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Hi all, After looking at all the various builds on here (cars, bikes, etc), I've finally got the gusto up to start my own build. Since selling my R32 GTR Skyline and obtaining a 2007 Nissan Dualis (Qashqai), I've been spending more time outdoors etc, but need something to satisfy my urge to build/modify. The idea currently is to build a caravan that I can put mountain bikes, motorbikes, surfboards etc into and go away for weekends. It has to be light enough to be towed by my dualis (max towing capacity is 1400kg braked), but sturdy enough to survive offroad or suburban potholed streets. Main chassis will be 40x40x2m steel, with 75x50x2.5 drawbars. Whilst the main "bird cage" will be 50x6mm aluminium flat with 4mm Aluminium Composite panels cladding the exterior. Might rivet it as well. The dimensions I've set out are: 4.8m total length 3m cabin length 2m high cabin (there'll be a recessed floor for bit more height) 2m wide, with the wheels sitting inboard of the edges. I've been inspired by things like Grizz's teardrop (and other teardrops) as well as the styling of the Airstream. I've got quite a few sketches on my note pads etc, but they don't scan too well, so here is a quick thing I knocked up in Sumopaint (Chrome app) My metal for the chassis gets delivered today, so I can hopefully make a start on this on the weekend. If the photos ever work..
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Last Edit: Nov 27, 2015 0:24:07 GMT by sciclone
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Frankenhealey
Club Retro Rides Member
And I looked, and behold, a pale horse! And its rider's name was Death
Posts: 3,874
Club RR Member Number: 15
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Apr 11, 2014 21:20:41 GMT
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Sorry but pictures not working.
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Tales of the Volcano Lair hereFrankenBug - Vulcan Power hereThe Frankenhealey here
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No biggie as it was pretty poxy anyway, and I changed the shell design slightly. I'll have to put the pics on Photobucket or something because I think the Picasa link is too long for the BB code to handle.
Sadly, with the cyclone hitting the coast up north, we had nothing but rain for the last couple of days, so I didn't want to use the sparky stick in the rain.
On a related note, are there any mechanical engineers around that have access to Solidworks or some other stress modelling program? I want this thing to have independent coil suspension, but would like to see how my idea for trailing arms goes before I start buying bits and pieces only for them to not work how I want.
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Ok. Update... Over the easter long weekend, I was away camping and 4WDing, so no work got done. Upon coming home on Thursday I set my mind to getting things ready, as Friday (25th) was a public holiday. First thing to do was get some organisation in the shed. With a tiny garage, space is a premium, so I moved the motorbikes out, and pulled all the other bits and pieces out as well (welder, drift trikes, compressor etc), and set about making a bench to work on. Here's the end result 20140425_105336 by Sciclone, on Flickr Once I'd finished tidying everything, I started with the measuring and marking. A tape measure, angle/set square, a knife (for marking on metal) and some builders chalk I started measuring and planning where to make cuts. 20140425_105407 by Sciclone, on Flickr Bust out the angle grinder and my new multi-tool with metal bit (it was rubbish, need to buy a good brand plunge blade) 20140425_121834 by Sciclone, on Flickr The first cut is the deepest (and slowest) 20140425_125806 by Sciclone, on Flickr After about an hour I had 2 main rails done and notched, ready for the cross bars 20140425_135226 by Sciclone, on Flickr I've just painted them with primer, as the humidity was sitting around 85% on Friday, but 27*C... It's supposed to be closer to winter than summer.. That's where I packed up for the day. I was supposed to do some more on Sunday, but it didn't happen. Total so far: $245 for the steel. Not including tools as they won't be exclusively for the build. Time: 2 hours.
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Well, no photos tonight & nothing too exciting to report.
Cut 2 of the 4m bars (had to cut the 8 metre length in half to fit in the truck) into 4 2m lengths for the cross bars on the frame. I also got one of 3 marked up and notched, til I thought I should pack up and stop annoying the neighbours.
Total spent: $245 Total time: 3.5 hours (could have done it quicker if I had a metal cut off saw)
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Apr 29, 2014 22:15:31 GMT
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A couple of hours, a couple of photos. As soon as I got home from work, I headed out to the garage to start again. I had 2 of the 3 central frame rails left to notch, so got stuck in and did that. It's not really exciting showing me sitting on concrete scribing marks into metal, so I didn't both taking pictures. But... after 1.5hours, I was left with everything that needed notching done and I dummy fitted it like this image by Sciclone, on Flickr As you can see, the bars aren't sitting flush as yet, looking like this up close image by Sciclone, on Flickr So tonight (it's morning here now), I'll give all the notches a tickle with a 40grit flap disc, and hopefully I'll get them all fitting flush and start on the welding. To be honest, you'd be surprised at what you can do if you chuck a couple of hours here and there at a project. It adds up and you get to see progress. Total spent: $245 (will have to start ordering more parts soon. Total time: 5 hours.
