Great video, great work as always! When I do rail replacements, I cross drill or drill the mating tubes. Like 1/4”- 3/8 holes Press the inner sleeve tight into the existing frame rail, plug weld it in place then press over the new rail and plug weld it before welding the heavily beveled/ main seam. It’s Just added strength and surface area to weld for piece of mind when you clean all the welds perfectly smooth and polish it with a scotch brite disk. I like to grind very small notches at the seam of the mating tubes instead of a solid gap to minimize shrinking and rotation but still welding directly to the inner sleeve. I never weld all they way around the tube but weld in quarters while crisscrossing and alternating directions. When the jobs done I always go over all the welds extremely light with a torch. I do that with new chassis too. Then for those I have the Poweder Coater burn off at a higher temp for a slightly longer duration and then taper the temp down slowly. The final bake is done at std temp. If anyone think that’s overkill I once watched an old timer hand cut the tubes in an awesome triangle-toothed locking pattern. He welded small tiny beads stopping to lightly peen each one. There’s Some Outrageous craftsmanship and detail from the old school fab/chassis guys.
Great video, great work as always!
When I do rail replacements, I cross drill or drill the mating tubes. Like 1/4”- 3/8 holes Press the inner sleeve tight into the existing frame rail, plug weld it in place then press over the new rail and plug weld it before welding the heavily beveled/ main seam. It’s Just added strength and surface area to weld for piece of mind when you clean all the welds perfectly smooth and polish it with a scotch brite disk. I like to grind very small notches at the seam of the mating tubes instead of a solid gap to minimize shrinking and rotation but still welding directly to the inner sleeve. I never weld all they way around the tube but weld in quarters while crisscrossing and alternating directions. When the jobs done I always go over all the welds extremely light with a torch. I do that with new chassis too. Then for those I have the Poweder Coater burn off at a higher temp for a slightly longer duration and then taper the temp down slowly. The final bake is done at std temp.
If anyone think that’s overkill I once watched an old timer hand cut the tubes in an awesome triangle-toothed locking pattern. He welded small tiny beads stopping to lightly peen each one. There’s Some Outrageous craftsmanship and detail from the old school fab/chassis guys.