Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2015 08:10:39 -0800
Reply-To: Alistair Bell <albell@SHAW.CA>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Alistair Bell <albell@SHAW.CA>
Subject: Re: Rear Trailing Arm Replacement Fun! Welding Aluminum with a
MIG.
In-Reply-To: <BAY405-EAS255A72458EDBCEB7C53F271A04A0@phx.gbl>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Getting away from the original subject....
We like our push pull machine. It's a miller invision ( 352?) and once dialled in does a very nice job. Only has had aluminum wire in it since new. The two other machines we have are both miller dynasty 350s.
About 90 % of the work is on stainless and aluminum, and of that work about 75% of the time it's the dynasty 350 and tig.
Neil, the repair you had done to your trailing arm is pretty impressive. And yes, I too have seen images ( lots from Germany) of repairs to really rotted out arms. I wish I had thought of picking up more spare arms back in the 90s and early noughts when vanagons were much more plentiful in the wreckers.
Alistair
> On Jan 19, 2015, at 5:20 AM, Dennis Haynes <d23haynes57@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> I prefer to use a spool gun for aluminum. The short distance eliminates the
> issues with the soft material fouling the liner. I just got a Millermatic
> 211. This welder can work off 110 or 220 and supports a spool gun. The auto
> set feature is a nice touch. So far it has been a he improvement over my
> old Century. The Hobarts at Northern tool are also great units at more
> reasonable pricing. I bought the Miller due to the Inverter technology.
>
> Dennis
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
> Alistair Bell
> Sent: Sunday, January 18, 2015 5:47 PM
> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> Subject: Re: Rear Trailing Arm Replacement Fun!
>
> Neil,
>
> Over the Xmas holidays I worked on a spare set of trailing arms. I cut the
> pinch weld and welded in 1/8" thick plates to reinforce the area where the
> pinch seam was. This was to create more space between tire and trailing arm.
> I tig welded that with no problems. At the same time I decided to weld down
> the plate that the spring pad sits on. My thought was to seal up a rust
> prone area. That welding didn't go as smoothly. Even though I cleaned up the
> area well, there was some sort of material between the plate and the arm
> which bubbled and popped out during welding. I must have gone through at
> least half of a new tungsten, very frustrating. A mig gun would have been
> the ticket there, but our mig is set up and reserved for aluminum and I'd be
> in big trouble if I swapped in steel wire :).
>
> This was a Xmas present for a friend. He had them powder coated (black) and
> I just saw them the other day after paint. For an old set of arms they
> turned out pretty nice.
>
> Alistair
>
>
>
>> On Jan 18, 2015, at 11:40 AM, Neil N <musomuso@GMAIL.COM> wrote:
>>
>> Thanks Dennis. Nice pics.
>>
>> From my POV as a relatively inexperienced weldor (MIG only so far), if
>> the rust hasn't progressed too far, I'm sure the metal gauge on the
>> arm provides a "forgiving" surface to weld to.
>>
>>> On 1/18/15, Dennis Haynes <d23haynes57@hotmail.com> wrote:
>>> Here is a link to some repair pictures.
>>> I have seen the springs fall out. Usually they get caught on the shock.
>>>
>>> https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=9B02084A888884A6!29541&authkey=
>>> !ANs6xPswP6x7Xyk&ithint=folder%2cjpg
>>
>> --
>> Neil n
>>
>> Blog: Vanagons, Westfalia, general <http://tubaneil.blogspot.ca>
>>
>> 1988 Westy Images <https://picasaweb.google.com/musomuso/New1988Westy>
>>
>> 1981 Westfalia "Jaco" Images, technical
>> <http://tubaneil.googlepages.com/>
>>
>> Vanagon-Bus VAG Gas Engine Swap Group <http://tinyurl.com/khalbay>
