Build thread for the 72 GMC, finally. Thanks John!

Warning. Due to some commitments I've made, this will be an updateless weekend.

If the plans dont unclude the kids, wife, midgets, or making some money, they're not more important than updates.

Have a good weekend tuna

BMW Octoberfest? (I'll be there, pissed at my father though, he "forgot" to enter his 911 and porsche is the marque celebrated this year...)

Huh, weird. I made a post at 11:30 last night and it's gone. :: poof ::

I got my new .023 wire!

But first, I had to bring the pool pump, salt thingie, hoses, cords, blahbittyblah into the attic to make room to actually work. The hardest part was the still-assembled ladder. That was actually harder than it sounds.

I then had no trouble with the new spool, switching over the drive wheel, stringing the new wire through the liner, and then I was ready to go.

Oh wait, you need to switch tips when you switch wire diameter. I remembered that Hobart had sent three tips with the welder, so it was off to look for the 0.023 tip that I hadn't seen for a few long years.

Oh, I found them all right.

Thanks, Hobart, that's much better.

So off to the hardware store today to buy the right tip. No welding for tonight!

I need to get the B pillar more smooth, but check out THAT door gap.

Now what's up with my welder? For some reason it occasionally acts as if the trigger is pressed when it's not. So I was grinding away with earplugs in for a while, and when I stopped I heard welding. This was weird because I was grinding, and there was nobody else in the garage. I looked over where I laid the MIG gun down (no, the trigger was not pressed) and saw this:

Weird, eh?

That autonomous welding is kind of scary. I foresee a vastly increased probability of flash burn while moving the gun into position.

Welding tips... +/- .007, no big deal.

Trigger has dirt in it?

The constant on-off nature of welding sheet metal is rough on triggers. Might want to have a quick peek inside.

What brand welder are you using?

NOHOME wrote: The constant on-off nature of welding sheet metal is rough on triggers. Might want to have a quick peek inside. What brand welder are you using?

Hobart (Miller). It's been very good to be so far. You guys see what I put it through.

I actually prefer .030 tips with .023 wire. If, like me, you are using wire spools from questionable garage sales, overstock liquidations and general junk sales, the added clearance helps with spools that may have some surface corrosion on them.

Yes, I'm cheap. My last lot of .023 welding wire cost me $13. The box had 4 11# spools and 6 2# spools. It's still usable for most general purpose work- just that it had been sitting in a storage room at a defunct machine shop for decades and is covered with gunk.

Well no worries, I redid the microswitch and it seems to work better now.

I made the scariest cut ever tonight. Let's recap.

Before:

During:

This is the scary one:

And after:

I almost ruined this cab like 15 times so far in this restoration. I am getting pretty decent at this stuff. The good news is that the passenger side looks pretty good in comparison.

Looks 100% better

bgkast wrote: Looks 100% better

Thanks dude! That means a lot.

I still am enamored with the doorgap-o-matic...slice, pull, weld, repeat...Looking great!

So, would you say that the practice has improved your welding skills!?

I bet the occasional burn-through when welding a seam does not bother you as much as when you started. Good work once again.

i still dont know how you weld that gap w/o warping the entire cab...

Mad_Ratel wrote: i still dont know how you weld that gap w/o warping the entire cab...

Tiny little short welds on low heat.

Then you grind them all flat.

Then you do more tiny little short welds on low heat for the voids.

Then you grind those all flat.

Repeat. Incessantly.

NOHOME wrote: So, would you say that the practice has improved your welding skills!? I bet the occasional burn-through when welding a seam does not bother you as much as when you started. Good work once again.

Indeed!

And made me appreciate good door gaps a lot more. I saw an otherwise nice looking car which had obviously been restored, but the little detail stuff like that ruined it for me.

Going to a car show really sucks when you've actually restored a car. You notice all sorts of crap that the general public just looks at and goes, "Wow, that's an awesome looking car!"

Of course that same general public doesn't care about orange peel on a 60,000 dollar SUV that would get a car laughed out of a concourse competition.

In reply to volvoclearinghouse:

To me it's worse when you have a halfway restored truck in the garage that is absolutely not worth showing off.

Nicely done!!!

My bodywork sucks compared to yours. Your truck is going to be sooo nice.

Dusterbd13 wrote: My bodywork sucks compared to yours. Your truck is going to be sooo nice.

Dude thanks for the compliment!!

I am not sure it's that great, but I sure am trying. Night off tonight figuring out how to package up some stuff and sending it off combined with some last minute work stuff to get ready for next week.

I forgot to mention that tunawife is having nasal surgery Monday so I will be stay-at-home dad. Should be interesting.

In reply to tuna55:

It'll be fine. Hang out, build a garage, stay at home dad stuff.