Last night I went to a BiC's house to watch/help work on a 1972 Chevy El Camino owned by the son of another BiC. The BiC who owns the garage has a wide assortment of tools, much to my amazement. I did not even know he was interested in cars. He has a 1958 Ford Fairlane 500, a Lancia, and a couple of Fiat Bertone's ... all in various stages of repair. It was amazing.
"Pete", the BiC who owns the garage, was removing the seats from the ElC as I arrived. He then began scribing guide lines to assist him as he was cutting out the old rusty floor pan. To do this, he used a plasma cutter. I was completely amazed at that tool. It was burning through the floor of that old truck like a hot knife through butter. Pretty freaking cool.
After the floor was cut on one side, the metal had to be cleaned with an abrasive pad. That was time consuming, but it needed to be done. After the cleaning, "Pete" began MIG welding the sheet metal floor plan to the frame. The sheet metal was thin enough that he had to take it slow or he would burn through the pan. Not much we could do at that point but clean up some and put on a mask to watch the process. If you have never welded before, the spark from a MIG welder is BRIGHT and you must wear protective gear.
We left about 10 PM, after being there 5 hours or so. I had not eaten in 11 hours or so and my blood sugar was in the basement. I was beginning to feel ill and needed food. I held out until I got home and ate some fruit, graham crackers, a salad, and some milk. It was light and I needed more, but at least I could sleep. Needless to say, I woke up hungry.
1 comment:
Plasma cutters are some of the coolest tools around. I have a friend with one - it's amazing watching the thing slice through just about any metal you can imagine.
He's also built a massive CNC table, I think 4'x8', with a carrier for his plasma torch. I haven't seen it in action yet, but it looks impressive standing still.
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