Welding on the Zuk frame

Jurome

Jurome

Well-known member
Any tips for welding onto the Zuk frame? I am getting prepared for the frame reinforcements and am thinking about practicing some more "thick to thin" beads before I commit. I have a really good Miller MIG and thanks to YouTube and much practice I have made some huge improvements. Welding on the flat I am very confident but have only a handful of vertical weld tasks under my belt. On some practice rounds I have been keeping the bead into the thicker metal to avoid burning though the thinner material with really good results...albeit, practicing with the material laid flat. If it is flat I can make it look like a stack of dimes...on the vertical...well...

Is it OK to weld the plates on the frame in a downhill direction? I'm not too worried about penetration since the material is so thin.

Any other tips and/or suggestions welcomed.
 
I'm no expert, but my Brother in law is.
He asked why I wanted to reinforce with 1/4".
The frame is 1/8th or maybe even less.
He recommended trying 1/8th or 3/16th.
Made perfect sense to me. Why worry about
burn throughs and penetration in 1/4" when
the frame will be braced with thicker metal
than it was from the factory with 1/8th inch fishplates.   [idea] :welder:
 
Yeah I think the plates are around 3/16?. I guess for now I?ll grab some scraps of the same dimension (thickness) of the frame and plates and practice welding them together to see how the bead affects the thinner material.
 
What frame reinforcements are you planning on?

IMHO / unprofessional opinion....... try to make any frame mods *appear* factory. Reason; if you drive on the road and ever get a VI notice, any obvious frame mods / welding will be suspect. The CVSE  inspectors are trained to look for this on obviously modded vehicles during road-side checks. By law, we BC'er's are supposed to get a frame inspection done after any welding done to a frame.....most will not, and wait for the eventual VI if it ever comes.

Yep....fish plate any large plates. The new weak point on the frame will be where the heated frame metal is hardened and thus more brittle.....for the same reason, allow to cool slowly, never quench the welds with water.

  Don't try to weld rust. It has never worked for me. Ditto for paint or rubber coatings.

  Consider sleeving the frame if adding much force / through bolting to the frame......like bolt-on sliders, or, adding power steering to a new area on the frame.

  Practice is good. I've seen your welds and they look fine from what I see.
Having said that.......I hope your mig has enough amperage for the job? I would not trust welds of any substantial / structural component with a little 110v mig. Not enough amps / heat.

If you don't like what you see, you can grind it off and re-do  [thumbsup]



 
 
Amps shouldn?t be an issue. Miller DVI-2, 40% duty cycle @ 150 amps.

Yeah probably best to just do a weld, call it a night and carry on the next day...the heat can really build up fast.

Pray that the CVSE?s don?t get me! I?m still seeing guys on the road with beadlocks that haven?t been pinched so I think my odds aren?t too bad!
 
Okay, so I did my first frame plate and have had mixed success. My horizontal and my vertical welds came out really great I am very happy with the quality of weld...that is until I went overhead! I need some help on overhead welding...I have YouTubed the crap out of this and just checking if any of you have any steadfast rules which lead in the right direction.

I started on the underside of my frame plate and stopped very quickly not happy with sub-standard...I am going to grind the terrible start to my bead and practice before I mess this up. SO frustrating to have a beautiful stack of dimes along the top and sides only to start a globby atrocity to match. Argh...



 
Practice, Practice & Practice....
You'll need to have the heat & feed just right & then you'll lay down dimes....   [thumbsup]
 
Overhead is rough on us old codgers, but I thought you young tough guys could hang! ;D
Overhead was always the toughest for me too. I'm so shaky nowadays my weld seams
are 3 inches wide! ::) :o
 
carolinarigman date=1543916908 said:
Overhead is rough on us old codgers, but I thought you young tough guys could hang! ;D
Overhead was always the toughest for me too. I'm so shaky nowadays my weld seams
are 3 inches wide! ::) :o
Click to expand...
 
 good for filling large gaps  ;D
not sure what electrode or process your using ,but make sure its suited for all position.some electrode are not for overhead .
if you can try some 6010 or 6013 it splatters a lot so splatter shield is almost a must .i use it for mig as well.
like i said most times when starting to weld uphand or overhead new welders tend to not push the rod in as much as they should.
as well play with your heat you need a little more for OH.
 
Thanks for the notes all...

The guys on YouTube give some good advice but man they make it look so easy, lol. Just going to grind out the hemorrhoids and start over! 
 
For what it's worth..........
I learned over on the auzookers site, that although welding on the frame in Australia is legal, as per their motor vehicle laws, welding on the very corners of the frame is not permitted. 
Not sure why........I didn't ask. Perhaps heat-induced hardening of the frame corners, promoting a failure point? Dunno.
Maybe there is something to it tho?
 
Spokerider date=1544111481 said:
For what it's worth..........
I learned over on the auzookers site, that although welding on the frame in Australia is legal, as per their motor vehicle laws, welding on the very corners of the frame is not permitted. 
Not sure why........I didn't ask. Perhaps heat-induced hardening of the frame corners, promoting a failure point? Dunno.
Maybe there is something to it tho?
Click to expand...
 
 
Because the corners are where a lot of the stress goes.  On a box section you also don't want to weld all the way across a side uninterrupted.  You're better off to weld a short bead, skip over a bit, and weld another bead.  This helps to spread the load out.


C|
 
 Yes, in aviation we call these "stress risers" In places where a piece of structure ends or starts in a point or square edge can induce a crack. Loads are focused on those points...always a good idea to round edges off. I see a lot of fish plates on this site that are beautifully done only to have either end, terminate in a sharp point. They should be rounded off the taper.
 
Not to threadjack... but I meed some welding on the body (not frame) of my Zuk from rusty mc rust. I assume a 110v small guy could tackle that? I've never welded before, but I'm looking into getting an entry level welder to start practicing on. With the goal of eventually replacing some of the sheet metal on the Zuk body- as well as being able to fabricate things better.
 
I haven?t welded body panels but I am sure 110 would do it no problem. My welder is dual voltage and anything that thin is no problem; I can easily weld 1/8? in 110 mode. I?m no expert on welding but the best advice I ever got was to avoid buying a sub-standard welder. All the welders I spoke with told me to get a good quality unit. When you are learning, you want to know that if the weld isn?t good...it?s the person welding and not the machine. It could end up frustrating for you if you get a cheap welder; you might do everything properly and end up with a poor weld...and end up chasing your tail searching for the the settings that may not exist. 

I would buy a good quality unit. [thumbsup]
 
Totally what he said.
Pay once, cry once.

Welding is the *easy* part, Managing heat distortion is the challenging part.
Consider using auto body epoxy for the "delicate" repairs......like rust holes in the hood, etc
 

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