Nothing Special's '71 Bronco

[Gary Lewis]

You are on a roll!  Well done!  

My father frequently said "Misery loves company."  So in a way I'm glad to see that you said "everything always takes 4 times as long as he thinks".  That way I'm not alone.  Nor are you, for that matter.

But, while it does sound like a lot to do, having done it before it'll go a lot faster this time, as you've already seen.  So maybe six or eight good days?  

[Nothing Special]

Well, I got one good evening in on Monday, but another medically induced vacation delayed posting.

I got the plates welded in the top (to provide meat for bolt threads to attach the fenders to the top of the rock rail) and I got the rash bar and all of its four standoffs welded in.

My welding hasn't improved over the last year of not welding, but fortunately it's not any worse and I have a good welder.  One brief moment of concern after I tripped the breaker in the house (I can use this welder on 110V, but not for too long evidently).  The next weld just wasn't working for me.  Then I looked at the welder and saw that it had reset to 16 ga instead of the 3/16" I had been using.  Apparently it doesn't remember its last setting if it loses power.  I'll try to remember that in the future.

Anyway, here is my handiwork.  It'll hold up, but no one will mistake it for professional.







I still need to grind down the welds on top and the back, cut and weld on the end caps and then everything necessary to hang them on the Bronco.  Hopefully I'll be able to put in the 3-4 (or 6-8, or 12-16...) good days before we're planning to take it on the next trip ("just" up to Grand Marais MN to be used as transportation from the campground, not another 'wheeling trip).

[Gary Lewis]

Ok, I have to ask - what's with the "medically induced" delay?  What's going on, Bob?

As for the welding, it looks good to me.  I'm certainly no pro, but it looks substantial and complete, so I'd be proud were I you.  This one is going LOTS faster!  

[Nothing Special]

This was a surgery to finish dealing with the issues I had back in March.  It was planned and went well I'm told.  But I'm feeling a little more beat up than I expected, so I think I'm feeling sorry for myself  Which likely doesn't help.  Anyway, I'm sort of wishing that I hadn't started the rock slider before the Grand Marais trip.  But I'm only one day out of surgery and I'm home and moving around, so if I just take that for what it's worth, it really is worth quite a lot.  Anyway...

I don't know that my welds are anything to be proud of, but I'm sure not ashamed of them either or I wouldn't post pictures.  I see some people's fabrication projects that do look professional, and I know that I'm not going to be that.  But I also know "that ain't goin' nowhere" (one of my dad's catch phrases).  So like I said in my last post, it'll hold up, but no one will mistake it for professional.  And I'm OK with that.  I'm happy that I'm building my Bronco rather than just buying it from professionals.

[grumpin]

Looks great! If I did it, well...picture a molten ball!

Hope you heal quickly.

[Gary Lewis]

Yes, hope you heal quickly.  And thanks for the explanation.

[Nothing Special]

Oh, and the actual quote was "medically induced vacation" which is a slightly dark joke about companies now offering PTO instead of separate vacation and sick time benefits.  I suppose it's easier to administer and it's less easy to abuse.  But it results in people not staying home when they're sick because "I don't feel good enough to take a vacation."  So when it's to the point where I HAVE to take a "vacation" day, it's a medically induced vacation.

Prior to March I had only taken 1 day of PTO for health reasons (not counting for annual physicals or whatever) in the previous 15 years, and that was for food poisoning.  So I've been REALLY healthy, and this spring is an unwelcome new experience for me.  But it's expected to end soon and with a good ending.  So I can't complain ("but sometimes I still do...").

[Nothing Special]

I'm still moving kind of gingerly, but when I offered to go shopping with Lesley tonight she said she'd rather I work on the Bronco.  OK, twist my arm!

Tonight was making the cap for the front of the tube, welding it on and grinding down the welds on surfaces that need to be flat.  So not a lot of progress to show, but still some good progress.  I was pretty beat by the end of that but happy that I had got as much done as I did (and happy that I was at a good stopping point!).

I didn't take any pictures of the ground-down welds, but if you just imagine flat steel you'll get the picture!  But here's a picture of the cap welded on the front of the tube.  And this weld I'm proud of!  The setup was pretty perfect as I could turn the tube so I was always welding on top, it was all new, clean metal (I've come to realize that metal prep is about as important in welding as it is in painting), and I keep being happy with the welder I bought.  But if I could make all my welds look like this I'd post more pictures of them!  (Of course this also gives a close-up of one of the welds I did last time, which isn't bad, but it's nowhere near as pretty as tonight's work.)

[Gary Lewis]

I know why you posted the pic of the welds before grinding.  Those are great!  Excellent looking welds.

And yes, I can picture flat steel.  But seeing the welds themselves is much better.  Well done!

(I hope you heal up quickly.)

