| no I didn't wreck my Z, I'd have to be able to drive it for that, but having a shitty day none the less. I have to get all my parts ready to go out to the blaster/powder coater next week, so I'm hustling to prep everything. Two of the biggest things are smoothing my plenum and getting the subframe ready for the solid bushings. tackling the subframe first I have about 4 hours in so far fooling around with the stock bushings, and am finally down to the outer most race. I have no luck with the air hammer, and no clue how people are able to cut them out inside that bore, so I am using the reciprocating saw to slice em and the air hammer to pop them out. three of them come out none the worse for wear, but one of them is cut completely through the cup about 3cm long. I contemplate leaving it, but it just doesn't sit well, so I prep for welding. 
knowing it's already going to be a hassle to smooth out the bore after welding to fit the bushings I really want to do as good a job as possible, so I decide some practice is in order. I set up my welder and pick up one of the scrap races about the same thickness and the same type of split, and weld it up. 
I had positioned the torch and fed from pretty wierd angles, but it still came out pretty good with full penetration but without distorting or warping the metal. satisfied with the result I move on to the real deal. before I started it occurred to me that being outside in the slight breeze probably wasn't the best idea. I'm pretty much a novice tig welder but even I know that without the shielding gas in place things can go badly, so it's best to do all your TIG welding indoors. The test welds had gone just fine though, and they were longer welds so I thought it would be fine. I lowered my hood and depressed the pedal to get a nice arc going. All was well untill about the third dip of the filler rod a stiff gust came up and my arc started to flutter, I pulled the electrode in closer tightening up the gap to stabilize the arc but the gust strengthened and stripped away my argon safety blanket. the puddle instantly oxidized and popped leaving me with a dime sized hole and a gob of molten metal. 
So now I can press on and try to weld up this ridiculous hole, but it will be impossible with out gooping on the weld and completely screwing any chance of every getting a bushing back in there, or I can start looking for a new subframe. what a pain in the ass >.<; I'm done for today.
|
It's just not my day =( - 