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May 14, 2014 23:41:54 GMT
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I'm not dead yet.
No pictures, but have been slowly working on this. I've now welded up one of the notched cross bars and ready to get stuck into the other two notched bars. Then I'll have to put the front bar on and draw bars.
Unfortunately, I'll then have to figure out a way getting more space. The garage is too short for my intended bird cage, so I'll probably have to do that outside (at least it'll be aluminium), then drag the chassis outside and attach the two together.
I had hoped for it to be moving along faster than this (and with more pictures) but it's getting there slowly.
Total spend: $245 Total time : 9 hours.
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So a little time spent out in the shed this afternoon. After moving the motorbikes out, I dragged out the old table frame. It isn't quite big enough, but allows me to weld while standing, rather than sitting cross legged. Cue some sparky action, and I eventually end up with this 20140522_183013 by Sciclone, on Flickr As you can see, the welds are a little crappy. Some of the gaps made when notching were too big, so I had to fill using the MIG (I only have gasless wire ATM). 20140522_182952 by Sciclone, on Flickr The paint isn't permanent, it's just something to cover the bare metal, as the humidity is pretty high here, and being less than 10km from the sea, the air can be quite salty making corrosion quick to start. I've got a new tool that a friend bought for me, an air powered cut off saw. It's only 75mm so it should allow me to get into those corners, clean the welds up and redo them where needed. I've now ordered the electric brakes, stub axles and off road coupling, so progress will be made. Total funds: $736.40 ($485 for the trailer parts and postage, $6.40 for oil for the air tools. Total time: 11 hours
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Update 2/6/2014 The postie arrived with my goodies on Thursday. 20140601_122000 by Sciclone, on Flickr 20140601_122007 by Sciclone, on Flickr Progress has slowed on this slightly. But I've been busy helping my brother pull apart a 1978 Suzuki TS100. We finished pulling apart the engine on Sunday, so I got to work grinding back some of the poxy welds. To be honest, they look worse than they are. After grinding them back with a flap disc and grind disc, I could see that they were actually solid. There's only probably 1 or 2 places that I'll have to redo, but otherwise it's fine. It holds my 85kgs without much flex and not creaking or anything, so that's pretty good. After grinding, I thought I'd better see if all the trailer parts I bought fit together before I post feedback on the bay of fleas. But I didn't have any bearing grease and we'd run out of rags, so a quick pop down to the local Supercheap Auto, and I was back. Packing bearings was one of those jobs I hated when I was a mechanic, not difficult, but messy as all get out. This time I did it with gloves, and what a difference. Rather than having to spend ages getting grease out of my fingernails and webbing and using a butt load of rags in the process, just take the gloves off and throw them away. So I assembled the drums to see how it all fits. 20140601_125409 by Sciclone, on Flickr There's about a 5mm gap, but after asking the seller, the backing plate and square mount should be flush against the square part of the axle, with the 3-5 mm gap in between the backing plate and drum. I'll adjust it when I get a chance, then tack the square mount into place before I disassemble and fully weld it into place. At least everything fits. Total spent: $748.xx ($11.xx for the bearing grease) Total time: 14 hours
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Argh it's been 2 weeks since I last worked on this thing.. or remembered to takes pics. Last weekend was a long weekend, so we did what any sane person would do and went camping. Queensland doesn't get proper winter, because even the coldest it reached at night, 200km away from the ocean, next to a stream and at the foot of mountains was about 7 degrees C. Since arriving home, I was hit with a virus that leaves you feeling off. Not really sick (no orrifice nasties), but just unwell, and feeling like someone's sucked all your energy out. But yesterday (Sunday), I was feeling better, so after watching World Cup games, I went out to the shed to work. Had to do a quick clean up, as some of the camping gear had just been dumped in there to get in the way, but 5 mins and I was ready to go again. On my previous things, I was bemoaning my welding. This is probably more to do with using Gasless wire, than my welding. The splatter makes things look unsightly, so until you clean it up, can't tell how well it's gone. Anyway, after grinding back some of the welds I wasn't happy with, they actually look to be a whole lot more solid than I previously thought. I've re-welded the ones I wasn't happy with, so that's 50% of the frame done. (I still need to weld the draw-bars, front and rear ladder bars and the "outriggers"). While the spark stick was out, I started welding the axles and backing plates. I tacked them into place with all the bearings and such were together, to make sure the plate sat flash and concentric on the axle. After tacking I took the drum apart and welded it separate from the brake drums. This (the axle and plate) are by far the thickest things I've attempted to weld with my welder. Because I had to play with the settings, I wasted a lot of time and wire with burn-back issues. Having said this, I was able to lay down some nice enough welds. But after dropping hot slag in my shoe (it was too hot to wear pants, so shorts it was), I got annoyed and went inside to watch the Japan v Cote D'Ivore game. Here's some pictures of more welds.. 20140615_123450 by Sciclone, on Flickr 20140615_123459 by Sciclone, on Flickr 20140615_123511 by Sciclone, on Flickr Nothing too exciting, but I'm hoping to finish my drawings so everyone can see what I'm going for. Total Spent: $748.xx Total time: 15.5 hours
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Last Edit: Jun 17, 2014 0:07:51 GMT by sciclone
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Jun 17, 2014 17:43:19 GMT
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how do the electric brakes work?
