The BritishV8 Pub

[youtu.be]

Have you been able to do any full throttle runs yet? Always a great feeling to finally drive it down the road.

Not yet Jim, I've been tied up with work and haven't even been able to do any more tuning, which it needs before a road test.

But it needs the shift selector switch hooked up first really, and I just yesterday came up with the part number to order some new connector bodies. 3 of them. One to dissect, one to fit with pins and pigtails to test the switch so I make sure the wires go to the right pins, and then one to install. Those Toyo connectors with the itty bitty pins are no joy, at least this one isn't. Can't tell by looking at it which way the pins go in and far too easy to mess them up like I did the last one. But hey, this time for sure.

I do envy you being able to drive down the street, even without the hood.

Jim

I'm about to learn a new skill - gas welding aluminum sheet. The guy I had lined up to do the welding for me fell on hard times financially and personally and he tried to get healthy all at once on my job. I'll be buying the special welding lenses and flux next week and start practicing.

It is fun being able to drive it - and it's really fast.

I just bet!

Are you getting the cobalt blue lenses?

Jim

I'm getting lenses from Tin Man Technologies [www.tinmantech.com] . They are supposed to be the best for that sort of welding - not cheap though.

Right, I think I'd see those before. A green lens, supposed to be the best there is.

A historical note; I f you guys ever get a chance to see the video "the willow run story" it's about the Ford plants in Willow run mich and the building of the B-24 Liberators,,,, anyway,, they actually set up a school to teach men and women to gas weld a lot tf the aluminum assemblies on the bombers,, cool eh !?
Dave

Is this superior to TIG welding thin aluminum ? roverman.

From what I've read this method yields a softer bead that is easier to form and metal finish. Most of the aluminum body fabricators gas weld the panels together for that reason. I also understand that it is less likely to leak when welding up tanks.

I suspect gas welding produces a larger, heat affected zone, and thus easier to form ?

It would be annealed, but so would the TIG weld. Could be somewhat less expensive as the Acetylene/O2 may be a little less than Argon but I'm not completely certain about that. In terms of heat control and bead formation they should be pretty similar, so I'm guessing maybe it really comes down to preferences and economics. An Acetylene/O2 rig is quite a lot cheaper than a Tig welder.

Jim

Is anyone familiar with teh Cobra/Dillon torch? It works very well on aluminum, no need for a green lens. The heat is very controllable. I've welding the bottoms of pop (soda) cans together without blowing holes in the cans.
This torch was originally developed by an Australian (Dillon), then manufactured in Switzerland under the name Henrob and has been on the market for many years.

[www.cobratorches.com]
[www.youtube.com]

Well, he sold me! I want it.

The guy is a real salesman, I'll give him that. But a couple of things:

First, yes, he was using special lenses, and nowhere did I hear him say they were not required. That would be assumption of a tremendous liability if he did. They also used that lens on the camera, note the absence of flare.

Second, it is just an acetylene torch and you can do everything he did with a Victor Jr or any competitor's torch that has small enough tips. I have a small Jeweler's torch that has micro tips that go even smaller than that, and a six or 8 orifice preheat tip for a standard cutting torch is superior in a number of ways.

Note that he did not show the back side of the stainless weld. That's because it looked like burnt sugar. No way around it without a gas shield.

It's a nice torch, granted. But it's nothing special. I'll take a Victor Jr any day.

Wouldn't hurt to try his aluminum flux though, it looked like that did a pretty good job.

Jim

I agree with Jim, the Henrob is just an oxy acetylene torch and some type of lens is required to eliminate the orange flare from the flux. If you can't see the puddle you will end up with aluminum splatters on your shoes. I held a Henrob once and the pistol grip felt a little awkward and heavy. I have a Meco torch and I love it. [www.tinmantech.com] I also got the small flexible hoses which make it even easier to handle. [www.tinmantech.com] All I need now is a little skill and I'll have a hood for the car.

Guess I sort of hijacked your thread Jim - sorry.