What type of welder should I use?

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Either stick, MIG or TIG can be used to assemble and install Welder Series parts. The machine has to have the capacity to weld the material thickness (most Welder Series brackets are 3/16” mild steel).

Stick welders don’t need a tank of shielding gas because the electrode is coated. This coating burns and keeps the air from the weld during the fusion process. Stick welders are more forgiving than TIG if the material being welded is dirty. A good weld made with a stick welder is… a good weld.

MIG welders are convenient because the wire feeds as long as the trigger is pulled (until the spool is emptied). It is easier to get the gun in position to weld because the arc will only be created when the trigger is pulled. MIG offers greater control than stick because the arc is closer to your hand, the arc is always the same distance from your hand (a new stick electrode starts out 12” to 14” long and burns down to the holder), and it’s easy to use two hands to steady the gun. MIG welders are more forgiving than TIG if the material being welded is dirty.

TIG welding gives the greatest power control of the three types being discussed. Often a foot pedal or thumb control is used to adjust the intensity of the arc while welding. TIG requires co-ordination between both hands and, with a foot control, one foot. TIG is not tolerant of dirty material. Rust or carbon scale will “jump” from the material to the tungsten electrode and change the arc pattern. Often it’s necessary to stop welding and replace or sharpen the tungsten when this happens. TIG does produce the dainty, “etched” pattern often seen in street rod and race car products. These are made by highly skilled welders.

A Welder Series tig weld.

Welder Series Mustang II upper towers, showing a mig bead (foreground) and tig bead (around the shock cone).

Welder Series ‘32 Update: E-brake linkage revisited

As I’m reassembling the car, there are some things that I think I should have explained a little better at the time of the first article. The emergency brake handle mount is a neat little piece, but I don’t think I explained how it attaches to the floor.

See that little bung at the button end of the ‘canoe’? The bottom of that bung sits on the top surface of the bottom floor panel. Get that? I think you will. I used the Lokar ratchet mechanism and incorporated it into the canoe, which drops the handle into the floor.

The canoe was made from the outside section of a bent 1-5/8″ tube.

This is the hole where the canoe sits.

Below the 2″ thick floor, the linkage fits through a slot in the bottom floor panel. I bent up a linkage rod required to clear the center section tube and threaded it on both ends.

I drilled and tapped the Lokar brass block so it would work with my threaded linkage rod.

I used a 3/8″ heim joint (or “rod end”) to support the linkage rod and also to serve double duty as the upper bolt for the transmission mount.

A little out of place, but an update nonetheless. I put heat shrink on the wires as they exit from the frame rail and tuck in to the grille shell so they won’t stand out like… wires.

Welder Series ‘32 Update: tank vent

A gas tank needs a vent. Otherwise, as the fuel leaves the tank and is blown up in the engine, a vacuum is created and eventually the fuel pump won’t be able to suck hard enough. Try this: plug your nose. Say “wukka wukka wukka!” No seriously, plug your nose and breathe through your mouth. Then cover your mouth with your hand. Not for very long though. Now release your nose. Your nose is like the vent valve, your lungs are the engine. Oxygen obviously represents gas. As your lungs try to get more air, pretty soon the reserve in your mouth runs out, but as soon as you open the vent (your nose) the engine runs smoothly. If this experiment didn’t work, see a doctor – you’re not plumbed right.

Moving right along, here’s how I vented the tank.

Revision 1 was slipping a rubber hose over the barbed end of the gas tank vent. Revision 2 was copying Cam, who slipped a short section of rubber hose over the barbed fitting then transitioned to stainless hard line. Here’s revision 3:

The brass piece on the right is the rollover valve/ vent. You can see the barbs on the top of the fitting where hose normally slides over. I’ve ‘toned down’ the barbs.

The 3/16″ stainless line *almost* fits inside the barbed part of the brass valve, so I machined it down just a bit so it slips tightly in. Remember, this line is mostly for vapors, with the occasional fuel sloshage. The two hex fittings are threaded on to a joiner fitting which I machined the hex off, just like the front brake lines.

Here’s the final product (I hope). You see, the tank is already in place so I had to use a welding rod to get the basic shape I needed, then transfer those bends to the stainless line. I put the joiner fitting in place so that the fitting can be installed and then hooked up to the vent tube, since there’s not enough room for the whole thing to twirl around as the vent is tightened.

For more articles, please visit www.welderseries.com.

A Little Horton Hot Rod History

I came across these scans tonight and thought it would be fun to post them, just for you to see some of what the family’s been up to for the past 30+ years.

One of “the twins”, a pair of trick hiboy roadsters built in the 80’s by Paul Horton and Lloyd Stewart. This ‘32 is still seen at Louisville.

Paul & Dorothy Horton with me in the ‘29 in the mid 80’s.

The same ‘29 on hand formed 2×4 rails matching the contour of the body. This car had an unfortunate end in a cemetery after being T-boned during a poker run. You can call it luck if you must, but for some reason my brother and I (who ALWAYS rode in the rumble seat) asked to ride in a ‘46 sedan with friends. After the accident, the battery (strapped down in the floor of the rumble seat) was found way down the road. I don’t call it luck.

A ‘23 T Bucket that kind of started the whole parts business. This car was built in a Montreal garage by Paul and Dorothy Horton. There are tonnes of trick parts on this car!

The current (well, it hasn’t been on the road in three years) ‘40 Sedan is the car I remember traveling to events in as a kid. With over 90 000 miles, we made quite a few!

The 1935 Chev built between the cherry tree and the apple tree in Paul Horton’s parents back yard.

My brother and I before we were made redundant by pin-ups ;)  I’m the cute blond making the bird face.