Amost there--Front Radiator and Crossmember Install

After an almost 3 week hiatus, I was able to get back on the Mustang yesterday late afternoon.   I won't bore you with the details of such a long layoff, but as with many of our lives, each of us face the challenges of health, family, and commitments.  Anyway...

I got the new spool of wire in and the MIG welder is up and running.  The next step was to finish off all the plug welds of which I believe there were 46 in the radiator support and 28 in the crossmember...

Then came the grinding down of all of these little buggers with my 2" and 4" grinders with 36 grit pads....

Now, you have to understand that I am an engineer by degree and in my pre-pastor days, I spent 14 years in manufacturing facilities, 8 of those overseeing engineering support of welding operations.   So that makes me very picky about how the welds look.  I probably spent an hour going back and filling in the most miniscule pinholes and imperfections as I will have no plastic filler in this work.   Even though 90% of this will be covered with fenders, radiator, AC condenser, grill, etc.  I'll still know it's there so it has to be as right as right can be.   The results, however, are very nice and worth the effort....

 

The final step in the process was to cover the bare metal with some etching primer to keep the surface rust at bay until I get to the epoxy primer.

You're saying, "Wow!  He's finally done with it."   Well....yes....and no.   Remember the welder that was acting up due to a shortage of MIG wire?   It started it again as I began all the welding on my back to attach the crossmember to the strut rod supports.   Guess what?   As I was troubleshooting the problem I checked the pressure regulator setting and it was reading a little low.  I went to adjust it back to the proper setting and noticed  the main tank gauge was just about on zero!   I was loosing my shielding gas pressure.   That meant I would be wrapping things up for the evening.

I stopped by my local "Thrifty Supply" and now have a fresh tank of Argon/CO2 and will be back in business.  Maybe tomorrow I can say, "It's FINALLY done,"  but based on recent history, I'll wait to see if it really happens.