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how do the electric brakes work? It'll need a brake controller first, but basically, when you put your foot on the brakes, the switch that turns your brake lights on provides the signal to send power to the trailer brakes. Instead of fluid acting on a slave cylinder, an electro-magnet pushes the shoes out on the drum wall. I did get a slight bit more done yesterday afternoon, til running out of welding wire put a halt to play. So I just cleaned up some weld spatter with a wire cup before calling it a night. Total spent: $748.xx Total time: 16 hours
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Last Edit: Jun 18, 2014 1:49:21 GMT by sciclone
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Damn I'm lazy, but I'm also good at making excuses So work on this thing ground to a halt during June/July. With colder weather, wind and World Cup to watch, I've been slack about getting in the shed. Add to that both my car and motorbike registrations coming the same week, money was tight. With me needing more welding wire, and the wheels before I started making the suspension, this halted play. So after receiving my tax return I immediately put an order in for my wheels. Because of the rubbish roads around here, and the general need of this thing to go off the asphalt, I was on the look out for steel wheels in a 16" diameter and Ford/Nissan PCD. However, due to using parallel bearings it needed to have a centre bore larger than 80.1mm. After a bit of research I came up with Rockcrawler Series 98's. Correct size etc, and they have a 1250kg load capacity as well. Not super cheap though at $145 each, but with my tax return covering them nicely, I went ahead and ordered them. 16x7 +0 offset. Yesterday, I assembled them with my axles and brakes to make sure everything fit. 20140720_102744 by Sciclone, on Flickr Excellent. Might as well do the other side. 20140720_103749 by Sciclone, on Flickr Ok, so not the most interesting photos, but assembling all the parts together allowed me to check other things like how much of the axle is covered by wheel/tyre overhang etc. I'll be running 225/70 tyres, so I needed to make sure when I start making the trailing arms, I don't make them too close, or I'll have bad rub issues. That's about all I got done yesterday after giving the shed a quick clean out. Total spent: $1039.00 ($290 on wheels) Total time: 18 hours
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Jul 22, 2014 22:46:19 GMT
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how do the electric brakes work? It'll need a brake controller first, but basically, when you put your foot on the brakes, the switch that turns your brake lights on provides the signal to send power to the trailer brakes. Instead of fluid acting on a slave cylinder, an electro-magnet pushes the shoes out on the drum wall. Do you have any control over braking force or are they just on or off with the power? If so, how are they set up so they don't just lock when you brake? Edit:- Just looked on Wiki and whilst it's not super helpful, that'll be where the brake controller comes in?
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Last Edit: Jul 22, 2014 22:51:08 GMT by georgeb
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Jul 22, 2014 22:58:02 GMT
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It'll need a brake controller first, but basically, when you put your foot on the brakes, the switch that turns your brake lights on provides the signal to send power to the trailer brakes. Instead of fluid acting on a slave cylinder, an electro-magnet pushes the shoes out on the drum wall. Do you have any control over braking force or are they just on or off with the power? If so, how are they set up so they don't just lock when you brake? Edit:- Just looked on Wiki and whilst it's not super helpful, that'll be where the brake controller comes in? Yes the brake controllers are adjustable. A lot of caravan owners actually set the braking force a little higher. Their reasoning (which makes sense to me) is that the caravan/trailer actually slows the tow vehicle down, not the other way around, meaning less stress on the chassis. Also, it means the caravan/trailer is less likely to jack-knife, because it's not trying to continue going at 100km/h when the tow vehicle is down to 80kmh or whatever the case may be.
