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anyone need some welding done in king county?


tallwelder81
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I am looking to have a skid plate and reinforced mounts made.

 

I want a prerunner type plate that goes from the cross member bending upward at the front of the car to protect my radiator. and maybe a tube front bumper depending on the cost of materials.

 

how much do you think it would cost to make a front bumper and 1/4" skid plate with the cost of labor?

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1/4" skid plate?

id recommend it 1/8". the whole purpose of the skid plate is to take some serious abuse, take off and scrap and replace.

if its too strong, all that abuse needs to be swallowed by SOMETHING along the line. and that 1/4 inch plate is NOT taking the abuse. so whats next? your 16 and 18g unibody. which CANT just be unbolted and replaced in 5 minutes for 20 bucks.

I have no way to bend 1/4 anyhow. very few sheetbrakes will do anything over 18 or at best, 16g. I had a project last year that needed a 14g sheet folded. 14g is less than .08 inches thick. and nobody around, even with hydraulic assist, could bend it for me. I finally just used my dads 4 cylinder diesel john deere tractor. but point being, I spent a week asking around at local fab shops. nobody would bend 14 gauge. and that's .08. LESS than .08. 1/4 inch would be .25 versus .08

 

my advice is to let me make you an 1/8 inch plate. and id consider even that to be pretty overbuilt. I cant sheetbend 1/8 but I can clamp it to a 2 foot length of railroad track, and then park my truck on it and use a 8lb sledge. done it before with 1/8. it works pretty good.

and I can put your bolt pattern in it just fine.

if you are TRULY doubtful of 1/8 skid plates strength, I could throw some parallel 1/8x1" bars lengthwise, for structural ribs. wouldn't add much weight, but it would add a ton of rigidity and pure hickory toughness.

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also, y'know, the thread TITLE actually specifies king county.

meaning local.

im not into shipping anything over 12" inches.

if i wanted to deliver a huge package, id just call up my girlfriend.

 

 

lmao.....

 

but seriously, folks....

 

i meant, y'know, simple stuff for guys around town here.

anyone between shoreline, wa and tacoma, wa and north bend, wa.

not ohio. no offense to ohio.

 

i think i could make a good tube bumper. i really think i could make a great one. but a 3 inch tubing bender is a serious tool. i dont own that type of stuff. i DO have a very nice manual hydraulic exhaust bender.

and ive done a fair amount of exhaust work. my own on brat. my buddies souped up mid-90s rice racer Civic. friends beat up farm F150s.... stuff like that.

i HATE working with galvanized. if you want any galvanized welded, the new rule is: GRIND AT LEAST TWO INCHES BACK FROM ANYTHING YOU WANT WELDED. im done killin myself with everyopne elses zinc poisoning, laying under a car where even MY skinny butt barely fits, with no way to NOT breathe that crap.

if YOU clean up the area you need welded, im happy to weld it up. you want one or 2 joins, and its almost ready to be welded, just needs a clamp and 20 minutes of work? hell, i will do it for anyone on USMB for like 20 bucks and a cheeseburger. or whatever. if your wife cooks good, im open to other entrees, lol....

bottom line is, i say food cuz i like to eat and i know we are not all a RICH crowd. typical subaru guys arent usually drowning in piles of cash. i want to help. people on here have been real patient and generous with their time and knowledge. and in my experience of the married, blue-collar crowd, most of us can often afford a 5 dollar casserole or whatever, even though we dont have an extra 5 dollars in paper cash.

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on ANOTHER note, im working on designing some nice ROCK SLIDERS for an ea81 body. nothing cheap tho. high-end steel, and slow, detail-oriented labor.

im not saying im close to having them done. im just saying im working on a design.

the only ones ive ever seen on an ea81 were on that huge beast, the McBrat monster. and i know 99% of us arent planning to go in that extreme direction with our builds. i think 2 or 3" lift and 27inch tires is pretty typical.

not many are going up 8" and throwing 33s underneath.

NOT that its not cool. thats a sweet sweet ride. its just not realistic for most of us.

does ANYONE have sliders on a more mild built brat or ea81 hatch? or at least some pics of how they attached to the "framerails"? i dont know what you call those main structural ribs on a unibody. when im jacking up my brat, i just call em framerails.

