Project Slowly Underway: Berrien 295

[vanapplebomb]

Well, last semester I got really tired of having my head in my books, so I decided to bring up a few tools. I'm renting a house with a few guys. There isn't much room, so I had to stick with the bare minimum. I cleared out our storage garage and made a super small 6'x6' shop

I know, it isn't much room, but thats all the space I have to work with. So, I brought up an angle grinder, cutting disks and flap sanders, some scraps of 1/8in x 3in and 1/4in x 4in bar stock, my Hobart MIG welder (no room for a gas bottle...dang), and my rear trailing arms.

I figure that in my spare time, I could work on turning these cardboard templets into reality.








I started cutting out some of the pieces last night. I'm going to be pretty busy this next week, but I will try and take some pictures when I get a some more stuff cooking. I am expecting this is going to take a lot of test fitting, tacking, cutting, and grinding to get the pieces to fit exactly how I wan't them. I know you can get those $50 kits to box in the arms, but seriously, what fun is that? Anyway.s, I have three small plates that I wan't to add to it. One would be bent around the front of the trailing arm, connecting between the spring plate tab and the front of the bearing housing. Then I would like to ad a couple rectangular bits to tie the top and bottom of the bearing housing to the rest of the material. That should make for a pretty darn tough trailing arm...and the way I figure, it should be stronger than the kits you can buy, while not increasing the weight.

[vanapplebomb]

Started tacking and welding a few pieces together. The garage is not insulated...it is a little tougher starting welds on steel that is only 10 degrees warm. Once it gets started it works just fine. I miss gas, but the flux core wire works pretty good. It is a little bit messier, but it burns hotter than C25...helps on the thicker stuff. I'm about to import some of the pictures to my computer. I hope some of them turned out. It's dark in there, so hopefully there will be one or two usable ones.

[vanapplebomb]

Some of the pictures turned out, so here goes...

I started with the gusset that follows the long straight section of the trailing arm. These were cut out of 3in x 1/8in bar stock...basically trapezoids with a one foot base, a hight of 3 inches on one side, and two inches on the other. I tacked the pieces together at a right angle with the square corners to the outside....






Once the pieces were tacked up, I welded them together on both the inside and outside. Once that was cool enough to handle I tacked it up to the straight section of the trailing arm. It fit like a glove...






Once those seams were welded up, I fit the corner gusset in place. It took some grinding to get it to sit the way I wanted, but it worked out well in the end. Before welding up the outside corners, I decided to add a little extra meat to the seams. I cut a section of 1/8in round stock just long enough to bend around the corner by the joint, and welded it down along the seam. Then I welded overtop of it as I welded on the corner gusset.





Once all that was welded up and cleaned up, I ran three extra stripes along the inside. corner of the gusset. Welding back there is pretty tricky...not a lot of room, but it worked out ok. You can tell from the heat affected zone in the following picture where I ran the three stripes on the inside...





More updates to come when I get around to it between classes and homework.

[vanapplebomb]

OH, one other thing I forgot to mention...

When I was welding stuff up, I only welded 1.5in - 2in at a time. I also skipped around a bit. An inch and a half here, an inch and a half there, then kinda start connecting the stripes to form a continuous weld. I'm hoping that kept any noticeable distortion at bay.

[vanapplebomb]

Half way there... just a few more plates to trace out, cut, and weld up. this is how things sit right now.

[vanapplebomb]

Just another little part shaped and welded in. Sorry, not that exciting...I know.

Man, I'll tell you guys what, I really miss having a gas bottle. Things would be so much easier to keep clean when welding in those goofy angles. In those tight places it was darn near impossible to see the weld pool, so I pulled off the MIG nozzle and got a flux core nozzle from TSC, hopping the smaller end would give me a better view of the pool. It didn't really make much of a difference because the flux burns pretty smokey. Grrrr. At least the DCEN polarity for flux core makes for a little hotter weld

[dubfreak1]

Looking good and real strong!

I'm planning on floping the arms on a lowered IRS Bug and was thinking of welding shock mounts on the top over the bearing housing. I'll be interested to find out if the bearing bore is affected by the welding.

[vanapplebomb]

Thanks for the encouragement! Even though I had a solid plan going into this project, there has been some free balling stuff as I go...little changes here and there as I think of ways that I can support the section between the spring plate and bearing carrier. I have a couple of idea for tying in the bearing carrier to the rest of the housing...time to make some more cardboard cut outs. I don't want to add to much more metal, because these could get heavy fast...and the point was to create something stronger than the off the shelf box kits that weighs about the same.

Any time you weld, you are going to get some distortion...unfortunately that is just how life is. The good news is the bearing housing is pretty strong due to the cylindrical shape, so the distortion should be minimal if you take your time welding. Another thing in your favor is that it is made of relatively soft steel so that it can give some when the hardened bearings can be pressed in. I have seen uglier welds than mine on bearing housings, and they ended up taking the bearings just fine. Hahaha

[vanapplebomb]

Today I found some time to monkey with my trailing arms again. I made a couple small rectangular gussets to tie the top and bottom of the bearing carrier to the beefy top and bottom plates.

I thought I was going to be really disappointed running flux cored wire though my Mig with reversed polarity, but it seams to work pretty well. Surprise surprise. Kinda messy stuff. Thank goodness for anti-splatter spray to keep the splatter from melting onto other metal surfaces...like the bearing carrier. Most of the bb's wipe right off. Whats left pops off with a wire brush. Sweet.

[vanapplebomb]

I made a better cardboard template for the pivot bushing end of the trailing arm. It took some trimming to make it fit right. Once I got it to fit the way I wanted, I traced it onto some scrap bar stock, rough cut it, then ground it down until it sit right. Then I just zipped up the seams with a welder, ground some parts of it down a bit, and called it a day. Kinda chilly after a while standing around in an uninsulated garage when it's in the single digits out side.

Someone please tell me that I am not going mental...

[Deleted]

MENTAL or METAL?

[vw1s]

Looks beefy!

[vanapplebomb]

Feb 13, 2014 6:02:10 GMT -5 @davet said:

MENTAL or METAL?

Mental. Crazy. Loony.

Feb 13, 2014 6:22:17 GMT -5 vw1s said:

Looks beefy!

Thanks Patrick! It certainly looks, uh...different.

[vwrick69]

How much do they weigh , verse stock?

[vanapplebomb]

Not sure yet. My bet is about the same as the over the counter box kits. The entire straight section is 1/8in material, and there is a lot less of it there than the store bought 3/16in box kits. The beefy bit by the bearing carrier will tip the scales though since much of that is 1/4 inch bar stock. That being said, although it looks like a lot, but there really isn't that much there. Believe it or not, you can almost cut the top and bottom plates out of a foot long section of 1/4in x 4in bar stock.

I guess we will find out a number when it is finished, hu? I could tell you the weight of metal added, but I have no clue how much the stock arms weigh. Maybe if I find someone around with a fish scale, I could see if I could borrow it, hang them up, and weigh them.

Thanks for the comments!

I am always open to suggestions as well. Constructive criticism is always good



***EDIT***


Alright, I have some numbers for comparison of how much extra weight there will be for ya.

Over the counter box kits: 11.5 Lbs. Thats 5.75 Lbs per side.

Based on the surface area, thickness, and density of the steel used, mine will work out to a just short of 6.5 lbs. So yes, mine will be a bit heavier, but in the grand scheme of things, that is essentially negligible considering that my brake drums alone are 19 Lbs a piece. Yeah, Thing drums are kinda heavy.