1996 2 door flareside TRX KILLER!

[alwaysFlOoReD]

^^^
Fish plates NOT the same size!

 

[Blmpkn]

Been a few weeks but I got some more done.

The rearmost crossmember has been welded in place..

And I got to start welding on the reinforcement plate behind the driver's spring hanger, frame is mighty thin in a spot or two right there.. this'll do well enough.

I know I really should've rounded the corners of the plate Instead of cutting 45s but.. I'll just take my chances. Better than square corners at least.

Another crossmember will be welded across the frame from the middle of the pictured plate.

Also found a lightweight flywheel that'll fit an m5.. half the weight of stock. It's aluminum with a replaceable steel friction surface. Theoretically should be good for .075 second quicker ET.. once I ditch the steelies for aluminum wheels that'll be a lot closer to .15 second quicker ET.. that's HUGE.. and we all know the damn thing is gonna need all the help it can get lol.

More next weekend.

 

[Blmpkn]

where you do have a point, run the welds out 3/4 or 1” out past where you normally would.

What's the explanation behind that? I like details. Definitely easy enough to do.. I'll go add a little extra wherever I have points.

 

[scotts90ranger]

What's the explanation behind that? I like details. Definitely easy enough to do.. I'll go add a little extra wherever I have points.

My guess is to move the stress risers and heat affected zone out past the plate to a less stressed area, kind of like when drilling a hole well past the end of a crack in fiberglass...

 

[Blmpkn]

My guess is to move the stress risers and heat affected zone out past the plate to a less stressed area, kind of like when drilling a hole well past the end of a crack in fiberglass...

Aahhh yes, makes sense

 

[Blmpkn]

Turns out that the reinforcement plate I started to weld on a few posts up wasn't nearly large enough to hit healthy parts of the frame Kept burning through while trying to weld the right & left sides..

So... Really had no other choice but to hack out a rather large section. Below is how I ended the day last week..

I ended up making the hole slightly bigger today.. about another half inch on both the L&R sides.. and took my time cutting a piece to fit the hole.

Close enough for govt. work!

3 sides welded..

3 sides smoothed... Better way to end the day than last weekend, that's for sure.

Now.. just gotta cut myself the king of all fishplates as well as a couple strips to reinforce the top&bottom flanges of the frame.. and hope I don't run out of gas next weekend until they're all welded on.

I'm sure I will though just the way she goes..

 

[Blmpkn]

Finished welding the scab, aand ran out of gas lol.

Got holes drilled though and edited a quick video. Been a year or so since the last one lol.. bad at this YouTube thing I guess

Inching closer towards greatness, more to come.

 

[Blmpkn]

Kind of a crappy week, which continued through Saturday.. and decided to continue into ranger Sunday oh well. Still got *some* progress done.

Got my fishplate cut & shaped to fit nice and snug inside the frame. Started drilling some holes in it with my step drill bit aaaaaaand then the final "step" I needed suddenly decided that it didn't want to remove any more material so.. another trip to HF this week to buy myself some more step bits.. and then next week I can finally weld this goddamn plate on. It really kills me being SO CLOSE for so many weeks.. to just get halted... every.single.time... by something dumb. Such is life I suppose.

Doing this one properly too.. gonna radius the corners up reeeeeeeal nice

As long as I don't forget again

Someone remind me next week lol.

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

Hey...
Next week...
Radius the corners!

 

[Blmpkn]

Hey...
Next week...
Radius the corners!

Thank you! Lol.

 

[Roert42]

What's the explanation behind that? I like details. Definitely easy enough to do.. I'll go add a little extra wherever I have points.

Corners/ points are the weak points/ high stress points. its all about energy and directing it away from a hard spot

running the weld bead out a ways help to minimize stress risers the same way having a radiused corner does.

Ignore the green words in the picture below.

Notice how the tails taper away from each other .

 

[Blmpkn]

Corners/ points are the weak points/ high stress points. its all about energy and directing it away from a hard spot

running the weld bead out a ways help to minimize stress risers the same way having a radiused corner does.

Ignore the green words in the picture below.

Notice how the tails taper away from each other .


View attachment 132266

Perfect visual, thank you.

I'm gonna go back and add those little 'tails' onto my existing hard corners.. but will be radiusing from here on out. It just looks better.. not that the inside of the frame is exactly visible but... Still lol.

 

[rumblecloud]

Reading thru this post and seeing - realizing what you (many of you ) go thru) makes me wonder what the F do you guys do for a living? I'm retired and I barely have enough time to breathe let alone spend the time and energy it takes to do what you all are doing.

My hat is off to you all. Much respect.

 

[scotts90ranger]

Reading thru this post and seeing - realizing what you (many of you ) go thru) makes me wonder what the F do you guys do for a living? I'm retired and I barely have enough time to breathe let alone spend the time and energy it takes to do what you all are doing.

My hat is off to you all. Much respect.

All the people I see keeping rusted junk going from the rust belt makes me strongly question why they live where they do constantly... I mean I understand the drive but question the motive to keep ruining all the good stuff... all my junk is older than most of what I see here and I can pick any random bolt and just pull it willy nilly like... my '97 ranger has factory exhaust at 240k, '00 Explorer has factory exhaust at 260k...

I mean you do you bud but dang... no envy

 

[Blmpkn]

All the people I see keeping rusted junk going from the rust belt makes me strongly question why they live where they do constantly... I mean I understand the drive but question the motive to keep ruining all the good stuff... all my junk is older than most of what I see here and I can pick any random bolt and just pull it willy nilly like... my '97 ranger has factory exhaust at 240k, '00 Explorer has factory exhaust at 260k...

I mean you do you bud but dang... no envy

Jeeze quit rubbing it in lol.

Id love to live out West somewhere.. it's family and friends that are keeping me where I am.

Reading thru this post and seeing - realizing what you (many of you ) go thru) makes me wonder what the F do you guys do for a living? I'm retired and I barely have enough time to breathe let alone spend the time and energy it takes to do what you all are doing.

My hat is off to you all. Much respect.

I work full time hanging seamless aluminum gutters. If I had my own garage.. rather than having to keep the truck half a county away at my uncle's id be making much quicker progress.. some day