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also, y'know, the thread TITLE actually specifies king county.

meaning local.

im not into shipping anything over 12" inches.

if i wanted to deliver a huge package, id just call up my girlfriend.

 

 

lmao.....

 

but seriously, folks....

 

i meant, y'know, simple stuff for guys around town here.

anyone between shoreline, wa and tacoma, wa and north bend, wa.

not ohio. no offense to ohio.

 

i think i could make a good tube bumper. i really think i could make a great one. but a 3 inch tubing bender is a serious tool. i dont own that type of stuff. i DO have a very nice manual hydraulic exhaust bender.

and ive done a fair amount of exhaust work. my own on brat. my buddies souped up mid-90s rice racer Civic. friends beat up farm F150s.... stuff like that.

i HATE working with galvanized. if you want any galvanized welded, the new rule is: GRIND AT LEAST TWO INCHES BACK FROM ANYTHING YOU WANT WELDED. im done killin myself with everyopne elses zinc poisoning, laying under a car where even MY skinny butt barely fits, with no way to NOT breathe that crap.

if YOU clean up the area you need welded, im happy to weld it up. you want one or 2 joins, and its almost ready to be welded, just needs a clamp and 20 minutes of work? hell, i will do it for anyone on USMB for like 20 bucks and a cheeseburger. or whatever. if your wife cooks good, im open to other entrees, lol....

bottom line is, i say food cuz i like to eat and i know we are not all a RICH crowd. typical subaru guys arent usually drowning in piles of cash. i want to help. people on here have been real patient and generous with their time and knowledge. and in my experience of the married, blue-collar crowd, most of us can often afford a 5 dollar casserole or whatever, even though we dont have an extra 5 dollars in paper cash.

 

who said anything about shipping? i am actually moving to shoreline, so i was more planning in the future. i can weld too, and make tube bumpers and skid plates... but i have none of the tooling, welders, etc. all i have is regular mechanic tools, nothing for fab work. im just willing to pay someone if they do better work than me.

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on ANOTHER note, im working on designing some nice ROCK SLIDERS for an ea81 body. nothing cheap tho. high-end steel, and slow, detail-oriented labor.

im not saying im close to having them done. im just saying im working on a design.

the only ones ive ever seen on an ea81 were on that huge beast, the McBrat monster. and i know 99% of us arent planning to go in that extreme direction with our builds. i think 2 or 3" lift and 27inch tires is pretty typical.

not many are going up 8" and throwing 33s underneath.

NOT that its not cool. thats a sweet sweet ride. its just not realistic for most of us.

does ANYONE have sliders on a more mild built brat or ea81 hatch? or at least some pics of how they attached to the "framerails"? i dont know what you call those main structural ribs on a unibody. when im jacking up my brat, i just call em framerails.

 

I'd be interested in rock sliders for an EA82, if possible, as well as some quarter panel guards?

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I don't have an ea82 to work off of. so no. if you want anything like that, major stuff, its gotta be ea81 so I can crawl under my brat and get ar eal, solid, accurate feel for what to do and how to be efficient and get a decent result. sorry. I cant work off numbers. I don't function that way. some guys can. but not me.

 

quarter panel guards? yeah I think I could do that. tubular?

do you mean built off the.... ummm..... hmmmmm

are you talking like sheets of diamond plate aluminum riveted directly to the quarter panel? that's easy.... and yeah, id be into that project. I think a lot of these guys would want those. I hadt thought of that, so much, but have put a LOT of thought into rocker panel armor. like the diamond plate you see under the door-area, on pickup trucks and Cherokees and stuff.

just be aware, it wont be bulletproof. but it would definitely help with like sticks and gravel. and also just look cool and tuff.

 

 

and maozebong, if you are skilled with welders, and are moving to seattle area, lets hang out. if you dot seem like a jacka$$ or a gomer pyle, or a punk who thrashes other guys expensive and importat tools, shoot, you can probably just get your own butt in my garage and do a project, if you throw me a few bucks for materials. I use fluxcore wire now, its like 80 bucks for a 11lb roll. just buy me breakfast up the road. if you seem kosher, you are welcome to use my welder and plasma cutter.

