Some new pictures with some steering angle mod done

VTXFrank

Obama SUCKS!
Joined
Sep 29, 2010
Posts
8,217
Reaction score
72
Location
Santa Rosa Beach, FL
Thank you very much!

No problem. If I had to make a gripe about your work, it would be to pause a little longer to back fill the crater at the end of a rod. Also, try to get your beads down to the "stacked dime in a horizontal line" look rather than the larger beads you've got there. However, it's very clear you have very good penetration, no evidence of over heating or cold welding, you've cleaned up slag pretty good as well so it will hold for this application for quite some time. I'm more accustomed to inspecting aluminum and titanium welds for aircraft applications, but welding and fabricating our own special tools is something I've done quite a lot of. You've definitely got a great understand of amps vs. flow rates vs. arc vs. material being used.

I wonder. How do you store your rods? The welds look so pure you must be maintaining your rods properly to keep them from holding any moisture. Or you're drying them out before using them.

I don't weld anymore though. Gives me a bad headache even with the best eye protection.
 

Digital_Synapse

Senior Member
Joined
Nov 5, 2010
Posts
1,798
Reaction score
1
Location
Texas
No problem. If I had to make a gripe about your work, it would be to pause a little longer to back fill the crater at the end of a rod. Also, try to get your beads down to the "stacked dime in a horizontal line" look rather than the larger beads you've got there. However, it's very clear you have very good penetration, no evidence of over heating or cold welding, you've cleaned up slag pretty good as well so it will hold for this application for quite some time. I'm more accustomed to inspecting aluminum and titanium welds for aircraft applications, but welding and fabricating our own special tools is something I've done quite a lot of. You've definitely got a great understand of amps vs. flow rates vs. arc vs. material being used.

I wonder. How do you store your rods? The welds look so pure you must be maintaining your rods properly to keep them from holding any moisture. Or you're drying them out before using them.

I don't weld anymore though. Gives me a bad headache even with the best eye protection.
:beer:
 

Cone Sweeper

Track Whore
Joined
Sep 26, 2009
Posts
578
Reaction score
1
Location
South Florida
oh nice..I'm right by you then..are you part of any clubs or anything..I joined the SSF AND SFM, but they don't seem to have much going on...

Honest man... I don't go much on those websites as it is.. not a lot of stuff goes on down here much any more. They have some car meets and what not around town .. but it's not just mustangs..
 

Rhythm_Drifting

Racer/Fabricator Any ?'s
Joined
Jun 7, 2011
Posts
17
Reaction score
0
Location
South Florida
No problem. If I had to make a gripe about your work, it would be to pause a little longer to back fill the crater at the end of a rod. Also, try to get your beads down to the "stacked dime in a horizontal line" look rather than the larger beads you've got there. However, it's very clear you have very good penetration, no evidence of over heating or cold welding, you've cleaned up slag pretty good as well so it will hold for this application for quite some time. I'm more accustomed to inspecting aluminum and titanium welds for aircraft applications, but welding and fabricating our own special tools is something I've done quite a lot of. You've definitely got a great understand of amps vs. flow rates vs. arc vs. material being used.

I wonder. How do you store your rods? The welds look so pure you must be maintaining your rods properly to keep them from holding any moisture. Or you're drying them out before using them.

I don't weld anymore though. Gives me a bad headache even with the best eye protection.

Dude, You have no idea how much you made my week with that. Thank You.

As for the slag and all of that... I TIG welded them so really there isnt any slag to begin with. As for the rods we keep them in just regular sealed containers to help keep the shop dust and dirt from cross contaminating them seeing how we regularly work with Iron, Stainless, Aluminum, Brass, and Bronze. So theres a bunch of different metal dust floating around. And trust me, I'm stupid perfectionist (everyone gives me shit over it lol) and it absolutely kills me not to have pretty little dimes on it... But like you said, I just didn't want to risk overheating them. I would love the opportunity to play with titanium one of these days lol Thanks again.
 

Kuro!

Banned
Joined
Jul 25, 2009
Posts
2,563
Reaction score
18
Location
Austin, TX
Ok... Then is it that you are questioning the quality of my work? Did you see the pictures of the knuckles? Its that your comment was rather open-ended as far as its relativeness to these specific knuckles so i'm just trying to figure out where you stand on the subject.

As far as the FD, no sir, I am not with them. I have however driven with and worked with D1 at multiple events 2 or so years ago. I spent a few years as a Pro licensed driver in FDC, a Florida based pro series that was an "underground" feeder class for D1. Even pulled 1st and 2nd place a few times at competitions. Nothing amazing but I have been in and around Pro caliber cars for a while. I did take a break from drifting a little over a year ago to pursue road-racing more but have started to get back into it. Ive road-raced at Sebring, PBIR, Homestead, numerous times and have done drifting at all three and then some. So I've been around the block a few times and I am very familiar with how they do things. And honestly outside of some of the heavily sponsored teams that can have anything they want just CNC'd al verly large amount of people drift with cut knuckles that have no extra bracing at all. These are on my best friends car... They are overkill compared to the sports standards... and for a good reason.

