Muzikp's Sometimes Driveable Build

Lol, I wish it was me. Right now I have two options for getting this welded. I know an old timer hot rod guy that does really nice work and he's offered to weld it up for a fee, not sure how much yet tho. The other option is one of my friends offered to let me and my buddy use his TIG welder if I refill the argon for him, my buddy is studying for his welding cert and has some TIG experience. He is willing to weld it for me but he doesn't have the years of experience. I imagine I'll go the young guy route, he's pretty good and thorough with his welding and he's fun to work with. At a minimum we will get it tacked together Friday and then decide to take it to the old guy or keep going.

 

Sounds like you have a good plan with the polyurethane bushings. My instincts would be to put one on each outside front corner and two near the center at the back (almost a 3 point system). This would allow the body the flex with little or no flex in the tank.

 

I reckon the quantity and location of your baffles is spot on.

The baffles will also be slowing the fuel flow from one side to the other when running on a slope, so you get a little extra slope time before the sump will come into play.

 

What a nice tank! Great job! I have to be a wise guy and ask.....are you going to need a CDL with hazmat to drive your Jeep now that it is a tanker?

 

Think about mounting with straps over the top like the original tank was mounted. Just add one to the passenger side. This would keep it in place and still allow it to flex some.

 

Just read the whole build looks good!

Makes me want to drive up north and start working on mine.

Where is greenhorn creek? Looks like a nice place to go offroading.

 

Greenhorn creek is just outside Nevada City, California. It's an old mining area where they would take the massive water cannons and just wash down the side of a mountain and sift all the gold out. It used to be a really large area, people would wheel all over the place but it's getting smaller due to development. They are also making an effort to restore the land and erase the scarring the mining left behind.

 

This showed up at my place, courtesy of a friend.



So the tank is going together, here's the seam on the bottom in the middle.



One of the sides



Here's where it's at



And then this

 

I think the hardest part is getting the aluminum clean at the welds. I've spent sooooo much time cleaning and wire brushing and acetone scrub etc etc. But it's really coming together nicely.

I have no idea how I'm going to clean it prior to use. I'd like to wash it down right now just to get the fingerprint oils and other contaminants off. What can I use to clean it with that won't affect the rest of the welding or leave some funky residue behind when I fill it with gas? Can I leak test it with water? I think I can pressure test it with air easily enough when I'm done.

 

Oh I forgot, I'm also working on getting the interior to an acceptable level of bad, still working on that though.

 

Looks pretty great from here!

 

Yes that is true , and more so with materials that have sat around for some time and started to corrode...........And that problem is more so with earlier machines without AC Balance controls.......as the aluminum oxide melts at a much higher temperature than the base metal.....in fact about 3 times hotter than the base metal........and if not completely removed will inhibit fusion and fluidity...........with the AC Balance controls the machine does a much better job of cleaning off whats left of surface oxides during the welding process........which ultimately helps to melt the base metal and fuse the joint.

If that machine has AC balance , you might try experimenting with different settings.

 

Well that right there pretty much explains a lot of my experience so far. It has two different AC settings on it, don't know if that qualifies as AC balance or not. I'll do some more research.

Any thoughts as to what might help me clean it better? I hit it with the orbital sander and some 60 grit to start with, then went to the stainless wire brush and then acetone on a scrubby pad and back to stainless brush. Still seems like it's oxidized. It's going well it's just a lot of work to get it not quite clean enough.

 

Just looked, the AC side of the switch has two settings. 34-166A and 18-50A. I've only tried it on the 34-166A. Below that is a range/polarity dial. Been running that around 80-85%.

 

Check with your welding material supplier for an aluminum cleaning agent. They should have a light acid based cleaner which will remove oils and light corrosion. I've used materials like that many times on the aluminum projects we did at work.

Leak testing can be done with water but then of course your faced with drying the inside of the tank. If your baffles are tied into the top, sides and bottom as suggested, you can test with air pressure. Keep the pressure at about 2 psi, no higher. It's a tank, not a pressure vessel. With the pressure on use a soapy solution on the weld seams. If it leaks, you will have bubbles.

 

Thank you, great info to me. I'm sure this is all elementary to most of you but this is a whole new adventure for me , gotta start somewhere with these things.

 

One last thing. Use stainless steel wire brushes only and don't contaminate them by using them on anything else.

 

Unfortunately it's probably the base material you have that has been left to oxidize.........as welding aluminum is always about the material being squeaky clean.........and that's why starting any project with new bright material will always produce the best results..............The methods your using for cleaning..........stainless brush & acetone are OK for bright material.........the 60 grit sanding discs have a habit of grinding off oxides and then re-depositing them back into the weld zone as you reuse the disc.....................

On what I would consider dirty / old or oxidized material........I like to grind the weld zones clean while changing discs often and then follow up with an Aluminum cleaning solution.......that usually contains a mild acid. The acid after it does it's cleaning can be washed off using water (of course using care in how you dispose of that water) ...........then dry it and follow up with the stainless brush and acetone just before your ready to weld...............It is a process, that does require much time and labor to get results.

And if that machine is old chances are it does not have AC Balance........although if it is a square wave machine it does have some cleaning ability.

 

Zep a lume is a good aluminum cleaning acid follow the directions and use proper PPE .

 

Can you post a pic of the welders control panel Muzikp?

That way we might be able to help with your settings.