end. These cars look kinda cool without fenders or anything.Pretty much finished with the metal work on the inner fenders I think. Maybe a bit more finishing, touching up, or hammer/dolly work closer to paint time.The square-ish holes between the firewall and strut towers will be covered with aluminum block off plates I'm going to make and use for fuel/brake lines to pass through. I cleaned up the seam across the firewall a while back too. Had some extra tabs and stuff I won't be needing.Did some seam welding on the front end. I think I will seam weld a few more spots after I pull the engine before paint. I also boxed the upper section with a 16ga plate. That's thicker than the surrounding metal so I figured that'd be good. I've done some smoothing of the wheel sides of these inner fenders too.....kinda get carried away with it. Those keyhole-type holes and those other little ones bug me, but I'm trying to let it go. This is a before pic from a long time ago.Here's now.Other side all welded up.Put the crabclaw spoiler back on the other day, washed the car down, and began cutting out sections of the firewall I'll be replacing but no real pics of that yet.June 7th 2013 updateA while ago I tacked in these little patches on the firewall. I decided I will wait to fully weld them up and finish the firewall after pulling the engine, it'll be a lot easier and more comfortable. You can see the black sharpie marks where I plan to cut out and replace that section of the firewall. I was originally going to leave it and just make aluminum block off plates for the HVAC holes, but the more I looked at those lopsided reinforcement ribs the more it bugs me. If I put an HVAC system back in the car (which I might eventually because this is Texas), it will be a custom setup.Below is some of my tinkering. This is something I'd like to do. Whether it will happen or not I'm not sure yet. I had to mock something up though just to see if it's even feasible. The mock up will no doubt need revisions in design. I think the biggest challenge will be proper ducting INTO the radiator, there is a bunch of #### in the way. I think it will be difficult to get the inlet opening size and ducting length correct. If anyone has any information on cooling system airflow requirements, radiator size requirements, and ducting requirements and such I would appreciate it. Or any pictures and info of similar setups like this. I've come across a few but none in a Mustang; one was a 2nd gen Eclipse, one was a 3rd gen Firebird (IIRC it is an AI car). I have some info but I'm not sure how applicable and/or reliable it is. The Eclipse and Firebird didn't seem to have any real specific parameters they followed.....they were kinda just fit to the car and around any crap in the way.The snout of the water pump has about 1/4" of room in these pics to the exit duct. Not shown in the pictures, but the distributor clears fine as well. The engine will be moved back from its current position. I could probably machine the snout of the pump down a hair as well if needed. Alternator, power steering pump, and (if I decide on installing an HVAC system) AC compressor mounting will all have to be custom jobs and will need to be as low in the car as possible. I am not against using a non factory alternator or power steering pump, so if anyone has any suggestions that would make mounting easier, I'm all ears. The cardboard radiator is at a 30 degree forward tilt, I do not want to go too extreme of a tilt because I do not want the car to have too much difficulty with low speed cooling. Electric fans will be used as well. Also keep in mind the mangled lower core support will be cut off and replaced with tubular steel. I'm not against modifying the upper core support or metal bumper, or even the front bumper cover and headlight header panel a little bit either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve-Oh Posted July 17, 2014 Report Share Posted July 17, 2014 This was long overdue! Thanks for posting up! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SublimeRT Posted July 17, 2014 Author Report Share Posted July 17, 2014 Here is some more tinkering with the roll bar design. The kit I currently have is a Wolfe Racecraft mild steel 4 pt with weld in main hoop cross bar and over the seat and x rear bars to the shock towers. I drove to Dallas and picked this up in person from them. I got home and had the incorrect kit. The main hoop was wrong. I emailed them and they said they bent up a main hoop for a Fox. Even then it just looked screwed up to me, the ends of the main hoop that attach at the floor weren't in the same plane. One was further forward than the other. But they shipped me a whole new kit free of charge (they normally charge $175 for residential shipping) and picked up the bad kit. Accidents happen; that is stand up service and I would recommend them to anyone. The Wolfe kits are more traditional drag race style kits which isn't what I'm going for which is why I only opted for the 4pt kit. I can use the main hoop and X rear bars for my application. After learning about cage design a little bit more I'm not sure I'll use the over the seat bars anymore. From what I gather they're not very beneficial due to the bends and the fact they terminate past the rear shock towers to the rear frame rails. This car will also still be street driven and thus I don't want a halo hoop or A pillar bars to bash my helmetless melon on, BUT I would like some of the benefits a full cage offers with the door bars and footwell protection, etc. So far this is what I've come up with, loosely based off of this. Corner-Carvers Forums - View Single Post - Street safe roll bar?-Main hoop with diagonal cross bar and harness bar in the same plane of the hoop.-Straight down bars from main hoop to rear shock towers-X rear bars from main hoop to rear shock towers. horizontal bar from tower to tower-Kicker bars from rear shock towers down to bottom of the main hoop-Horizontal lower sill bars to front-NASCAR style door bars-Horizontal bar behind dash from A-pillar to A-pillar with a vertical bar off this to the floor for the sill/door bars to attach-Kicker bar from vertical A-pillar bar to firewall down low for footwell protection-Bars from horizontal dash bar to front shock towers.-Thick dimple died sheet metal (prob 16 ga) gussets in a few places and small tube or taco gussets where the dimple died sheet metal can't be used.Here's a pic of the plans for the main hoop and rear bars. Got a seat today finally. It is the Kirkey Intermediate Road Race with the Air Knit cover. 