My parents pay for all my mods. Whats your name over on ZT?
 

LS1EATINPONY

The Banker
Joined
Jan 25, 2011
Posts
1,554
Reaction score
0
The real question is How much would you charge to do a set of knuckles for me? If you would do them just PM me and give me an estimate. I want some so bad.
 

dougie b

Senior Member
Joined
Dec 13, 2008
Posts
1,203
Reaction score
2
so since i'm so close....and the idea of a better turning radius is just itching me...how much would something like this cost me?
 

VTXFrank

Obama SUCKS!
Joined
Sep 29, 2010
Posts
8,217
Reaction score
72
Location
Santa Rosa Beach, FL
Dude, You have no idea how much you made my week with that. Thank You.

As for the slag and all of that... I TIG welded them so really there isnt any slag to begin with. As for the rods we keep them in just regular sealed containers to help keep the shop dust and dirt from cross contaminating them seeing how we regularly work with Iron, Stainless, Aluminum, Brass, and Bronze. So theres a bunch of different metal dust floating around. And trust me, I'm stupid perfectionist (everyone gives me shit over it lol) and it absolutely kills me not to have pretty little dimes on it... But like you said, I just didn't want to risk overheating them. I would love the opportunity to play with titanium one of these days lol Thanks again.

No problem brother.

TIG welding is a lot easier to work with isn't it? Titanium is a friggin bitch to weld right. I never could get the hang of it and left it to the more experienced people. I kept making welds that were too cold to work. You can over heat Titanium so quick....it's a fine line if you aren't careful and I was always too worried about fucking up a few thousand dollars worth of stock or, tens of thousands of dollars worth of components, to ever really get good with it.
 

Rhythm_Drifting

Racer/Fabricator Any ?'s
Joined
Jun 7, 2011
Posts
17
Reaction score
0
Location
South Florida
Ziptied... thought you were a driffer bro.

OOOHHH, So that means I have to become one of the cookie cutter followers of all of the drifter forums and wall-ride, hella-flush, like a motha-fucka until my car is so beat to hell that it has to be held together with colored duct tape and zip-ties to be a "drifter"? Yea dude, your absolutely right, lockstep conformity is how you get a head of the pack.
 

Rhythm_Drifting

Racer/Fabricator Any ?'s
Joined
Jun 7, 2011
Posts
17
Reaction score
0
Location
South Florida
For the guys that are looking to do this mod... honestly after thinking about it for a while and being that it is a part that hold a large portion of the safety of the vehicle and its passengers relying on it, I dont really want to get involved with the liability side of things. When you change a part like that it then becomes a "race" part which in-turn should be checked regularly as a part of the vehicles regular maintenance. Also I like to do the install as well and thoroughly test and check them after install and some drive time to ensure that they are working properly. Leaving the installation too someone that I dont know or trust is a complete other list of things that could be done wrong that could lead to improper installation and failure of the part. And being familiar with the internet (and todays current sue for anything mentality) I would get blamed for the failure. So basically if I cant put my hands on it tell the customer that the part is in perfect working condition I dont want to deal with the "what-if" side of things. I dont mean to offend anyone but I do need to look out for myself.

Now with that said, in a few post's up, there is a link to a gentleman that is already set up to do the mod on this forum. The only thing that I would suggest is that if you plan on auto-crossing or road-racing with them you should ask and see if he could leave the factory amount of ackerman in the knuckle so that it does not affect the vehicles ability to turn properly in a corner.
 
Last edited:

dougie b

Senior Member
Joined
Dec 13, 2008
Posts
1,203
Reaction score
2
sent my PM before reading your last post, but if you're willing to and the price seems right, we can talk specifics about my application, thanks. And btw the welds look amazing despite some of these comments....although I'm not a master welder, i've spent enough time with acetylene torches, tig, and migs to know what quality welds and fab work look like, and these definitely fit the bill. They may not be perfect stacks of dimes, but they sure caught my eye
 

fivehunsky

Member
Joined
Mar 12, 2010
Posts
260
Reaction score
1
Thanks for the shout out. Everything in my car behaves just like factory.. except the amount of angle you can gain with the new setup. I have road coursed my car since the install and it behaves like it should.. so, no worries..

Also, those guys werent referring to zipties being used on your car.. they meant ziptied the forum. Alot of the O.G. guys are on there so its one of the places you would look for info or insight in theory.. really.. its just a flamefest lol
 
Back
Top