Where my time and money go, when I have it.

[Dirtman]

You should have seen all the frames piled up in the field behind our local Toyota dealer. Amazingly, the problem was never considered newsworthy by the national media. Our local station had a story about it, though, they observed a frame being inspected by the dealer and filmed it. The tech raised the "truck" on a lift and looked it over with a light, if there weren't any holes in the suspect areas, he tapped on it with a 12 oz body hammer and if it didn't go through, the "truck" was pronounced safe and returned to the customer. If I held a sharp punch against a Ford frame and the biggest guy in my shop could punch a hole by hitting it with a sledge hammer, I'd say the frame was weakened. There are no stats for how many people died in accidents because their previously inspected Toyota frame buckled or broke in an accident.

I have bare steel sitting in the snow right now that didn't rust like Toyota frames. There was something tragically wrong with them! As a welding inspector its my job to know metal. To this day I have no logical reason why toyota frames rotted like they did. They had to have dipped them in salt while forming the steel is my only guess lol. Bare carbon steel just doesn't do that! The surface oxidation layer actually protects the steel, this crap rotted from the inside.

 

[19Walt93]

Our body shop manager told me that European and American metal was different than the Asian stuff, he described it as soft. But the sandal wearing, shoulder bag carrying, semi men who write for Consumer Reports love them.

 

[Dirtman]

Our body shop manager told me that European and American metal was different than the Asian stuff, he described it as soft. But the sandal wearing, shoulder bag carrying, semi men who write for Consumer Reports love them.

American steel is Chinese. We send them our garbage scrap and they send us back terrible metal...

If you want metal you buy it from Canada. I've been welding for 20 years, have 6 years of school, it's my life. I can weld Alcoa metal like a champ, i still to this day have never been able to properly weld chinese made aluminum, because it's literally garbage ground into paste and melted.

 

[Roert42]

I can weld Alcoa metal like a champ, i still to this day have never been able to properly weld chinese made aluminum, because it's literally garbage ground into paste and melted.

Now by weld do you mean, weld? Or hold together?

this is some aluminum that I stole from work, that came directly from China. Welded together with some really old Exalloy 41 DC-. Structural? No. Stuck together? Yes.

 

[Dirtman]

Now by weld do you mean, weld? Or hold together?View attachment 55736

this is some aluminum that I stole from work, that came directly from China. Welded together with some really old Exalloy 41 DC-. Structural? No. Stuck together? Yes.

 

[Dirtman]

Super glue would hold better.

Now by weld do you mean, weld? Or hold together?View attachment 55736

this is some aluminum that I stole from work, that came directly from China. Welded together with some really old Exalloy 41 DC-. Structural? No. Stuck together? Yes.

Seek help., super glue is better than that weld.

 

[Roert42]

Super glue would hold better.


Seek help., super glue is better than that weld.

I’m fairly certain that it is actually just a glue stick I used.

 

[Roert42]

The coating on the electrode actually crumbles when you pick one up.

 

[DRanger024]

You guys are funny. I've been welding for the last 13 years, wish I would have gone into a different field.

 

[dvdswan]

Working in a shipyard I feel sorry for the kids that want to become welders. They have no idea of the pains they are in for by the time they are 35-40.

Aside from that I appreciated the thread highjack from you guys....

 

[Roert42]

Working in a shipyard I feel sorry for the kids that want to become welders. They have no idea of the pains they are in for by the time they are 35-40.

Aside from that I appreciated the thread highjack from you guys....

Ship builders union? Old man was BoilerMaker for a few decades.

Either way, I don’t know there are many jobs that will be easy on your body. Skilled/unskilled labor will beat you up, and sitting at a desk all day is not any better.

 

[dvdswan]

Ship builders union?

Navy

 

[Roert42]

Navy

Duh.

2+2=4

 

[dvdswan]

Duh.

2+2=4

NOPE, you're wrong. Common Core math you need to show your work. 2+2=22 you have 2 and add 2 so now you have 22. Jeesh, everyone knows that.

BTW, I was split service, I served Army too.

 

[dvdswan]

So more pics of the build. Various stages of course...

3-link rear driver side...

front coilover driver side...

crossover hoop for the support... also installed a 240sx intake to fit the hoop. Only big deal about it was it was an OBD I setup and I installed on OBD II with no issues, well I did have an intake leak but was able to get it fixed...