16" wide. I've had some Kirkey Pro Street Drags in an old car of mine with the velour-like covers and this Air Knit material is so much nicer. The seat fits me great. Hopefully I can start mocking it up this weekend. Once I get the seat where I want it I can start mocking up the cage. I'll get one for the passenger side sometime after I find out what size my girlfriend needs; hopefully the same size so things stay symmetrical, ha. I started mocking the seat up. I made a wood bracket for the trial run because I only have enough metal to do this bracket once and do it right. I put the pedals back in and bolted the dash back in a bit and my mock shifter (geez, one day something on this car won't just be a mock-up). The seat back is at about a 20* angle as I have it in these pics. I sat in it and it feels pretty good.I got a seat bracket made up the other day. Nothing too fancy. It will bolt to the stock seat mounting locations. It is just tacked together for now. I have to finish welding it and add a few finishing touches and it should be done. I have some 1/8" thick 5052 aluminum sheet that I am going to make angle brackets from the seat to this mount.....pretty much copying the ones that Kirkey sells but for a little beat cheaper. This is a pic of Kirkeys brackets.The materials I used are 16 ga. 1x2 and 1x1 tubing, 1/8" thick 2" angle steel, and 1/8" steel plate.I finished up my seat bracket and finally got it all mounted up in the car. I think I'm fairly happy with it. Happy enough that I'm not going to redo it right now. The steel bracket is a bit heavy though, I will have to weigh it sometime. Down the road when I get a TIG I'll probably remake them out of aluminum to save some weight. Things like that are why our cars can never be considered DONE. I forgot to take some pics of the bracket after finishing welding it up. I added some L brackets out of the 1/8" angle steel to mount the front to the floor and some gussets to that front joint out of 1/8" plate both for strength and to cap off that vertical 1x2 you see. You get the idea though.I'm glad I chose to bend up my own aluminum brackets rather than purchase Kirkeys. Looking at theirs now that I'm done, I don't think I would have been satisfied with them. I will probably add another bolt on the sides going into the seat between the two I already have for a total of three per side. I will also clean up and paint everything real nice when it comes closer to final assembly time; as it sits there's some marks on the parts from working on them. The seating position, I'm pretty happy with. If I need to modify it later it won't be too big of a deal. It is a tight squeeze getting in and out though, so I am going to look into a quick release steering wheel setup. I kinda wanted to keep the stock wheel and Cobra airbag, but it's not the end of the world. The quick release setups aren't as expensive as I thought either so that's good too. Nothing fancy going on here. Cheap harbor freight sheet metal brake with max rated bending thickness for aluminum of 16 ga IIRC. This is 1/8" thick. Heated it up a bit with the propane torch. Had to weigh it down. Took some muscle but it worked and the brake didn't break or bend at all. I was amazed.Left a pretty sharp clean bend. Surprisingly.Before and after trimming and drilling holes to mount it.After mounting to the seat side.With the cover in place. I will probably put some kind of rubber cap or coating over the end of the bolt so the cover doesn't get a hole worn in it.Both brackets mounted to the main bracket. The marks you see around the bolt holes are from deburring it with my whiz wheel. These are some of the marks I was talking about that I'll clean up later.All put together. You can kind of see the triangular gusset/cap I used in the front of the bracket.In the car finally. It should all look much much better after painting and reassembling the rest of the interior.After getting the cage in I will add a support bracket from the main hoop/harness bar to the seat back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Posted July 18, 2014 Report Share Posted July 18, 2014 WOW!!! shit's serious man lol. awesome work on that engine bay. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SublimeRT Posted July 18, 2014 Author Report Share Posted July 18, 2014 That's everything from my other build thread. Everything now is work I've done that hasn't been posted yet anywhere. For Christmas I asked for and got the Maximum Motorsports manual brake kit. I wanted this for a few reasons; 1. Clean up engine bay more/simplify. 2. Adjustability of the pedal itself, plus it looks cool. 3. I like the firm feel of manual brakes. Quality of the kit was excellent as expected. The install took less than thirty mins, but my car is torn down pretty far, as you may have noticed, lol. Stock pedal box MM goodness Master cylinder adapter, nice anodized black aluminum Partially installed Master cylinder mocked up, I'll be replacing it with a new one. In the car. I will be making a new clutch pedal that matches the brake pedal. For looks and so I can have the same adjustability. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SublimeRT Posted July 18, 2014 Author Report Share Posted July 18, 2014 I was really tired of taping off the intake ports and stuffing rags in them and stuff and the valley itself collecting trash, so I whipped up this thing real quick. Back to the firewall. Big hole Old piece. If you look close you'll see I drilled a hole in each corner before cutting it out. This was to give myself a rounded edge in each corner vs a sharp 90 degree cut. This helps a little in the welding process, the 90 degree cut doesn't handle the heat from welding as well. Pretty straight forward. Just transfer the shape and make it slightly larger. I used 18 ga steel which is thicker than the factory metal here. Makes it easier to weld, handles more heat without warping, stronger, etc. Fitted in place, held with magnets for now on the back side. Tacked in place, prepping for filling in the square holes between the shock towers and firewalls. I was going to leave these but ultimately decided against it. After coming this far I decided they didn't belong anymore. Patch tacked in place. You can also see where I'll be taking out a piece of the shock tower. The factory brake proportioning valve was bolted here. I will be using an aftermarket valve in a discreet location. Piece cut out of shock tower. Tacked in place. Notice the gaps are very tight, touching even in some spots. I make most of my patches tight fitting like this, tack them in place, then go back with a thin cut off wheel and open up the gaps. Sometimes I use a Thin-Cut wheel on a dremel, sometimes I use a 3" dia 1/32" thick cut off disc on a die grinder. Depends on the thickness of the material. Makes the whole process easier and gives me nice consistent gaps. Old piece cut out on pass side. You can see the edge rolls in on it....I didn't wanna deal with that, just easier to cut it out. New piece tacked in Another view further back Overhead view Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve-Oh Posted July 18, 2014 Report Share Posted July 18, 2014 So much win in here! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SublimeRT Posted July 18, 2014 Author Report Share Posted July 18, 2014 Thanks guys. I've got more to add but my lady wanted the computer to watch some Game of Thrones, lol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SublimeRT Posted July 18, 2014 Author Report Share Posted July 18, 2014 Alright. Next up is the dash bar and strut tower bars for the roll bar. I figure I can get this stuff fitted up without the rest of the roll bar being ready. I used 1/8" plate and 1 3/4" .134 wall tube. This is actually tubing from my Wolfe roll bar kit. I'll just get some more tubing when I get around to it. After deciding where I wanted to mount the dash bar I cleaned up the area for the mounting pads. After making some cardboard templates, transferring them to the plate, cutting them out, and dressing them I was ready to tack them in place. I will fully weld things up later. Cut the bar to length and just tacked it in also as it will come out later for painting and finishing of the car. Outside view Next I bent up some extra 6x6 mounting plates I already had, cut two tubes to length and notched them. I didn't tack these in as they will come out for paint too, but it all fits pretty snug. To decide where I wanted the strut tower bars to go after some measuring and eyeballing I wrapped some fishing line around the tube then drilled a little hole that I could fill if I didn't like the location. The funny thing is I actually ended up drilling the big hole for the tube in the wrong spot anyways. I did the passenger side first. The lopsided pinch weld on the firewall didn't allow me to put the drivers side tube as high, so I had to plug the hole I drilled, then make a new one about an inch down. You'll see later. After doing the same thing on the drivers side with the fishing line and cutting my hole I stuck a tube through there to see where I'm at. I notched one side of the tube and cut the other at an angle to meet the firewall. Used some more of the extra 1/8" 6x6 plates for the shock towers. After cutting it out and bending it a little. Here's fixing my mistake and the new hole right below it. After making my new hole and fitting the pass side bar. Cut up and bent a plate for the drivers side. Tacked the plates on the shock towers. Of course all this meant my dash frame does not fit anymore without modification. The big horizontal tube of the frame hits the vertical tube on the drivers side. And the bracket on the right side in the center behind the glove box hits too, and a few other little places but only a little grinding needed there. Took the frame back out. Here are some of the mods done to it. After cutting off the bracket on the right side behind the glove box I bent up this little guy and plug welded it to the frame to go over the dash bar. Next I had to box up the section I cut out. After welding it up and dressing it a bit. Bolted back in and nice and solid. You can see a little bit how it fits around the tube. The horizontal dash bar and the dash frame itself do not touch but they are awfully close. I will probably wrap some kind of something around the dash frame to avoid rattles just in case. While I had the frame out I cut off any little brackets and tabs I knew I didn't need. I also went over the whole thing and smoothed all the edges and welds. I hate how sharp things like dash frames can be. You can stick you arm up under a dash and get all cut up from the edges and little razor thin pieces of metal from the spot welds, etc. I've been doing this on the whole car all along. Can't stand getting cut up over nothing. With the dash pad on you won't see anything except those verticle down bars. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SublimeRT Posted July 18, 2014 Author Report Share Posted July 18, 2014 A little bit more to add till I'm all caught up but I'll do it later. I'm tired. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackmage Posted July 18, 2014 Report Share Posted July 18, 2014 dear lord man. not only do i envy your work, it must be nice to have rust free cars with over 100k miles on them! lol I did not know you had that kind of time and work into it. you have some leetskillz! Can't wait to see more progress! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prokiller Posted July 18, 2014 Report Share Posted July 18, 2014 that's an insane amount of work you've done so far. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
95riosnake Posted July 18, 2014 Report Share Posted July 18, 2014 This makes me want to just start over on my car, lol. Amazing work, and I love how meticulous you are with the patching of holes and stitch welding. The sketch of the planned cage makes me drool, I have a small addiction to extensive cages Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sleeperstang1994 Posted July 18, 2014 Report Share Posted July 18, 2014 I freaking LOVE metal fab! this has made my day. so much win! almost makes me want to work on my car! LOVE IT @Blackmage I need a pinky pie meme! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackmage Posted July 18, 2014 Report Share Posted July 18, 2014 I freaking LOVE metal fab! this has made my day. so much win! almost makes me want to work on my car! LOVE IT @Blackmage I need a pinky pie meme!Want a meme or avatar gif? or what exactly haha Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sleeperstang1994 Posted July 18, 2014 Report Share Posted July 18, 2014 Want a meme or avatar gif? or what exactly haha PERFECT! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SublimeRT Posted July 18, 2014 Author Report Share Posted July 18, 2014 dear lord man. not only do i envy your work, it must be nice to have rust free cars with over 100k miles on them! lol I did not know you had that kind of time and work into it. you have some leetskillz! Can't wait to see more progress! Thanks. I am glad I have not found any more rust. After seeing some other cars rusting, especially in the front framerails, I was a bit worried as up until a few years ago this car was daily driven in TN through snow, salt, etc. IIRC the car was sold new in Illinois so it's always been up north a bit, but I think I'm in the clear. Sometimes it's kind of hard for me to believe that these cars are 20 years old or close to it and issues like rust are becoming more common. that's an insane amount of work you've done so far. Ha, yeah. I didn't plan on all this but my projects are notorious for snowballing. I often go out in the shop at night or when I have free time and just stare at the thing and I think that's what gets the snowball rolling. It's been fun though and I've learned a lot. This makes me want to just start over on my car, lol. Amazing work, and I love how meticulous you are with the patching of holes and stitch welding. The sketch of the planned cage makes me drool, I have a small addiction to extensive cages Thanks. After you get yours back together with this round of mods and enjoy it a while you oughta just go all out and tear it down when you do your engine bay and flare the quarters and all that. You've gotten so much done with your engine setup, trunk, and everything else that I bet it would go pretty quick since all that stuff is squared away already. I can't wait to start on the cage. I've got some ideas up my sleeve for it that I think will be pretty cool. Unfortunately it has to wait until I have a larger welder, tubing bender, and a few other tools. I freaking LOVE metal fab! this has made my day. so much win! almost makes me want to work on my car! LOVE IT @Blackmage I need a pinky pie meme! Thanks, I'm glad you like it. Almost makes you wanna work on yours? Haha, go give it some love. Lol. I don't know where the My Little Pony thing came from but it's funny. I remember my sisters playing with them when we were kids, but i thought MLP ended there. Everything old is new again I suppose. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sleeperstang1994 Posted July 18, 2014 Report Share Posted July 18, 2014 Thanks, I'm glad you like it. Almost makes you wanna work on yours? Haha, go give it some love. Lol. I don't know where the My Little Pony thing came from but it's funny. I remember my sisters playing with them when we were kids, but i thought MLP ended there. Everything old is new again I suppose. I was in the dark until recently and blackmage enlightened me. All good now! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
95riosnake Posted July 18, 2014 Report Share Posted July 18, 2014 Thanks. After you get yours back together with this round of mods and enjoy it a while you oughta just go all out and tear it down when you do your engine bay and flare the quarters and all that. You've gotten so much done with your engine setup, trunk, and everything else that I bet it would go pretty quick since all that stuff is squared away already. I can't wait to start on the cage. I've got some ideas up my sleeve for it that I think will be pretty cool. Unfortunately it has to wait until I have a larger welder, tubing bender, and a few other tools. Yea once I finally get it back on the road again the focus will be moving to a new house and getting a MUCH bigger and better garage setup, then money will get dumped toward getting myself set up machine-wise to do everything in house, rather than having to take some stuff to work to weld, use the metal brake, metal shear, tubing bender, etc. So I figure that process will take a couple years and in the meantime I'll just enjoy the car being on the road. After that I have some very extensive plans for the engine bay, it's going to go much further than just smoothing it. The wide quarters will also happen, and a cage will find its way inside. In the meantime I'll just follow along with your build to keep the ideas piling up in my head. Thanks for taking the time to post all this here. It puts a smile on my face that we have so many guys building SN's on here to a level you rarely see anymore. I see so many guys on other sites discount the 94-98's like they aren't worth the effort, but guys like us look at those curves and can't help but dump time and money into them. Side note, I think @kbscobravert and you could probably exchange notes on the radiator setup, he's doing something similar in his car Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronnie_B Posted July 18, 2014 Report Share Posted July 18, 2014 love the engine bay work!!! glad to see a new build on this level start up Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Det_Riot Posted July 18, 2014 Report Share Posted July 18, 2014 Win win win win win!!!!!! I had no idea your cobra build was this intense. The dash is trick as all hell! Are you doing a full loop cage? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kbscobravert Posted July 19, 2014 Report Share Posted July 19, 2014 Yea once I finally get it back on the road again the focus will be moving to a new house and getting a MUCH bigger and better garage setup, then money will get dumped toward getting myself set up machine-wise to do everything in house, rather than having to take some stuff to work to weld, use the metal brake, metal shear, tubing bender, etc. So I figure that process will take a couple years and in the meantime I'll just enjoy the car being on the road. After that I have some very extensive plans for the engine bay, it's going to go much further than just smoothing it. The wide quarters will also happen, and a cage will find its way inside. In the meantime I'll just follow along with your build to keep the ideas piling up in my head. Thanks for taking the time to post all this here. It puts a smile on my face that we have so many guys building SN's on here to a level you rarely see anymore. I see so many guys on other sites discount the 94-98's like they aren't worth the effort, but guys like us look at those curves and can't help but dump time and money into them. Side note, I think @kbscobravert and you could probably exchange notes on the radiator setup, he's doing something similar in his car Here is what we did on mine. Tubular bumper bar and tubular lower core support.I love the cage idea. The interior in mine is completely out again also. Maybe we do a cage in the next coming months and I might incorporate that dash/firewall bar myself if you don't mind. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SublimeRT Posted July 20, 2014 Author Report Share Posted July 20, 2014 Yea once I finally get it back on the road again the focus will be moving to a new house and getting a MUCH bigger and better garage setup, then money will get dumped toward getting myself set up machine-wise to do everything in house, rather than having to take some stuff to work to weld, use the metal brake, metal shear, tubing bender, etc. So I figure that process will take a couple years and in the meantime I'll just enjoy the car being on the road. After that I have some very extensive plans for the engine bay, it's going to go much further than just smoothing it. The wide quarters will also happen, and a cage will find its way inside. In the meantime I'll just follow along with your build to keep the ideas piling up in my head. Thanks for taking the time to post all this here. It puts a smile on my face that we have so many guys building SN's on here to a level you rarely see anymore. I see so many guys on other sites discount the 94-98's like they aren't worth the effort, but guys like us look at those curves and can't help but dump time and money into them. Side note, I think @kbscobravert and you could probably exchange notes on the radiator setup, he's doing something similar in his car It's no problem at all for me to post up here. I'm just glad to see it's well received so far. Sometimes I wonder if I'm just making a big mess of things, lol. I agree though it's great seeing all the SN builds on here. I felt like I struck a gold mine when I first came across this site. And yeah......those curves....love em. A bit uncharacteristic of Mustangs, but the cars are awesome and have huge potential IMO. It will be great to get your new shop up and running. Building/outfitting it might be nearly as fun as building the car itself. New tools are a close rival to new car parts, ha. I'm very intrigued by your engine bay plans though. Heck, the quarters and cage as well. The wheels in my head are still turning about the quarters for my car; I've got an general idea and look in mind. Sometimes though scary things happen when people think they can improve upon what the designers decided, so I've got to be careful about it. I've got some time to plan for that though. Body work will be one of the last things I do. Thanks for mentioning kbscobravert. I had forgotten about his setup. love the engine bay work!!! glad to see a new build on this level start up Thanks! Been at it for about a year and half-two years now I think, but just got around to posting up here. I work slow. Win win win win win!!!!!! I had no idea your cobra build was this intense. The dash is trick as all hell! Are you doing a full loop cage? Thanks! I am not planning on any halo or a-pillar bars at this time. I will look at things a bit more closely when I get around to the cage, but this car will be primarily street driven and I don't think there's enough room to pull it off safely. Here is what we did on mine. Tubular bumper bar and tubular lower core support.I love the cage idea. The interior in mine is completely out again also. Maybe we do a cage in the next coming months and I might incorporate that dash/firewall bar myself if you don't mind. Very very cool stuff going on with your car. Thanks for posting up. I have seen bits and pieces of what you're up to with it, but I really need to check out your build thread someday in its entirety. I was planning on the tubular lower core support since mine is mangled, but the more I think about it the more I think I'll have to do the tubular bumper as well. I have a few questions if you don't mind. Custom radiator I'm guessing? That's what I was planning. I don't think there's any way around that. But what made you decide the angle to mount it at? Where have you/will you be putting the cap for the system and expansion/overflow tank? Aftermarket fan? Will there be any duct work feeding all this? I don't mind at all if you do the dash/firewall bar in your car. I'm betting it will do much more for a vert (cowl shake comes to mind) than a coupe especially if you were to add some bars off it like the vertical uprights down to the floor and horizontals out to the strut towers, or they could even be terminated at a plate inside the firewall and still do some good. I am not sure how the dash bar will fit with the HVAC box and ducting though, something you will have to consider. I didn't know this until I took my car apart, but that large horizontal tube on the drivers side dash frame doubles as HVAC ducting for the air vent on the far left side. There's a rectangular hole in the bottom of it that a little duct screws to. I cut about a quarter way into that rectangular hole when modifying it to clear the vertical tube. You can kind of tell if you look close at a few of the pics I posted. Also that curved replacement bracket I made for the dash frame on the pass side behind the air bag....I'm not sure if that will cause issues with fitment of the passenger air bag itself. I have removed the air bag and it won't be going back in; just the stock cover will go back on. I'm sure you could do that bracket differently though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kbscobravert Posted July 20, 2014 Report Share Posted July 20, 2014 My radiator is a Fluidyne replacement that has gone through a few stages of modification. The latest of which being converted to dual pass. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sleeperstang1994 Posted July 22, 2014 Report Share Posted July 22, 2014 on the dash mod you mad on the drivers side. did you cut out the section where the drivers vent is at? i assume with all the mod's your not really worried about the vents working lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SublimeRT Posted July 22, 2014 Author Report Share Posted July 22, 2014 Do you mean in the metal dash frame itself? If so, then yes I cut into it a little but not completely. I don't have anything lined up currently as far as an HVAC system, but being in Texas and wanting to drive it as much as possible I will probably put a system back in the car. I'd like to be able to utilize that tube as HVAC ducting just like Ford had it set up. That was one reason I boxed that section back in, so when the time comes and air is blowing through it it will function like stock rather than blowing air behind the dash. I'll get a pic for you in a little bit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SublimeRT Posted July 22, 2014 Author Report Share Posted July 22, 2014 Okay I got two pics. This is what I was trying to explain to @kbscobravert in post #24. Looks like I cut about halfway into it, instead of 1/4 like I said, but you get the idea. This is laying on the drivers floor board looking up. Pic of the duct that screws to it. Just needs to be modified or new one made to fit the new hole. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sleeperstang1994 Posted July 22, 2014 Report Share Posted July 22, 2014 perfect! that's exactly what I was looking for! