Tag: welding

1972 Nova Project: Repairing The New Roof… Still.

Jeremy Nutt 8 Comments

Two weeks ago, I repaired the rear section of the “new” roof on the 1972 Nova project. This past weekend, I focused on the front passenger A-pillar, because like the rear, it was also trash. I began by cutting the rotted metal out with the cut off wheel.  I then bent a piece of steel at a 90 degree angle with a hammer & vice.  From there, I shrank the metal, which caused it to beautifully curve.  Then it was just a matter of MIG welding it to the existing roof and a-pillar, and grinding it smooth.  Once I am totally happy with it, I’ll soak the inside of it with some type of coating to prevent rust. After all, that’s what got us here in the first place.

Also – If you are enjoying this build, hating this build, have a question, or want to just shoot the breeze with us, leave a comment below. Without comments, we never know if this sort of topic is loved or hated!

Thanks,

-Jeremy

1972 Nova Inner Wheel House Metal Fabrication: Part 2

Jeremy Nutt

Today it was above freezing in the garage, so I decided that it would be a great time to finally finish the 1972 Nova inner wheel house that I had started several weeks ago. We left off in the last post with the repair panel about 95% made. So today I just had to clean the surrounding areas up and prepare the new panel to be welded in. Easy enough right?  I started by hitting all of the surrounding metal with the abrasive Roloc discs attached to the angle grinder. This removed all of the old paints, primers, and seam sealer from the “hot zone”. I like to also chip off any nearby undercoating too because that stuff burns fast, and stinks like you wouldn’t even believe. It’s probably not so great to inhale either. Once clean, I tack’ed the new panel in place with a few spot welds, double checked everything, and then spot & stitch welded it into its new home. Then I ground the visible welds down, and snapped off a few pictures.

Next, I’m going to clean this whole area really well, and give it a good soaking in black POR-15. Sadly, I will have to wait for a warmer day because I don’t have heat in my garage, and POR-15 doesn’t flow or dry really well when it’s sub-40 degrees F. Boooo Winter! Let’s all cross our fingers and hope that we get a warm day this week. If we do, I may be able to tackle the quarter panel next weekend!

1964 Impala Convertible Project Part 3

Jeremy Nutt 5 Comments

Last week we discussed the scariness of discovering acres of rot behind the quarter panel that I had just reluctantly removed.  Then I showed off the metal repair / replacement of the 64 Chevy’s outer wheel house, and trunk drop off.  There was one other piece that had some serious metal repair, but I already made a 1A Blog post about it over a year ago, so I won’t repeat it here again.  if you are curious, you can view the fuel filler neck surround metal repair Here.

Next on the Impala list was fixing all of the metal surrounding the “tailpan”.  Basically, the rear-most section of the trunk floor was rotted badly on both sides, and it all needed to go in the trash barrel. The bad news is that nobody makes these replacement panels, so I had to make them myself.  First step, cut out the rotted area and see what we’re working with. Eeeek!

As you can see , there was no shortage of rot on the driver’s side rear of the “six-foe”.  Rather than crying, I began making a flat metal replacement that was the “same” shape as the original.  The problem was that I didn’t have a lot of the old metal to work with, so most of this process was a guessing game. Read More

Because Beautiful Welding Never Gets Old.

Jeremy Nutt 5 Comments

In the past, we have touched upon my borderline insane slight obsession with welding once or twice. I just can’t seem to get over the inherent beauty of taking two solid metals, liquifying them with massive amounts of electricity, and watching them flow into each other while hiding behind copious amounts of safety equipment. It’s unbelievably gratifying. The ultra violet light shines brilliantly from the tip of the torch as if it were full of magic, which it is. You are more or less in charge of a mini version of the sun, and you can do whatever you want with it. Liquify a little mild steel here, then maybe some aluminum over there, and if you feel wild, you challenge yourself on some copper.  Then, when that perfect weld happens, you feel as if you just invented the wheel.  High 5’s are handed out by the dozen, and much rejoicing takes place.  Unfortunately, to make consistently beautiful welds takes crazy amounts of skill.  The kind of rare skill that many people do not have, including myself.  The good news is that some of those rare people that are that good at welding take pictures of their work for people like us to sit back and dream about.  “Califonia Jay” from VWVortex is one of those people. Read More

Automotive Tips & Tricks: Suggestion #2

Jeremy Nutt 4 Comments

Coming from a guy that has been on fire more times than I’m willing to admit… (when I was young and foolish of course.)

The Automotive lesson today is:

“Always keep a fire extinguisher, water hose, and / or a 5 gallon bucket of water nearby when you are playing with fire & sparks.  Fire gets out of control faster than you can yell “denim inferno”, so always look around at your surroundings before sparking up the torch or turning on the welder.”

You Want To Take Your Toaster To The Next Level?

Jeremy Nutt 1 Comment

Sometimes car enthusiasts can’t let their fabrication skills stop in the garage.  They have 1 too many diet mountain dews, and things start getting wild.  Pretty soon, the TIG welder is fired up and the kitchen fabrication project begins.  “vectorsolid” whipped up a pretty slick toaster mod recently which is well documented on honda-tech.com.

He wrote “That’s right, taking breakfast and drag racing to a whole new level. We didn’t feel a turbo charged toaster would yield the proper golden brown, crispy toast we all know and love. So we went ALL MOTOR with this beast.”

“Proper” old school, stainless steel, 2 slot toaster. This bad johnny knows how to cook the competition. And with a fraying 1950’s cloth cord, possibly cook the user…  ….Sleeved block, ITB’s. Amazing pop outta the hole. Will smoke ’em all day long.”


“At the track… Easily passed tech. According to the little knob on the side it’s certified to “8”. the golden tone on the toast was achieved with a setting of “3”. Imagine the smoke show this thing would put on dialed up to “8”. No dyno can hold it… You don’t mess with the all motor toaster…”

Is a drag racing chassis necessary for a toaster? Yes.  Is is way cool? You bet.  Would I trust the toast coming out of it?  Nah.

Found On:

http://honda-tech.com/showthread.php?t=2821902