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Yesterday we had a public holiday in Brisbane. This has been the first opportunity I've had for a couple of weeks to work on things. The first things I wanted to do was get the front and rear bars welded on. I had briefly tried tacking the front bar one a few weeks ago, but I had a terrible cold at the time (brain full of snot) and lack of energy meant I was not able to even weld properly. So I dragged the old table frame out into the sun (it's still winter here, so only 22*C) and tried aligning it to get started. 20140813_084203 by Sciclone, on Flickr In the interim, I've been getting a few different tools. One was a little air saw (would be great for cranial opening and lobotomies). I just finished an Ice cream is was that warm. 20140813_091622 by Sciclone, on Flickr the other was an Auto-darkening Welding helmet 20140813_084209 by Sciclone, on Flickr I had used a friend's cheap one a few weeks back and I simply had to have one. Makes it so much easier to get everything sorted just before pressing the spark button. Well it would have been... When I ran out of welding wire a few months ago, I had bought a different brand reel to the one I was using previously. I had intended on getting the Lincoln electric gasless wire (it's supposed to be the best), but couldn't find a supplier nearby so I bought another spool just to get me going. It would have to be the worse wire I've ever used... not so much for the finish etc, but the fact it keeps snapping in the wire feed rollers! I would have spent a total of an hour yesterday pulling out wire from my liner, lining everything up again and getting things started. There was metres of wasted wire afterwards, so once I finish this roll I will never get this brand again. After a few hours of play, I had welded the front and rear rails on 20140813_113914 by Sciclone, on Flickr 20140813_113923 by Sciclone, on Flickr I've still got to do the underside to do and grind/clean up/redo some of the other welds, but ostensibly, the ladder frame is mostly done. Next up, weld and bolt the draw bars. Hopefully I get some more free time soon.
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Small update with no pics.. (booo hissss)
I had cleared my to-do list of around the house work, so yesterday afternoon, I headed out to the shed to finish the underside welding of the front and rear bars. Got that sorted in about 45 mins (would have been quicker but I had to set up the frame again, as well as pull out more flipping welding wire after breaking!!), with light halting play about 5.45ish, so I packed up, gave the clutch cable on my bike a quick adjustment before heading in for a shower.
Next, I'll be starting on the measuring and cutting of the Draw bars (A frame) as well as cleaning up the ends of the cross bars to make sure they are all equal. I'm thinking about getting the frame dipped to help with rust issues later on.
Total spent: $1059 (bought a few more flap discs and cutting discs) Total hours: 22 hours (3.25 from Sunday, 45mins for today)
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The "time to chuck my toys from my pram" update.
After a fairly busy month, I was looking forward to a sleep in on Sunday. My sister's little dog stopped that at 6.30am. Not happy...
I decided, well, I'm up so I might as well work on my caravan. But being a Sunday morning, I didn't think it wise to do grinding/cutting before 8.30, so I decided to strengthen some of the welds on my frame. Within 5 mins of turning the sparky stick on, I had 2 wire breakages. GRRR.. Any Australian readers, stay away from BossWeld gasless wire. I gave up trying to weld for the morning...
Might as well get started on the calculations for the drawbars. Because I don't have a big bench to put my frame on, or a straight piece of concrete, I decided to draw a line down the centre of piece of MDF. Then I put a line across where the front of my ladder frame will be going. Then I drew around the mount holes for my coupling so I could get an approximation of where the A-frame should go. Long story short, I'll need to weld some plate in between the drawbars (a-frame) to mount the coupling and handbrake bracket to. That's about as far as I could go, given the time of day.
Ok, well time to do a service on my motorbike. So I started draining the oil on my bike, before heading off to the local Supercheap Auto for some oil and a few bits and bobs (including a new spool of welding wire). Get back, put the oil and filter on, then go to do the spark plugs.... my flipping small spark plug socket has gone missing!! I don't believe this... By this time, I was well and truly frustrated, so I threw all the stuff back in the shed and called it a day.
Such a frustrating day. I had a whole day to work on stuff, but in the end would have only spent 2 hours (including the set up and put away time) due to being thoroughly cheesed off.
