Watching an Epic Fail take shape

I'll let the photos speak for themselves, but here's the thread:

Yes, you too can be smarter than a Ford engineer and build your own control arms with nothing more than angle iron, some tubing and a welder!

my curser hovered over the hyperlink and saw where I was going to be directed to. Not surprised at all.

Love the claw hammer, nice touch. Should be a beer can in the picture though.

I weld stuff occasionally, but I wouldn't trust my welds on a suspension component and I can weld an awful lot better than that. Pretty pathetic design,too. Hope he lives.

That car won't live much longer, hope no one else gets hurt in the process.

This bit is great (emphasis mine) -

Guy who, when all is said & done, probably shouldn't own a welder wrote: funky colors encouraged so that people know something's not right with your mustang.

I was going to make a snarky comment about that line, but I don't think I could do any better than he already has himself.

Love how he wrote it up like a tutorial. As if anyone else is going to want to copy him...

yikes

Is there a betting pool for where it will fail first?

Ian F wrote: Is there a betting pool for where it will fail first?

I'm going with "first hard braking".

I thought it was a joke at first - why wouldn't you use the same round tubing between the pick-up points as the arms unless you were trying to get laffs?

that mustang died the moment a drift enthusiast bought it.. it's just a zombie now.

Hopefully the "fabricator" will not kill anybody when his custom A-arms fail.

I assume that the drift events do not have tech inspectors?

mad_machine wrote: I assume that the drift events do not have tech inspectors?

Oh, they do. They check to see if you have an energy drink in your hand

He's going to drive that for realz!? At least it won't be for long.

to save any innocents any injuries... hopefully it'll break when he lets it down off the jackstands

DukeOfUndersteer wrote:

mad_machine wrote: I assume that the drift events do not have tech inspectors?

Oh, they do. They check to see if you have an energy drink in your hand

Quoted for LOLz.

At least the Squidbillies theme is appropriate.

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote:

Ian F wrote: Is there a betting pool for where it will fail first?

I'm going with "first hard braking". I thought it was a joke at first - why wouldn't you use the same round tubing between the pick-up points as the arms unless you were trying to get laffs?

I meant where on the arm (which weld) will fail first. So many to chose from...

its OK guys, he added a gusset:

Strizzo wrote: its OK guys, he added a gusset:

And, he had lunch with a welder.

That gave me a headache.

The real danger isn't that this guy thinks this is a good idea.

The real danger is that nobody has stopped him yet. It is like watching a two year old play with a loaded handgun.

THIS IS KILLING ME!

Background: This write-up details how to make your own modified geometry tubular control arms using cut pieces of stock sn95 flcas and tube steel. Cutting and welding are involved to a certain extent. If you cant weld, learn it. its not hard, nor does it have to look good. The point is to get deep penetration in the metal for the strongest bond. Keep in mind: YOU ARE WELDING FOR YOUR LIFE (potentially). If you don't feel comfortable welding, have lunch with a welder and try it until you can identify what strong and weak welds look like with his/her help. from there perfect your technique. Before welding anything, grind the surface to bare metal and spot weld the piece into place. The "pull" of the weld will knock the geometry of the piece off.

Last, take the grinder to all the welds and hit them with a steel brush attachment. Grind down excess, and reweld parts that look weak, have bubbles, holes until everything feels really solid.

The wording in the tutorial makes it look to me like it's a joke. Have lunch with a welder? Really?

People learn from their mistakes. I have a friend who builds quality race chassis. He started out doing some nasty work, but he was doing it.

I know a magazine that used to feature drifting, and defended it as a legit motorsport.

That's all

I can see why he shortened the trailing part of the a arm.. he wants more lock for drifting.. but that is not the way to do it.

You can do anything with 6 feet of Bubble Tape.