[Nothing Special]

I'm only grinding down the welds I have to have flat.  The top and inner side of the tube will be welded to the Bronco's sheetmetal, so those surfaces can't have weld beads standing proud.  Otherwise I'm pretty much leaving the welds as they happen.  If I get any big icicles hanging off or something I suppose I'll clean them up.  But the welds for the rash bar would be really hard to grind out, and I don't want to grind these last welds!  So the welds will be visible from now on, giving proof that I didn't just buy these rock rails!

The healing is going OK.  I still need to go back in for at least one more procedure, and I'll find out then if that'll be it or if there will be one more.  So it keeps dragging out, but the end is almost in sight.

[Gary Lewis]

Glad healing is going fairly well, and hope the next round finishes it.

And I understand not grinding the welds.  I wouldn't either if I had some that pretty.  

[grumpin]

Great job!

[Nothing Special]

Thanks!

As to not grinding the welds, it's not to show them off.  It's a combination of two things.  One is I'm a little lazy.  If I don't have to spend several minutes in a 90 degree garage wearing jeans, gloves, safety glasses, a face shield and hearing protectors, bent over and holding a power tool, then I'm not going to!  I always have an achy back after doing that, and the discomfort during is pretty apparent.  So I leave the ones I can.  Especially the filet welds around round pieces that are hard to grind!

The other is weld strength.  Yes, I know welds are supposed to penetrate so there's still a lot of weld below the surface if it's done right.  And I know I got good penetration on these welds.  Still, the material on the surface isn't hurting either, again, especially on the filet welds.

Plus it keeps my coworker from getting upset with me.  He says " You made that.  You shouldn't grind it down.  It's like your kid.  You made that and wouldn't grind it down, would you?"  (I'm not sure his logic is entirely sound, but he is amusing.)

[Gary Lewis]

I might respond to him with "No, but I would knock off the rough edges."  Isn't that a parent's job?  

[Nothing Special]

[Nothing Special]

A LOT of work today and a lot of progress, but not the kind that shows a lot.

I got the 3/4" high riser welded on the top of the 4x4, and got the end cap for the rear of the 4x4 cut and welded on.  This picture shows that and also the flat steel I made you imagine last time:



I also drilled and tapped the holes to hold the bottoms of the front and rear fenders to the top of the 4x4.  This picture shows the almost completed rock rail held in position to get those holes in the right places.



Then I drilled the holes to get the rear fender flare attached.  The 4x4 doesn't hang down quite as far as the original rocker so I have to angle the flare forward a bit more so it doesn't reach past the bottom of the new rocker.  I probably should have taken a picture of that, but I didn't.

Last but not least, I cleaned up the underside of the sheetmetal (the part that won't be accessible when the tube is in place) and hit it with weld-through primer.  And then cleaned up and painted the new rock rail.  No pictures of any of that either.


So tonight I'm wishing I was allowed to take ibuprofen because I really overdid it today.  Hopefully I'll be up to working on it again tomorrow.  I still have quite a bit to do, but I'm hoping to weld it on tomorrow!

[Gary Lewis]

That is a LOT of work!  Well done!  

I'll bet you are tired and sore.  Too bad about the ibuprofen.  That stuff sure helps me from time to time.  But I hope tomorrow you feel great and get the welding done.  

[grumpin]

Great job!

[Nothing Special]

Thanks!

I didn't feel great today, but good enough to do a lot more work and make a lot more progress, and this time it was progress that shows!

I started off by drilling a whole bunch of holes:




... then a whole lot of time underneath with a flap disk and/or a wire wheel getting stuff cleaned up for welding.  And then this happened:






The plug welds on the sill didn't go so bad, but the ones underneath were a pain, sometimes literally as I was laying under where I was welding.  Like the passenger side last year, welding new, thick metal to thin, old metal is a bit of a challenge, especially in tight quarters.  It's not pretty, but it ain't goin' nowhere.


I still need to grind down the plug welds on the sill, as well as the weld bead along the edge of the sill, and then clean everything up well enough for paint.  I painted the rock rail before I welded it on so I could roll it around to get everything covered, but I hacked up the paint a lot with the clamps (as I knew I would) so that needs work, as well as getting the sill painted.  Then I need to reattach the fender flare and do something with the aux fuel tank straps, lines and wires.  (I'm not going to put the aux tank in yet because I don't really need it and I'm planning on another project next winter which will require dropping it out again.  So I'll wait to put it in until that's finished.)

It'll probably take a few weeknights to get that done, and I do have another medically-induced vacation coming this Friday (hopefully the last of this series, but possibly one more after that).  The next two weekends are tied up with family plans and then comes the Grand Marais trip.  So I hope I can get those weeknights of work in, but at least now it's seeming very likely I will rather than how I felt about a week ago, doubting I'd finish it.

[Gary Lewis]

Progress!!!!    Well done!  

I sure don't envy you doing that on your back.  Yuk!  

But it does look like you'll get it done for your trip.  That is great!