welding – OKIEROVER.COM

September 5, 2023September 5, 2023

Fender Repair Part 5, MORE Crappy Welding of the Large Fender Patch (Post #622) September 2-3, 2023

In this installment I finish the left rear fender panel. And by finish I mean I had to completed replace the outer fender I had previously welded up. I added a strap to attach the inner fender to the outer fender.

The outer fender’s welds were compromised because I ran out of shielding gas halfway through. The panel was 16 gauge and I swapped it with an 18 gauge. The right thing to do was replace it and “do it right”.

Now, I’m no body man and right to me is probably not right to someone who actually knows what they are doing. As I mentioned in the video I need another 10 or 20 years of welding experience to be “competent”. Over all I’m a lot happier with this replaced panel. The 16 gauge panel would not have worked. It would not have been watertight no matter what I did.

I covered everything with yet another coating of primer. I also put seam sealer in the appropriate places. This only seemed prudent as I am almost certain this will rust again. My hope is it will take at least 20 years to rust out.

I thought some of the welding went a lot better than the previous attempts. I want to say, “I’m getting better.” but I’m pretty sure I’m fooling myself. Most people could probably weld if shown how and a little practice. Welding WELL however is really hard.

So add to the fact I’m saying welding is hard…and welding UPSIDE DOWN is another level. We did not go over this scenario in my class. I’m half tempted to take the class again and do the entire class upside down. I finally figured out the I could weld sideways that worked pretty good. Even with my new sideways technique it didn’t stop me from getting some new holes in my PPE and my skin from hot slag dripping down. My grandson Grady was horrified by the scab in the crook of my elbow. The chunk that got me on the chest made a similar hole there.

I also did quite a bit of cutting and the sparks flying back on me warmed me up a bit. Thankfully my Round House Overalls¹ deflected the sparks and only “warmed” my family package. If you remember this post from December 2010, “The one where I catch myself on fire in the furtherance of Land Rovering” [Okierover] I caught myself on fire cutting the passenger side floor panel. What I learned from that was:

Blue jeans are not safety gear and are a sad substitute for PPE.
Longjohns [IBC] (aka long handles [Collins], thermal underwear, etc…) will keep the flame off you for a brief time.
Your best friends don’t want you harmed, but also want to take videos of you when you are on fire so they can tease you later.

Thanks for reading and Happy Rovering

¹This is my unsponsored review of Round House Brown Duck Overalls. It is a solid 10 out of 10. They are made in Shawnee Oklahoma (Home of Brad Pitt) and at $60.00 a pair (on sale at the time of this posting) a real bargain.

August 17, 2023August 17, 2023

Fender Repair Part 3, Welding of the Large Patches (Post #619) August 12, 2023

Folks…its hot outside.

It is not uncommon for Oklahoma to have temps over 100°F for extended periods of time. Even when I was a kid this happened some summers. The hottest temp I ever remembered experiencing was 125°F during the Combined Arms Exercise (CAX) in August of 1985 while I was serving in the US Marine Corps Reserve. We spent 14 lovely days (without a shower) in the high desert of the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center, also known as 29 Palms [Marines.mil] or “the stumps” as many Marines sometimes fondly remember it.

I recently got to catch up with one of my friends that I had not seen since February of 1986. We talked for hours and brought up that summer and our exploits in the desert several times.

I know we are supposedly experiencing “never before” (not since records have been kept anyway) high temps across the entire earth. I heard a guy offer an alternative theory to the climate warming crisis. He said, “What if we have been living during a historically cold temperature all this time?” That does make you think a bit…

I work in the shoppe as long as I can during these hot days. The GoPro camera usually signals that I’m done when it over heats. The last few videos I have taken the GoPro it has prematurely quit and had to be set on the portable air condition to get it back to operating temperature.

After I’ve had enough with the heat, leaving the shop on these days in July and August on the Southern plains with triple digit temperatures has me feeling a bit like Sir Alec Guinness when he emerged from “the oven” in Bridge Over the River Kwai (1957).

https://youtube.com/clip/Ugkxpvg6PJsI2cItxKk5YIs2Qaf_1TQReYl5

For some stupid reason that video will not embed.