Total spent: $1089 ($30 for a new spool of welding wire) Total time: 24 hours
(One thing that wasn't frustrating, was, that all my cross bars are within 2mm of each other which is pretty good given the lack of space and rustic methods. Pays to measure 3x, cut 1x)
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Sept 19, 2014 3:42:46 GMT
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Another couple of weeks, another no photo update. (Sorry peeps, I know it's a bit "Pics or it didn't happen") Sunday (13/9) rolled around and it was a glorious spring day. I started on the measuring for the drawbars and it turns out my markings were not correct. Using a bit of trigonometry, I knew that the angle had to be 11.21 degrees. The angle protractor I used only has 10 or 12 deg, so I plonked the marker in the middle of it and started scribing lines on the frame. The problem was the difference between the LH and RH sides was too much. One drawbar crossed the frame nearly in the middle of a crossbar intersection, whilst the other was about 30mm to the right. After checking and re-checking, it still wasn't working for me. So I clamped one of the drawbars to the centreline of the ladder frame, measured the required distance and made a mark. Then I lined the end of the other drawbar up with that mark, and got my brother to move the back of the same bar to the distance I needed it to clear the wheels and what will be the mounts for the trailing arms. Then I marked along the frame where the 2 bars intersected. This would have been fantastic, if not for the fact the frame metal is painted and welding likes clean surfaces... So those marks I just put down, Yep, I had to sand them off. I started sanding the paint off using a multi-tool but the sheets were not hooking into the pad properly and they were only 240 grit. So grabbed the angle grinder with a 120 flap disc and made short work of the rest of the areas. Lets try that again.. I marked the intersections again, then after some measuring and checking, I started laying down some welds. Any of you who have read my previous posts know that some of my notches were less than perfect. This means the (what will be) the RH main rail is slightly twisted. Not much I can do about it now, but it meant that in some areas, the drawbar sat flush, whilst other parts had a bit of gap to take up. On of the rules for building trailers/campers/caravans over here is that the drawbars can only be welded along the frame, not across, so I got to work filling in some of the areas with weld. A couple of sections where I hadn't taken enough paint off were a little scabby, whilst other bits I laid down some fat welds with plenty of penitration. I got all the welds of that bar done, before I had to go out for the afternoon, so I promptly put the welder and tools away. This thing is now too big to lift by myself, and I need to manoeuvre a few things around in the shed to get it to fit inside, so I sprayed the areas with some killrust paint (only temporary) then left it outside. On a different note, but still part of this thing, I've had to rethink the design. Originally, it was going to be somewhat zepplin shaped (I love steampunk and had planned to make it a bit Victorian in style), but I think it would nearly be impossible to do with out it being a pastiche imitation. The whole reason I'm using aluminium for the framing and cladding is to keep the weight down, so adding useless bits of pipe and gears would be counteractive. So it's now going to be more airstream like. Now that I've set my mind to it, I thought why would look awesome in a 1950's diner way would be some rocket shaped tail lights... so a prompt trip on ebay saw me buying these. 1959 CADILLAC-TAILLIGHTS by Sciclone, on Flickr I've found another place where I can also get the amber and clear lenses, so I'll be lining them up vertically on the the rear radii with the brake/tail lights at the top, the indicator in the middle and the reverse lights at the bottom. Also, because this thing is going to open up and slide out (those of you who have seen the doubleback VW campers will know what I mean), I'll be using 5 pin spring contacts for the hatch. Hopefully I'll get some time on Sunday to do some more, in between tearing down a wrecked aprilia 125 for parts. Total cost: $1075 ($85 for the lights) Total time: 28 hours
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Sept 29, 2014 1:41:30 GMT
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Pictures!!1!! I didn't get much done, but I finally remembered to take some photos. I've been getting antsy because secular work has been slow, but I can't just go home because I have other things I'd rather be doing.. So this sort of stirred me to action on Sunday. The frame was already lent against the side of the house, so I pulled the old table frame out of the shed (I've been using it as a welding table), and got my brother to help me lift it on to it. 20140928_112649 by Sciclone, on Flickr Before this picture, I put the drawbar leg on, then marked the areas I needed to get rid of paint. After a quick zip with a flap disc, I clamped my second drawbar leg on at the same length etc as the other one and got the welder out. Cue weld pictures... 20140928_112704 by Sciclone, on Flickr 20140928_112717 by Sciclone, on Flickr 20140928_112726 by Sciclone, on Flickr 20140928_112721 by Sciclone, on Flickr It's harder to look good with gasless, but there's some good, solid welds and also some poo.. This afternoon, I'll get tungsten carbide burr for the dremel, and use that to clean up the welds in the corners. I've previously used a mixture of flap disc and thick cutting disc, but with the angle grinder, it's hard to get it in position and still see what you're doing. But at least it's mostly done. A couple of clean up welds, and I can get started on the suspension. Total cost: $1100 (Bought 2 8" G clamps and a cutting disc) Total time: 30 hours.
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