What do you think is causing the clunking in my rear...

had no choice but to cut the exhaust in order to get it out ...

 

removed the driver's side shock as well along with the mount . . .



finally was able to remove the brace along with the metal I had tacked onto it . . .




here is the "welding table" I'm using ...really need to build me a nice one . . .


welded on a brace, tacked it in place first so I wouldn't get too much distortion after starting to weld




it fit into place really nicely ....I could have taken more time to clean up the welds etc but a coat of primer to keep it from rusting is all I'm gonna have time for since the race is pretty close . . .


Here is the driver's side, basically gotta do the same thing as I did on the other side. . .

 

I drilled some holes in a plate that I cut out .... I gotta say, I'm getting pretty good with just measuring. I used to always have to use a cardboard template....I think I'm evolving!



I bolted the bracket over the plate and now I'm gonna do some tack welds and then run a weld strip up there. Had to move the fuel pump and cover them with a blanket.





did some more welding on the bench


Finally getting better penetration on the square tubing, what I do now is I start on the square tubing, hold it there for a little bit then just run quickly over to the thinner plate and back to the square tubing


here is the basic bracket pretty much all done


Bryant pointed out that the plate will flex and even though it might not be a problem now down the road it might fatigue the metal. So he recommended I weld on some edges on the plate. Using a cutting disc made cutting REALLY easy. I kinda feel like it's a cleaner edge than using a plasma cutter.













so that's it for now, next I have to install the brace in there, weld up the ends to the frame, really would prefer to just bolt them up for now and go back in later to do the welding after I'm totally happy with it but might as well do it once and do it right.

 

Looks like it is all coming together and will be a lot more substantial than what was there.

Your welding is looking a lot better than mine lately too. Keep it up.

Last stuff I did was ugly gumballs, ... then my welder stopped feeding right ... frustrating day.

 

What's the best way to weld this to the frame rail here in this pic?

The metal plate is thick and the frame metal is pretty thin so I don't want to burn through it. I thought about using bolts but I just don't think it will as strong as a weld.

 

Weld the plate to the rails...Just start your bead on the thicker metal and progress onto the rail...

 

I got to the shop pretty late today after work but got a lot done...
started by cleaning the metal, grinding it and cleaning and I did the same with the plate from the brace...





I bolted the brace up so I could make sure the welding wouldn't distort the holes lining up with the bolt holes...

 

practiced welding some thick metal to a piece of thinner metal and didn't get really good penetration on the thinner metal....




got a little better penetration on the car but no way of knowing for sure...








I think I did better on the driver's side

 

putting the shock on wasn't too hard








I installed the fuel pump but now it was hitting the shock .... so it took me an hour to find the right size bolts and to move the pump further down...

 

got the exhaust back on