My 71 Maverick Grabber Build.....

Can't you buy wedges to change angle in leaf spring cars?

 

No, that is mig welding my friend..... I don't even have a tig and if I did I would have to learn how to use it.....

The warping or pulling is a result of heat, and no matter mig or tig you still have to make heat.....

You can buy wedges in 2 deg incriments, but they are all alum as fas as I know..... Most of the time they just kinda of slip in place and aren't necessarly the most stable.....

The 1/2" lowering blocks I have are steel and have a whole in the bottom with a built ing locating pin in the top which is much more stable..... Plus I can mill any angle on then I need to get exactly what I want..... It's a little more trouble this way but much more stable, and I rarely ever do anything the easy now way do I.....

 

Hats off to you on that welding !!!!!!!! What make of machine do you have ? Is it 110 or 220 ( I'am guessing 220 ) What size wire you running ? Argon or a mixture ? Again tip of the topper on your welding. Is that what you do for a living ?

 

Thanks once again.....

I have a little Miller 130XL Mig, I use .023 wire for exerything and CO2/Argon mix..... My welder is only a 110v, and this is not my professionand I have never had a lesson other then this is what you do from a friend many moons ago..... It's mostly alot of practice over alot of years, I first used a mig 20 years ago and my father showed me how to stick weld about 8 years before that.....

A couple people I know that weld for a living said I would be able to tig weld without any problem because I am really good at acetylene/oxygen gas welding..... I just can't justify buying a tig when I have a mig that works perfectly.....

When I bought the welder I talked to the guy at the place I bought it..... I told him I thought I should have a 220v, he asked me what I was going to use it for..... I told him it was mostly for my personal hobby car stuff and that I did do some heavy chassis stuff at times, he told me the only difference in 110v and 220v is the duty cycle..... He said if I were using constantly for business the 220v is the way to go, but for what I was going to use it for the 110v is better because of it's flexability being that you can plug it in anywhere(he also said weld quality and strength would be the same with either)..... He said the worse thing that could happen with the 110v is the possibility it might shut down internally briefly due to heat with some constant use but would be fine again once it cooled down..... I have never had that happen at all in the 12 plus years I have had this welder......

Sorry for the book but I wanted to try and explain.....

 

Like Rick, I thought the welds might have been Tig also. Those are some of the best welds I have ever seen. I had some classess in welding shortly after retirement and learned to stick and mig. I did it just for the knowledge and it was something I always wanted to learn. My welds don't look nowhere as nice as those, but I rarely use my welding training. I know practice is a great part of it. U must have excellent eye sight and just a natural ability for welding and metal work - PERIOD.
I am impressed w/ everything I see u have posted on this forum. PERIOD.

 

WOW I'm even more impressed knowing thats a 110 with .023 wire. The penetration looks great. Also a 110 can go lower than a 220 and is better for exhaust systems and sheet metal. I envy your welding ability period. Keep the pic's coming and thanks. Rick
Now to the garage and practice

 

Thanks.....

I definately takes some practice to get it right and looking good..... My eyesight is pretty good although I am have some trouble with reading lately, just gettin to be that age I guess.... Yes I do seem to have a gift and ability for most mechanical and fabbing skills.....

The penetration is good, you can even seen the heat discoloration on the inside of the 1/4" thick axle tube..... The pic's will keep coming, atleast as long as there is some sign of interest in the project..... So far that doesn't seem to be a problem..... Thank you.....

 

I don't think interest in your build will ever go away

 

Friday morning I put the axles in the 9" and put it back in the car so I could test fit the rear wheels/tires again..... I don't think they could fit any better if I planned it that way, haha..... They sit just about 1" in from the outside lip and they are about 3/16" away from the springs..... It's a little close to the springs but I allowed for a 1/4" disc brake rotor hat, so if I use the drum brakes for now I will just use a set of billet 1/4" spacers on it until I switch to disc sometime down the road.....

Here a few pic's.....






After I was happy with the way everything fit I removed the 9" and put the stock 8" back in for now(my roll around tire would hit the springs on the 9").....

 

I gave up on finding nice seats so I just got a set of poly buckets for now anyways..... I did however get a set of JAZ black velour covers, I have used these before and they do make the old poly bucket much more comfy.....

I started trying to fit the driver side seat and found out the steering column was sitting kind of far to the right..... To verify this I got the dash down and put it in place and the column was way to the right side of the notch in the dash, so I took the beackets apart and moved evrything around and finally got the column just left of center in the dash notch..... I was much happier with that.....

After figuring out where I wanted the seat, I started making a mounting bracket..... Of course I had a problem finding bolts that were short enough for to bolt any kind of mounting brackets to the seats..... So I cut down some old header bolt in the mill.....

Here's my custom bolt cutter.....




This is what I have for a seat mount so far.....





and here is the seat in place with the cover on it.....

 

I have a set of those poly seats from another project that I was considering. How do you like them in that position? The seat looks like it leans really far back and might need elevated in the rear.

 

The angle the pic is taken from makes them appear to be leaning further back the they are..... Don't get me wrong they are leaned back, but I like them that way..... If I get the bottom too level they are unconfortable too me..... But hey, everybody likes them a little different.....

I will tell you that the JAZ velour cover make them way more comfy then those crappy vinyl ones.....

 

I worked on the seat brackets a little more today..... Got the mounting tabs on the outside and drille the floor for the.....




I also welded a support plate to the floor where the inside front will be mounted, then went ahead and started welding in some of the various extra seat mounting holes that are in the area.....




I still have some work to do on the driver side seat mount but then I will get started on the rollbar after that.....

 

This post could make a great HOW-TO book!!
AWESOME!!!

 

Thanks.....


Worked on it yesterday and this morning, I finished filling in the extra seat mount holes that were put in over the years..... Then I finished the driver side seat mount.....

After that I started working on the roll bar, had to tweak one of the bends a little to get the main hoop even and take a little twist out of it..... Then I got the main hoop fitted and also fit the cross bar..... After alot of measuring and leveling I tacked the crossbar in place, then pulled the main hoop and welded the crossbar on the bench..... I put it back in, double checked the measurments and releveled..... Finally I got the main hoop welded in place.....

Here's the finished seat bracket on the bench and in the car.....





One of the welds on the crossbar.....




Here's with the main hoop welded in and the seat in place.....