Thread: Lethal Weapon, Project A-Bucket

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Opps......missed one. I needed some way to mount a front license plate, and I had these old u-bolts from some rear end or another, so I came up with this license plate bracket/nerf bar/bumper/what ever for the front.

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Very nice look with that nerf bar.

Well I figured out I can MIG Stainless. So I decided that since the headers are stainless I bought some stainless dump tubes, a couple of bends and 5' of pipe and today I built the exhaust from header to just behind trans cross member, where mufflers will go. Driver side dump tube is slightly further back than pass side. Yup you guessed it. I built pass side first, and forgot about that danged pitman arm. But they are pretty close and with the pitman arm there unless you get a tape you cant tell moving from side to side.

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Sweet! So you used pre-formed bends for the drop down. Did you switch to the Tri-Mix (He/Air/CO2) gas on the MIG for stainless? I have not tried that yet with the MIG.

Originally Posted by rspears

Sweet! So you used pre-formed bends for the drop down. Did you switch to the Tri-Mix (He/Air/CO2) gas on the MIG for stainless? I have not tried that yet with the MIG.

No I just used std argon co2. It's a little touchy. I ordered .023 wire and if you let it stick to the tip it will foul between feed wheel and feed tube. If I use up all of this I will go to .030. I went with the .023 because I know my mig isn't stout enough for .035 solid. It works but you dont get good penetration on thicker material ie: 1/4". works great for building up material though. But the stainless is evidently softer so I was using a much higher wire speed, which tells me I could go up to .030 without sacrificing penetration. And then it would feed better and maybe not foul when I opps and let it burn back to tip. I have never welded stainless steel before, and I had picked up this wire to spot weld grill bars where I bobbed it. I was able to weld the thin trim around the bottom of grill, with a light touch, and it polished up good.

I was thinking of Steve (Roadster32) this morning when I was admiring the weld on that stainless after I buffed it with a wire wheel..............

And as a side note, I didn't use a spool gun. I knew you could mig alum. but the wire is so soft it won't feed, so you can buy ( at more than I can afford) a spool gun. I didn't even know I could mig stainless, wondered about it one day and checked and they sold s.s. wire and I checked a couple of welding sites on welding stainless and several said std argon co2 mix worked well.

Oh, yes I used pre formed bends. They weren't as good as the mandrel bends I bought in steel, there was some deformity in the center of the bends so the joint didn't match perfectly, but good enough for a solid weld. I bought 1 U and 2 45's. I just used 1 45 so far. The other I will cut in half at the bend and make exhaust tips. I probably will just use plain steel mufflers, but you never know I might splurge and get stainless ones..........

Nice set of pipes!!!! The stainless really looks good on an open car, definitely worth the extra $$$$!!!!!

The exhaust looks good. I'm happy to hear the Argon CO2 mix worked for you. I was going to try welding stainless a couple times, but didn't want to deal with a second bottle I won't use often. I might pick up some stainless wire now and fool around with it.