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SublimeRT Posted July 27, 2014 Author Report Share Posted July 27, 2014 Alright guys, I wish I had more to give right now but after this we'll be all caught up. Pretty much more of the same - work in the engine bay. Fully welding up these patches between the shock towers and firewall. Same on the other side, also the patch where the stock brake proportioning valve was. Smoothed out and put the bar back in. Other side. Smoothed out the back side as well. Other back side before smoothing. Smoothed Same story with this patch here, weld, and smooth. Again with the big patch in the middle of the firewall and on the pass side fixing my mistake from earlier. I wanted to get rid of the stock throttle cable mounting location. Since the car will be carburated I would like to put an aftermarket cable, probably a Lokar, more towards the center of the car and inline with the carb linkage. The location of where I wanted to cut made it a bit tricky, with all the other panels surrounding it. Cut out and fitting a new flat piece. Fit and tacked in. This is how it sits right now. I will finish welding and smoothing it later. You can see to the left I still need to do some finishing of the welds on the big patch in the middle of the firewall. It needs hammer and dolly work to flatten it out a bit before I can finish the welds though, as it got a little bit of warpage from welding. I was expecting this a bit as the firewall is big and flat. Unfortunately I can't reach both sides to do the work with the windshield in the way. But I will pull it out sometime anyways. I was looking at it closer and it is not the factory Carlite windshield. I remember finding glass in the car after I bought it so I guess it got busted out at some point. I would like a Carlite windshield as well. I wasn't too happy with this area of the car. Just some little touches but I think they clean it up and make it look more finished. Also if I end up doing all the radiator ducting it will attract attention to this area so I didn't want it looking unfinished. Before. A few of the holes smoothed up and a little piece cut out. The remaining holes you see, the two small, the one big, and the three stacked, I wasn't sure about so I left, but I decided I will smooth them as well, later on. Little patch tacked in. Fully welded up. Smoothed out. Other side before. Cut out. New piece tacked in. Fully welded. Smoothed and trimmed. I cut these little covers out of some scrap aluminum and steel. These are not the final versions and they're just taped on right now, but you get the idea. They will also both be aluminum, trimmed more, and probably a bit thicker. I think I will weld some nuts to the back side of the car so I can fasten the aluminum covers with some nice hardware so I can still remove them for headlight servicing. I wish I had made the gap from the top of the little filler pieces to the upper core support a little tighter but I don't think I'm going to bother doing so. When the bumper cover and everything else is in place there won't be light shining through like in the pics and the gap will be less noticable I think. I still have a few more things to tend to here in the engine bay until the major metal work is done, but when I say it this time, seriously, I think I'm close to being done under the hood with metal work. A few more little patches, holes, and metal finishing. I've been eye-balling the trunk and a few other areas of the car so that might be next. We'll see. As always, comments, constructive critiques, suggestions, and questions are all welcome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Det_Riot Posted July 27, 2014 Report Share Posted July 27, 2014 Looking good! Your metal work is spot on!!! What are you doing about windshield wiper fluid reservoir? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SublimeRT Posted July 27, 2014 Author Report Share Posted July 27, 2014 Thanks man. The reservoir and the rest of that system won't be going back in. My first car had a foot operated pump for the windshield washers and though they worked as designed, they didn't work very well, then the car after that they broke the first winter from freezing, so I've rarely ever used them in any of my cars. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
95riosnake Posted July 27, 2014 Report Share Posted July 27, 2014 I love the updates in this thread, makes me want to go open up a HUGE can of worms on my car and pull the motor lol. What's the plan on the frame rails, are you going to box the top of them, or smooth and leave the recessed channel? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SublimeRT Posted July 27, 2014 Author Report Share Posted July 27, 2014 Thanks man. You must resist the temptation for now, haha. But if it gets too late in the season and starts to cool off before you get her back on the road....The original plan with the bay was to make it stock appearing, just without all the holes. I've tried not to get too carried away with going beyond that idea. I think the firewall and behind the headlights are the biggest departure. With the frame rails I was just going to leave them recessed as is and even up the edges a bit. Do they look like they need some more attention now? I'm debating cutting out/smoothing those 2 creases on each side. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
95riosnake Posted July 27, 2014 Report Share Posted July 27, 2014 I think the frame rails look fine not boxed, I would probably smooth out the little spot weld dents and I'd want to fill in the little gaps between the bottom of the strut tower and the frame rail. That's just my preference though, if you don't fill them I'm sure it'll still look awesome when finished. The two creases don't bother me on the sides, but they might be the only shapes like that in the whole bay. Everything else is pretty smooth especially with the ribs on the firewall gone. I think at some point you should lay down a coat of primer over everything so you can get a feel for the shapes without your eye being distracted by the bare metal vs. red paint. That will help you decide on any last minute smoothing ideas and give you an idea of how they'll look in paint. Then just being primer it won't bother you to grind and cut afterward if you decide to do more metal work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve-Oh Posted July 27, 2014 Report Share Posted July 27, 2014 Thanks man. You must resist the temptation for now, haha. But if it gets too late in the season and starts to cool off before you get her back on the road....The original plan with the bay was to make it stock appearing, just without all the holes. I've tried not to get too carried away with going beyond that idea. I think the firewall and behind the headlights are the biggest departure. With the frame rails I was just going to leave them recessed as is and even up the edges a bit. Do they look like they need some more attention now? I'm debating cutting out/smoothing those 2 creases on each side. Lol, that was my exact thought process when I started mine ... might of snowballed a bit. Everything looks very very good, you're killing it with