Another Mopar Off My Bucket List - Barracuda Fastback
Despite the lack of updates, there has been some progress.
Last week Teresa and I went to Des Moines because one of her brothers was going to have a leg amputated. He had been working on a roof and when he stepped off a ladder he stepped into a small hole in the ground and broke his foot. It was bad enough that they pinned the bones. Nine months later it hadn't healed from the surgery yet and an infection set in. He's doing OK now and is optimistic enough to joke about cutting his sock expenditure in half.
While we were in Iowa I spent time on Spencer's Roadrunner. The right header gasket had blown out so I replaced it with a copper one from Mr. Gasket. - Sort of pricey at $45 but it should eliminate the exhaust leak.
After running the car for a minute I noticed a coolant leak beneath it. After inspection we discovered that the heater core had gone bad. Rather than replace it we removed the heater hoses and capped the pump off.
Before going to Iowa I had used some Play-Doh to measure the amount of hood clearance we were going to have above the radiator wall. It was only 1/2".
We ditched the idea of doing any further cutting on the cross-member and decided to proceed with modifying the radiator. We discussed buying an aluminum spool gun for the Miller. It was going to cost $800 without the bottle of Argon that we'd need to go with it. After awhile Spencer decided he'd rather invest in a tig welder. Before returning home I picked up a bottle of Argon and when I got home the new welder was already waiting at my door. It's a HOBART EZ-TIG 165i. I'm not sure how much he paid for it but he felt it would pay for itself over time.
I've always prided myself in being good at oxyacetylene welding and mig-welding but had never tried tig before. The first thing I learned was that I suck with a tig. Maybe I would have had great results welding steel but my initial attempts with aluminum were far from pretty.
I didn't want to ruin the new radiator so I knew I needed to practice before tackling the job. Luckily I had enough scrap aluminum around that I didn't have to butcher anything of value. After a few days of struggling I began to get the hang of it. I'm far from expert but at least it's not an automatic death sentence for parts I need to fuse together now.
I still didn't want to blow holes in the radiator until I'd successfully fabricated something out of aluminum so I decided to make the attachment for the radiator separate and (if successful) then weld it to the side tank.
I made a template out of paper first.
Then I used the template to cut some .040" aluminum. After some bending I welded it together. It wasn't a thing of beauty but I felt it was passable.
My next step was to cut the radiator. I used my air cut off wheel to do the damage. I did my best to salvage the original filler neck so I could re-use it on the new assembly.
I had warned Spencer ahead of time that I might be ruining the radiator. Although I knew I'd try to be careful I wasn't sure the soldered core would survive the heat needed to do the welding. I have yet to attach the new fabbed part to the radiator but the fit is looking good so far.
You'll have to excuse the quality of the pictures. When I was in Des Moines I left my camera on the hood of my truck when I made a parts run. - Not sure where it fell off but I couldn't find it. For now I'm using the built-in camera on one of our laptops. I ordered a used replacement camera off of eBay and it should be here by the end of the week.
Despite the lack of updates, there has been some progress.
Last week Teresa and I went to Des Moines because one of her brothers was going to have a leg amputated. He had been working on a roof and when he stepped off a ladder he stepped into a small hole in the ground and broke his foot. It was bad enough that they pinned the bones. Nine months later it hadn't healed from the surgery yet and an infection set in. He's doing OK now and is optimistic enough to joke about cutting his sock expenditure in half.
While we were in Iowa I spent time on Spencer's Roadrunner. The right header gasket had blown out so I replaced it with a copper one from Mr. Gasket. - Sort of pricey at $45 but it should eliminate the exhaust leak.
After running the car for a minute I noticed a coolant leak beneath it. After inspection we discovered that the heater core had gone bad. Rather than replace it we removed the heater hoses and capped the pump off.
Before going to Iowa I had used some Play-Doh to measure the amount of hood clearance we were going to have above the radiator wall. It was only 1/2".
We ditched the idea of doing any further cutting on the cross-member and decided to proceed with modifying the radiator. We discussed buying an aluminum spool gun for the Miller. It was going to cost $800 without the bottle of Argon that we'd need to go with it. After awhile Spencer decided he'd rather invest in a tig welder. Before returning home I picked up a bottle of Argon and when I got home the new welder was already waiting at my door. It's a HOBART EZ-TIG 165i. I'm not sure how much he paid for it but he felt it would pay for itself over time.
I've always prided myself in being good at oxyacetylene welding and mig-welding but had never tried tig before. The first thing I learned was that I suck with a tig. Maybe I would have had great results welding steel but my initial attempts with aluminum were far from pretty.
I didn't want to ruin the new radiator so I knew I needed to practice before tackling the job. Luckily I had enough scrap aluminum around that I didn't have to butcher anything of value. After a few days of struggling I began to get the hang of it. I'm far from expert but at least it's not an automatic death sentence for parts I need to fuse together now.
I still didn't want to blow holes in the radiator until I'd successfully fabricated something out of aluminum so I decided to make the attachment for the radiator separate and (if successful) then weld it to the side tank.
I made a template out of paper first.
Then I used the template to cut some .040" aluminum. After some bending I welded it together. It wasn't a thing of beauty but I felt it was passable.
My next step was to cut the radiator. I used my air cut off wheel to do the damage. I did my best to salvage the original filler neck so I could re-use it on the new assembly.
I had warned Spencer ahead of time that I might be ruining the radiator. Although I knew I'd try to be careful I wasn't sure the soldered core would survive the heat needed to do the welding. I have yet to attach the new fabbed part to the radiator but the fit is looking good so far.
You'll have to excuse the quality of the pictures. When I was in Des Moines I left my camera on the hood of my truck when I made a parts run. - Not sure where it fell off but I couldn't find it. For now I'm using the built-in camera on one of our laptops. I ordered a used replacement camera off of eBay and it should be here by the end of the week.
