milkin' the bottle

I'm on a mission here,
and even ditched an old friend,
as I'm too obsessed with finishing this hood.
An hour was spent trying to get the best fit possible.

clamped

I've rigged the TIG up to be able to reach out to the alley.
Gotta maximize space here at the compound!

alley

The weather was perfect for outside welding,
only the slightest breeze.
Surprisingly there were even a few raindrops.

tiglet

Skinny 1/16" tungsten is the ticket for the sheetmetal welding.
A slew of tacks and the clamps were removed.

clampless

Usually I'd get the grinder out to clean these bumps up.
Time was of the essence here as it was close to 7:30 pm already.

tacked

Here's some action shots thanks to Jakob.
Pretty exciting stuff...

day at the office

I have the finger trigger option on the TIG gun,
but the foot pedal gives way more control.

TP in action

There was just enough light left to cleanup and take a picture.
Now that the hood is tacked together,
the finish welding could probably be done off the car.
This would make it much easier to hammer weld.

mismatch

This is the big problem that I haven't figured out yet.
The reveal line from the hood doesn't match the body.
A couple simple reasons.
One the hood isn't symmetrical which was really surprising.
The other the cowl isn't symmetrical which wasn't really surprising,
as it was never intended to support a hood.
I may get lucky fixing it,
we'll see.

fumes

The argon bottle has been running on fumes for weeks now.
With 200 cf refills up to $110,
I'll milk it til there's nothing left!
Every day I think this is it.

Catch ya later!

TP