I’ve shown the shoppe temp in previous videos. When the outside temp is 100°F plus. The shoppe temp can easily be 110° to 120°F inside. It’s basically a giant tin oven. It desperately needs an exhaust fan to pull the hot air out. I will be sourcing one and getting it wired in as soon as my budget allows.

I’ve learned four very important lessons in my 58 years of life, that the wisdom of which needs to be passed on to others:

Communism doesn’t work.
Never get involved in a land war in Asia.
Never cook bacon naked.
And not the least of which is, don’t use an angle grinder with a cut off wheel to cut steel plate while wearing shorts and a short-sleeved t-shirt after you’ve had a couple of Cuba Libre’s.

While taking care to follow the “Safety Second” mantra, I cut the steel the night before after a crappy day at work. At least I wore my protective face shield and moved the steel stock away from flammables and the Big White Bus while I ~~showered the entire area including my arms and legs with blistering hot sparks~~ precisely cut the two patches.

I remembered to pack a pair of gloves and to place the fender patches in the Ford F-150 after I cut them Friday night. I was worried that in my haste to get to OKC to eat BBQ and see Mike (who is perhaps my oldest friend), I would miss out on my opportunity to manipulate steel plate using tonnes of pressure with the English Wheel because I left the steel at the Okierover Base Camp. Its happened before.

Thankfully I have awesome friends that have skills and tools I have yet to acquire. JagGuy has an English Wheel in his shop.

Image from TheShed.NZ How to Build Your Own English Wheel

An English Wheel [TheShed.NZ] which if you know anything about its function makes flat stock, curved. For the left rear fender, the last two pieces to weld up are two large arches. The first of which is the big hole in the wheel well, which is where one of the seat belt mounts (which I will have in place but will not use) go. The other is the outer wheel well arch against the outer wall.

I’m going to use his English Wheel to give my patches some curve (parabola) so they are easier to manipulate and weld into place. I’ve never used an English Wheel but am not afraid to try.

I know using the English Wheel is an “art” and people who can produce panels this way charge premium prices due to this highly skilled and labour-intensive production method. I’m not highly skilled and I don’t plan on doing anything that might pass for “labour-intensive”. Just a few tugs and pulls to get a curve. The wheeling will hopefully make my welding and fitting of the panels easier.

The temp actually cooled off for Saturday, apparently the “heat-bubble” popped. We had rain and temps in the 80s. You can watch the video of the wheeling process and the welding of the fenders.

Thanks for reading and Happy Rovering.

Mmmm welding

July 24, 2023July 24, 2023

Fender Repair Part 1, Welding Patches (Post #616) July 25, 2023

I finally broke down and welded something on my Range Rover. While I will admit freely, I am NOT a welder, but I did enjoy getting the patches welded on. I took a few hours the day before this video was shot to “practice” welding with some scraps I had cut off the Big White Bus.

One of the difficulties is the metal on the Range Rover and the metal I am patching with are different thicknesses. I believe the OEM body panels are 18 gauge whereas my patching material is 16 gauge. I watched a YouTube video where a young man from Weld.com showed how he setup his welder to weld different thicknesses. It’s pretty good stuff and I recommend it if you are still wondering how to setup your welder and what settings you might want to start with. His settings for 18 and 16 weren’t different so I just need to find the same settings he suggested and convert those values to the letter equivalent on my Lincoln MIG Pro 180.

I also watched a fellow from Make It Kustom that has some great tips on welding and patch making. Good stuff there too. This guy is obviously an artist and I imagine has, “done this a time or two.”

In my video there is a lot of grinding and sparks flying and hopefully some good tips to help you weld your patches on your Range Rover Classic. I sped a lot of it up so I’m not consuming a lot of your life watching my low grade videos.

The camera overheated at the end for the second time that day. The temp inside the shoppe was above 110°F (which is 43.3°C for you metric system types). Yeah that’s pretty hot for this old man. I’m seriously going to investigate getting an exhaust fan installed to pull the hot air out.

Overall I’m pretty excited that I can weld stuff. I did fix a yard swing that one of our trees landed on and crushed. I’m looking forward to finishing the welding on the rust and turn my attention to making stuff like a 270 degree awning, a rear bumper, and lots of other stuff.

Thanks for reading and Happy Rovering