hand drill should be fine as long as you take it easy & use a vice to hold it steady. yeah wet weather always slows ya down






yeah ... as grumps mentions .. don't do it unless you KNOW what you are doing re welding parts as the welded parts will be under a fair amount of 'stress' re driving. also before drilling holes ... mark spot with a centre punch so drill bit doesn't 'walk'. are you doing the k member mod as per grannyfalcon & Benj?

What sort of welder are you going to hire?

i Wouldn't stick weld it at all.

I'd personally take it to a shop after cutting at home with all my bits and worst case scenario have them MIG welded it. Best case TIG welded.

I wouldn't think it would set you mack much to have a shop do it.

are you that sure??

I would warm up on sum scrap metal 1st... I do know how to weld, well will see soon enough eny way , knowing how and doing are 2different things . good or bad weld i will post up the job.. most would say i have no experiance and dont do it, but i have only welded 1time at the exhaust shop, the guy let my weld on sum of his scrap metal and he sed i did a perfect weld. I under stand the swerling u shapes that need to be done and the speed of which to move the welding tip, I also understand how the melting metal runs and the job heats up so the weld gose right thru the 2peices and joins them properly, my main worry is i will put a hole in the job from moving to slow. warming up on crap metal I wolud figure out the wire speed and voltage setup

with the speedo cog, i could turn the shaft with all my might and the cog would not budge and the speedo sensor cog dose not take much to turn it.. It did enter my mind the heat side of things as we know things expand and shrink when they go hot and cold and i was a little worried the welding paste my crack over time..

well i was looking on gumtree and found a ross 150amp mig gas/gasless welder for $200. for the thickness of metal il be welding i think that should do the job ok. What do you guys think?

If what you say above is your level of experience and skill, DON"T touch it.

That cross bar is a structural piece of the K Frame and if and when it cracks you will probably die.

This sort or work is not for the unskilled and inexperienced. Just you description above tells me you don't know what you are doing. Do you know about bracing before cutting etc?

Get your other K Frame done and picked up.

yes i understand about bracing, clamping, the v gap vs just butted togeather. I realy feel like i can do the job after a few warm ups on crap metal. I dont have eny kind of exray machine to see thru the metal to check the weld but i under stand how the weld has to penertrate the metals. I will also bash it around with a hammer to see if my welds hold or not.. also, and most important my mates brother is a welder and il have him come over to help out when its time for the weld to happen

(Quote) "yes i understand about bracing, clamping, the v gap vs just butted togeather. I realy feel like i can do the job after a few warm ups on crap metal. I dont have eny kind of exray machine to see thru the metal to check the weld but i under stand how the weld has to penertrate the metals. I will also bash it around with a hammer to see if my welds hold or not.. also, and most important my mates brother is a welder and il have him come over to help out when its time for the weld to happen "

I will say it again, if you don't have the skill, don't do it. If you need to practice and warm up on scrap metal then you don't have the skills to do this job.

The K Frame is a critical part of the cars structure and if it fails you and or any passengers could be killed.

Do you know what steel to use, how to brace the K Frame? Belting it with a hammer won't prove anything, just mark the steel .

I did Benj's K Frame and I know what is required to do the job and I have the Trade Certificates and the experience to carry it out.

If your mates brother is a welder by trade, then ask hime to do it for you, you can prep the job and he can lay the welds.

man if i ask you to come over to my house and weld it tomorrow with my welder, even with all your experiance you would have to set the welder up on sum scrap metal is that right? Also i know the k.frame it self is a structual part of the car which were not realy wleding the k.frame per say just re-welding the cross bar back onto it.. and as for what steel to use, i will use the original parts, just move it forwards.. plus the cross bar is a hollow tube with about 2spot welds and4 5cm staight welds, and to me hitting it with a hammer to see if your weld brakes or not would work.

also if i spend a few day or a week with the welder, with material the same as what il be welding and can pull off propper welds, why would i ask sum1 else to do it for me man, i mean realy.. coz it might brake? eny persons weld can brake if its not welded properly. sum people need to spend years being tought how to do sum things and other people are naturals and only have to do it once or twice be4 they can do it. obviously if my welds are not right i will not weld such an important part. but we shall see how i got. I got sum welding wire, helmant, the front half of the bf falcons k.frame and other scrap metal from the bf i can practice on.. so Il be doing my 2nd weld ever tomorrow good or bad il take sum pics of it and put them up.