this whole car. Pretty certain I already know the answer to this but what are you using to grind down and finish all your welds as well as all the inside corners? I think the frame rails look fine not boxed, I would probably smooth out the little spot weld dents and I'd want to fill in the little gaps between the bottom of the strut tower and the frame rail. That's just my preference though, if you don't fill them I'm sure it'll still look awesome when finished. The two creases don't bother me on the sides, but they might be the only shapes like that in the whole bay. Everything else is pretty smooth especially with the ribs on the firewall gone. I think at some point you should lay down a coat of primer over everything so you can get a feel for the shapes without your eye being distracted by the bare metal vs. red paint. That will help you decide on any last minute smoothing ideas and give you an idea of how they'll look in paint. Then just being primer it won't bother you to grind and cut afterward if you decide to do more metal work. ^ this Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sleeperstang1994 Posted July 28, 2014 Report Share Posted July 28, 2014 love the updates! Im very tempted to try the behind dash bar and add the through firewall supports as well. How difficult was it to get the holes through the firewall lined up properly? i dont want my firewall looking like swiss cheese trying to find the right hole! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Younts_Autosport Posted July 28, 2014 Report Share Posted July 28, 2014 So much effort has gone into this project, man. Great dedication. I like the ideas you have and can't wait to see where this project goes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SublimeRT Posted July 28, 2014 Author Report Share Posted July 28, 2014 I think the frame rails look fine not boxed, I would probably smooth out the little spot weld dents and I'd want to fill in the little gaps between the bottom of the strut tower and the frame rail. That's just my preference though, if you don't fill them I'm sure it'll still look awesome when finished. The two creases don't bother me on the sides, but they might be the only shapes like that in the whole bay. Everything else is pretty smooth especially with the ribs on the firewall gone. I think at some point you should lay down a coat of primer over everything so you can get a feel for the shapes without your eye being distracted by the bare metal vs. red paint. That will help you decide on any last minute smoothing ideas and give you an idea of how they'll look in paint. Then just being primer it won't bother you to grind and cut afterward if you decide to do more metal work. I think for this car I will leave the spot welds. I like the look of them smoothed, but I kinda like that they're indication of how the car was assembled. The frame rails though, I'm checking them out now. We'll see. The more I look at the creases though the more I think they need to go. They're not even, lol. That is a good idea about getting a uniform coat of primer on it. I was honestly just going to leave it until I primed the rest of the chassis. I have some black primer for another project, but I would like to use white on this car. It would be exciting to see some color, and all one color. Like you said I could also decide if it's truly done or not. Would be a great feeling to call it done. Lol, that was my exact thought process when I started mine ... might of snowballed a bit. Everything looks very very good, you're killing it with this whole car. Pretty certain I already know the answer to this but what are you using to grind down and finish all your welds as well as all the inside corners? ^ this Thanks man! Means a lot to me and keeps me motivated to know people are digging it. I know what you mean about snowballing. I really just wanted to carb it, do the SFCs, freshen the mechanicals a bit, and get it back on the road! I've got an answer to your question below as well. Pretty standard stuff I think, so your hunch is probably correct. I did some work on the car today and decided to document it a bit in case anyone wanted to see the process. love the updates! Im very tempted to try the behind dash bar and add the through firewall supports as well. How difficult was it to get the holes through the firewall lined up properly? i dont want my firewall looking like swiss cheese trying to find the right hole! Thanks man! Go for it! I just commented on your build thread. Seeing the work you've done so far you should be able to handle it no problem. It wasn't too bad getting the holes done right. I only messed up and made the pass side hole too high initially because I didn't assess the whole situation as good as I should have before getting started. It would have been fine if I could have put the drivers side hole up as high, but because of the lopsided pinch weld on the firewall I couldn't. If you go back and check out the pics the horizontal dash bar placement was pretty much dictated by the car itself, it's up as high and far forward as I could get it. The verticals to the floor were pretty easy at that point. The horizontals out to the strut towers I made level and at a 90* angle to the verticals. I kind of just eyeballed how high to put them from the floor. To determine the angle of them and where they should terminate at the strut towers I used a straight edge and eye-balled it from above to approximate it all. With the dash out of the way you can see the horizontal dash bar through the window and visualize where the strut tower bars will fall. After getting a ball park of where I want it to pass through the firewall vertically and horizontally I drilled a small hole that could be welded back up if I didn't like where it was. I wrapped some fishing line around the veritcal tube and pulled it tight through the center of the hole, then taped it on the strut tower to see if everything landed where I wanted it. This is essentially the center of the strut tower tube. I made sharpie marks on the strut tower and firewall to make sure the full width of the tube wasn't going to land too far to either side (this is all 1 3/4 x .134" wall DOM mild steel tube BTW). Once happy with everything I drilled the official hole. From here I notched one end of the strut tower tube, determined the angle for the other end where it will terminate at the strut tower, and then the length of it. I made it long so I had some extra room to work with if my angle wasn't correct. Once I knew the angle was correct I just had to fine tune the length. The plate on the tower was the last thing I made and had to trim a bit more length off the tube to account for the thickness of the plate. Hopefully that makes some sense. I can get some pics and measurements if you'd like. It'd certainly make it easier if you wanted to duplicate what I did. So much effort has gone into this project, man. Great dedication. I like the ideas you have and can't wait to see where this project goes. Thanks dude! I just have a vision in my head and I'd love to see it to the end for a lot of reasons. I'm not too worried about the time and work required as I think it will be worth it. Plus I just enjoy doing it. This is how I get my me time and unwind. