Well, I haven't done as much as I wanted but I finally welded up my firewall......
and fabricated the "taco" gussets for the door bars.Started with a poster board template and ended up with my 4 gussets, The lines are reference lines for bending. I was debating adding a dimple (I have the die) but decided not to.
There are many ways to do this but this is how I did it. Pure brute force.Custom "hand formed"
nice and symmetrical bend, it sits flat on the table.........
Hammer it gently into place to check fitment,
Ready to tack weld and then do final welding.
Since I'm not in a rush I decided to tig the gussets. Also hoping I could lay down some nice looking beads since this is a highly visible area.Tig is great for welding thin matrial like the gusset (16ga) to thick materials (like the tubing) since you can really control the arc and where you apply the most heat.
First I adjusted the contour on the gussets to ensure a near gapless fit. Next I secured in place with clamps and tacked it in.
Me getting ready to spark it up, finding a comfortable position is 80% of getting a good tig weld. When I did this one I was very comfortable and got a good bead. In another where I had a hard time finding a good position the bead came out like crap.But every gusset I do my welds get better, which is why I'm doing the driver door last!
moving up the tube...
about halfway
one down, 3 more to go.......fixturing the second one....
second one....a bit better....
macro closeup.....not perfect but not horrible either......especially considering the weird positions.....
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