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I don't have an ea82 to work off of. so no. if you want anything like that, major stuff, its gotta be ea81 so I can crawl under my brat and get ar eal, solid, accurate feel for what to do and how to be efficient and get a decent result. sorry. I cant work off numbers. I don't function that way. some guys can. but not me.

 

quarter panel guards? yeah I think I could do that. tubular?

do you mean built off the.... ummm..... hmmmmm

are you talking like sheets of diamond plate aluminum riveted directly to the quarter panel? that's easy.... and yeah, id be into that project. I think a lot of these guys would want those. I hadt thought of that, so much, but have put a LOT of thought into rocker panel armor. like the diamond plate you see under the door-area, on pickup trucks and Cherokees and stuff.

just be aware, it wont be bulletproof. but it would definitely help with like sticks and gravel. and also just look cool and tuff.

 

Yeah, I was thinking riveted directly to the quarter panel, kinda like this

 

UpperQuarterPanelGaurdsThmb.jpg

 

I'm just in hobart, so if thats a project you're interested in taking on, I'd be happy to be the ea82 guinea-pig. My fabrication skills are limited, but I'm halfway mechanically inclined and familiar with enough to make myself useful. I know trail-armor sells well within every other 4x4 community, so I was surprised when I found no one offered any for subies. Just let me know!

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welding sheet with a flux core wire is a nasty job. of course it can be done, and is done all the time, but once you try hardwire with 75/25 you wont ever want to go back. if its possible to run gas you will definately see a huge difference in quality, speed, and enjoyment using hardwire. i picked up a nice lincoln with gas bottle and reg for $150 on craigslist.

 

the subframe that hooks to the skid plate is a box tube, which is plenty strong enough to take solid hits (though I agree that 1/4 is over doing it and adding weight to boot). if it were me in that situation i would just make it out of mulitple pieces with the joints at the bends and weld the angles together.

 

grinding galvanized is best, but if you want a quick solution to fumes, just get a couple of hose clamps and small bar of metal about an inch long with tabs on each end at 90 making a C. clamp one end to the nozzle of your gun and use the other to hose clamp a shop vac tube to pull in the fumes. a little bending and it should take car of 90% of the gasses. you may have to plug it off a bit or poke some holes in the tube or it could pull to much of the sheilding gas. doesnt take the place of a respirator, but it is the same system most weld shops will use, just much smaller.

 

for the rock sliders, (assuming you wanted the tube ones most trucks use)look up subrame connectors. subrame connectors are used on high horsepower cars to strenghten them from body twist. they ussually bolt and then weld into the frame rail on the bottom of a unibody car, though your sliders would be in a slightly different place. i would do one connecter at the frame rail underneath, and one connecter at that little metal tab that runs along the body under the door, then hook the slider tube to the underside of it. that way you have 2 points of contact to the body (essentially making it a square tube for strength. if you dont have a second point of contact then the lever action could stress welds and maybe even the frame rail. food for research anyway.

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and maozebong, if you are skilled with welders, and are moving to seattle area, lets hang out. if you dot seem like a jacka$$ or a gomer pyle, or a punk who thrashes other guys expensive and importat tools, shoot, you can probably just get your own butt in my garage and do a project, if you throw me a few bucks for materials. I use fluxcore wire now, its like 80 bucks for a 11lb roll. just buy me breakfast up the road. if you seem kosher, you are welcome to use my welder and plasma cutter.

 

of course, i always appreciate using someone's tools, and within the month, i should make enough to own my own... i used to have a full mechanic and mildly acceptable fab shop at my disposal in ohio. i have used both plasma cutter and mig/flux core. if you have a welder capable of using sheilding gas, ill get a tank. also dont care about buying rolls of wire, depending on how much i bother you. here is a picture of a cage i built last year (a pre-bent kit the customer wanted), to prove i know what i am doing:

 

167937_1354277183738_4038222_n.jpg

 

 

i move to shoreline a few days before new years. once i get established, ill be getting the rest of the useful ************ like tubing notchers, benders, and so on. magic will be made.

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