If you do not have an auto-darkening welding hood, get one. They are perfect for working in tight areas and tacking items in place. It eliminates the "head nod" required for the old style hoods.

I agree,get an auto darkening helmut. They come in all price ranges. I have a nice Miller,but a local fellow here who does a fair bit of fabricating uses one that cost him around $150.00 and it works great he said.
The sand in the eyes feeling is not good. Long term eye damage will occur if it continues.
Chris

you can borrow mine

kbee00 wrote:.... which means I will have to lose the brake booster - which I was planning to do anyways

See page 2 of this thread: http://www.fiatspider.com/f08/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=7936

124JOE wrote:you can borrow mine

Hey 124JOE that is very kind of you to offer. I have never been comfortable with borrowing tools, etc unless it is a one time use big thing (sand blast cabinet, etc.). Hate the thought of breaking it.....but thank you anyway.

Question, these self darkening helmets - how fast to they change from light to dark? When spot welding panels in, I place a weld every couple seconds - can these helmets respond that fast?

My standard helmet is getting pretty old anyway.....(excuse to buy a new one)

Thank you for the advice

baltobernie wrote:

kbee00 wrote:.... which means I will have to lose the brake booster - which I was planning to do anyways

See page 2 of this thread: http://www.fiatspider.com/f08/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=7936

Thanks for the link - I actually have that one saved as it is very valuable to my upcoming efforts.

kbee00 wrote:

124JOE wrote:you can borrow mine

Hey 124JOE that is very kind of you to offer. I have never been comfortable with borrowing tools, etc unless it is a one time use big thing (sand blast cabinet, etc.). Hate the thought of breaking it.....but thank you anyway.

Question, these self darkening helmets - how fast to they change from light to dark? When spot welding panels in, I place a weld every couple seconds - can these helmets respond that fast?

My standard helmet is getting pretty old anyway.....(excuse to buy a new one)

Thank you for the advice

mines not that fast.joe

just picked up a self darkening helmet - $99 at Tractor Supply - even has flames on it!!! whoo hooo

The specs said it changes from light to dark and dark to light in .000001 seconds. And this can be adjusted via some dials on the inside. You can also adjust the darkness - from #9 to #13. Seems like a decent deal to me. Tomorrow I get to try it out. I cut and formed the metal for the passenger side. And the driver footwell. THat one was tough - lots of curves.

Pics tomorrow.

The self darkening helmet was well worth the money. It works great. Amazing device.....

Welded in the final patch panels - other than the seat mount. (I am distracted today - watching the WRC....) Ready for the rotesserie.

Pics for kicks....

I haven't read most of your post and see you are welding. It's fun trying to get the panels on these cars welded without burning through the metal. A nice trick to help you out in case you don't know is if you take some copper sheet and put it behind the place your going to weld, it will help you get the weld done without sticking to the steel or burning through.
The weld won't stick to the copper so if you have an area that's has a hole but it's not necessary to cut a patch, you can put the copper behind it and weld the metal in.

I actually used my brass hammer just for that purpose and it worked great! I did find I was burning thru too often. So I ended up putting larger patch panels in just to be sure I have only good solid metal. Anything worth doing is worth doing right the first time, yeah?

No work this week. Rainy and cold.

How's this build going? Looks ambitious. Similar to mine. Although I have less rust and won't pull my engine for a while.

Getting behind - been too busy with work which equals travel. I am planning on moving over the next few months - not sure when the wife will find a house she wants - but this is sure to put me behind. Paint, carpet, de-cluttering, cleaning, etc.

I am going to try and push to at least have base coat paint on the car before winter arrives. Might have to put it into a storage unit for a few months.... too many issues in flux right now.

I do plan on spending time this week at night and the weekend.

Pics for sure

Make sure she gets a house with a big garage and a lift in it.

I managed to get a lot done the last few days. Built the rotisserie from two engine stands (took awhile to change the angle so the axis of rotation is parallel with the ground) and used the bumper connections to tie into the car. Added an extra bolt in the rear and welded the front brackets to the rotisserie tubes. Took a better part of a weekend for all this.

I also removed the rear axle - just have the front crossmember to do and I'll have the bare shell. Csaba came through with a new seat track piece that I welded in place - worked perfect!! If I can get the shell down to bare metal, patched, and primed before winter I'll be very happy.

Spending time looking for a new house - no matter what we find, I will have a real garage to work in -working outside, having to pull out the welder, tools, etc every time I want to work on the car is wasting considerable time - takes at least an hour to drag everything out and put it all away each time - not very effiecient.....

Sorry no pics - just don't have the time to post. Will get them up asap.

Thanks for following along - and any advice is always welcome!!