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SublimeRT Posted July 28, 2014 Author Report Share Posted July 28, 2014 Alright Steve-Oh, here ya go. I know this is probably nothing new for you and most others here as we have a pretty talented bunch, but I decided to make a little write-up out of this for anyone interested. Left to right, top to bottom. (For some reason my pic is turned 90 and it is not left to right, top to bottom, but you get the idea)-HF right angle grinder-unknown brand but reliable as a brick straight grinder-Blue Point right angle grinder with 2" and 3" roloc backing plates-Dremel-assortment of files-3 1/2" DeWalt angle grinder-red 3M scotch brite pads The consumables are:-3" dia 1/16" and 1/32" thick cut off discs for the die grinders are made by a company called Mibro, I get them from Tractor Supply. I like them better than others I've tried so far. The 1/16" ones I only use for knocking down majority of the welds. The 1/32" ones I use for cutting. When they get worn down and small I save them. I have a lot of them worn down to various diameters. Sometimes they come in handy.-The green discs are 2" and 3" 3M Roloc sanding discs in 50 grit. I've tried cheaper brands and different grits and prefer the 3Ms in 50 grit for this kind of work. When there's space I prefer the bigger 3", seems to be the same concept as using the biggest sanding block you can during body work, produces better results. When the edges of the 3" ones wear out I cut them down for the 2" backing plate. I use these for leveling out the welds after the cut off discs. I buy them by the box wherever I can find them cheapest.-The brown discs are 2" and 3" no name surface prep discs. I use these for finishing the metal after the sanding discs. When these are new they remove just enough material to really smooth things outs. After they get worn a bit they're still good for smoothing things a bit, just not very aggressive at all. Great for getting off paint and rust and stuff as well. I buy them by the box from www.autobodystore.com. Best price vs quality I've found so far.-With the dremel I use little sanding rolls of various grits and a few different grinding burrs. I only use this in very tight spots where these other tools wont fit. I don't really like to use it so I try to avoid it. I also use it with their Thin-Cut discs to set the gaps in patches after tacking them in when I need a small gap, like with thin 20 or 22 gauge metal. With thicker stuff like 18 or 16 gauge I will usually use the 1/32" cut off discs to set gaps.-The DeWalt angle grinder I use with a 3 1/2" dia flap disc. I think the disc is around 60 grit. It's pretty aggressive. I don't use this tool often as it eats metal like nothing and isn't very precise and is just a bulky tool, but it has its place.-The files are great for finish work when they fit in the area that needs work. The power tools can go too far too quickly if not careful.-The scotchbrite pads are great for final finishing and cleaning up light sanding scratches. The straight die grinder and the Blue Point angle grinder are my go to tools that I use the most. So here's todays work. I decided to put a patch in the core support where the stock radiator cap goes. Little patch trimmed out of 16 ga. I always make them big like this when they are on the edge so it is easier to weld and can be ground/sanded/filed down flat. Held it in place with some magnets, checked that it was straight with a ruler, tacked it, then cut the gap with a worn down Thin-Cut disc on the dremel. The small diameter of the disc, about the size of a dime, allows it to cut the curved gap without making it too wide. First round of welds. I try to space them to where I'll just have to make one more pass between them to finish the welds. Spacing didn't quite work on the right side, but no biggie. I grind them down with the grinder and 1/16" disc. If this step isn't done the welds will kind of act like little heat sinks then the next round of welds doesn't work out as good, less penetration. Doing this makes it closer to the thickness of the base material so it all stays consistent. Next round of welds is done between the previously ground down ones. On the edges a copper backing plate helps handle the heat and avoid blowing through the metal. I've got various chunks of copper to use in different situations. Some are copper pipes I've smashed, bent, cut, etc to fit the situation, i've got a curved copper spoon, this flat one with magnets. Here's where my spacing didn't quite work out and what I usually do about it. The ground down welds are from the first round. So the leftover gap was "two welds" as I like to think about it. I'll place a weld next to one of the already ground down ones. Then grind it down. Then weld between them like all the others. I could have probably just run a bead across the "two weld" gap since this is thicker 16 ga but decided to treat it like thinner stuff and do it this way. Fully welded. All knocked down again with the 1/16" thick disc on the die grinder. Here I leveled it with the 3" 50 grit 3M disc. I try to always keep the disc moving and flat as possible relative to the work piece. If held in place to get a certain spot or angled too much it can dig a little too much. It didn't photograph as well as I hoped, but the weld is still a bit visible after the 3M disc. Next is a new 3" surface prep disc. After a little work with it. Again always keep it moving and flat as possible. Scribed a line to cut. Cut almost to the line, still giving myself some room to play with. This core support is two pieces of metal spot welded together. It has an underbite though. I wanted it all even. I knocked down the majority of it with the 3" 3M disc, then finished it off with a flat file to get it straight without going too far. Pretty much finished. Cleaned up the sharp edges and scrubbed it with the red scotchbrite pad. Another view. Even after all this you can still see a hint of the weld if you look closely but it is good enough for paint I'd say. An overall. Hopefully this is helpful to someone. Questions, comments, critiques, suggestions, are all welcome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...