[quote="jumpingjak"]man if i ask you to come over to my house and weld it tomorrow with my welder, even with all your experiance you would have to set the welder up on sum scrap metal is that right?

Yes, that is right, but I know how to set up the welder to do the job. Do you? You have done one weld at an exhaust place and the bloke told you it was a good weld, was it really?

Also i know the k.frame it self is a structual part of the car which were not realy wleding the k.frame per say just re-welding the cross bar back onto it..

The cross bar is a structual part of the K Frame and stops the K Frame from spreading. The EB/ED K Frame is poor compared to the EF/EL K Frame, have a look at the difference.

and as for what steel to use, i will use the original parts, just move it forwards..

You will find that these parts will not fit correctly and I would suggest using a heavier gauge (thicker wall) Tube for additional strength and reducing the flex.

plus the cross bar is a hollow tube with about 2spot welds and4 5cm staight welds, and to me hitting it with a hammer to see if your weld brakes or not would work.

this statement shows how little you know about welding and the stresses involved with the K Frame[/q uote]

I am not questioning your will to get the job done, I have been impressed with your progess to this stage, I question your ability to do this job correctly and safely. As I suggested, ask your mates brother to do the welding for you and watch what he does.

A good welder (Tradesmen do a 4 year apprentiship to get their trade certificate) sees what is happening with the weld as it is happening, penetration, no undercutting etc.

The comments I have made are not to put you down but to try and ensure that you get it done properly. You will be saving nothing as the welder will cost you $200 and that could have paid someone to do the job proffesionally.

Take the advise if you wish or not.

Good luck with the continuation of your project.

which is what i was thinking.






ok .. time for me wade in here .......... an exhaust IS easy to weld .. been there done that. however welding a major stressed item needs experience. i had no problem welding my trailer axle but i WILL NOT be welding my k-frame. prefer someone with a lot more experience & a steady hand. trailer is still doing well after 10 odd years of work & being overloaded. and no my welds were not that good either






you can mate. but as grumps has mentioned & brought up. do the k-member correctly the 1st time. get ya brothers mate to do the welding, but do the prep yaself. we all want to see what other mods ya gunna do

yes i totaly understand what you are saying with the saftey of the weld and i would never put a part back into my car that is not safe, even if i did the job my self. I am 1of those people who can say my job is not good enough if its not. I have done about 4days worth of utube study, haha, plus what i already know. I understand weld penertation, chaseing the weld puddle vs pushing the puddle, how the 3metals get turned into a little puddle of molten metal and fuse together cool off and become one peice. but as is sed be4 i would never put bad work on my car when it come to my saftey and most of all others. Its one thing to put your own self at risk but not other people. What would be helpfull is tips on how you did your mates k.frame, thinner metals such as exhausts and sheet metal are not easyer to weld, if you know how to set your welder they are the same as thicker. Thicker metals can use a higher volts or current to get deep penertration for the speed you move the welder, were as thinner metal you need to move realy fast or risk a hole in your job, or turn your welder down so you can move at the same speed as you were on the thicker metal.. Would that be fair to say? also with the wled paste holding the speedo cog the instructions say it can handle the heat and want crack, I also asked a few mechanics and they say it will be fine.

I agree with you about it being a structual part of the car. and there is also a bolt on each side of the front of the k.frame to stop it from crushing in not just the cross bar on its own, thats probably why they made the tube hollow. I did see the welds you did on your mates k.frame in the pictures he put up on his threads and not trying to kiss you butt or enything but they look very nice.. I will be able to weld like that withing a week or so, then you will be blown away, not just imprest. but id still like to know as much as possible, like what setting did you use, did you push or pull your puddle, did you do swirling rings or the c shape motion, evey1 one makes mistakes, even pros, what if eny things would you do different. I welded on a couple of small realy thin peices of alloy tubing yesterday but today i got sum steel bars to play around with tomorrow. It way realy hard to weld on such thin alloy for the 1st time so i put alot of holes in it, did a couple of good spot welds on it tho