Well Buckaroos, it's been quite a while since I've posted or worked on the car. I'm back on the job now and my feelings are best expressed by this little tune sung by cousin Buck his own self. To wit:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_EcSvn3 ... re=relatedAs it turned out, mama and I had this fantastic idea the week I was cleared to get physical with the grinder, saws and files again. It was so good that it took me on an unexpected 10 day journey, having nothing at all to do with the Locost, which resulted in the following addition to the Smith Family fleet of fine vehicles.
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Small-Front-3Qtr.jpg
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Small-Side-View.jpg
After much discussion and examining of options, it was decided mama's 11 year old sedan and my 9 year old combination beach cruiser/dog-mobile were sorely in need of a consolidated, modern replacement. It was clear we needed a rather unique vehicle that could ride the Garden Club ladies in style with mama, yet on other occasions, transport us along with the 3 sheep dogs plus a camp trailer or haul 10 foot lengths of steel and not look like a FedEx truck. And, I'll be damned, someone right here in North America makes one. Ain't she purdy?
Our decision made it necessary for me to prepare and sell our 2 elderly vehicles as soon as possible to take advantage of a very favorable, time-limited financial offer, which I did. It was also nice to do a little something ourselves along with the economies of the USA, Canada and (I suspect) Mexico. That's why I didn't work on the Locost - until today.
So, now I'm back in trouble again. I'm surprised that I got so stupid again so quickly. My welds have lost what little beauty that had, but are still plenty strong. Thank goodness I'm working on the transmission tunnel and not something that will show.
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Tunnel-Restart.jpg
I did run into a problem trying to MIG weld the sharp angles marked in the photo below. I can't get the nozzle in to the joint and had to be content for the moment to wrap around the outside welds just 1/8" or so. That leaves about 1/2" unwelded inside the joint. This part is for a secondary structure and is very strong as is. I could probably get away with not welding these joints, but don't like the idea and hope someone out there has a suggestion.
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Tough-MIG-Welds.jpg
As a desperate last measure, I tried removing the nozzle and welding flux core style, but that didn't work. It was like popping pop corn. I had tried letting the filler wire extend out long and that sort of worked, but was also like a torch and burned back the edge of one tube a little. That was easy to fix because it was on an outside edge. However, it seemed too risky to try inside just in case it had the same effect in an area I couldn't get to and fix.
This is something I can let go for a while. The part is plenty strong enough to go in place now and I can fix it when I do the final weld of the chassis. Hopefully, this will give me time to find a solution. Does anyone have any ideas about how to weld these narrow joints?
Cheers,
Lonnie
P.S. It was decided that when I finish the Locost, I'd have my own runabout to keep me happy and do silly things with. So, now I have a big incentive to finish the Locost before the current century ends and free up the garage for mama's new ride. You know, I think women are sometimes a lot smarter than they look.