UPDATE:

I will not be selling extendable trac bars in any way. I simply made one to test my fabrication ability. I got excited and "loaded, fired, aimed" instead of "loaded, aimed, fired". If you are interested in ordering a extendable trac bar, please do so from Steve at SonoranSteel. His are "fault proof" and he deserves the credit for this ingenious idea. Mine happened to look like his, I was in no way attempting to steal his idea.


Thanks, Nate

 

Looks like you glued them together just fine to me. Good job.

 

good job, spray some oil on before you weld that way all that slag wont stick to the surface.

 

I think if you can penitrate the two metals together well a grinder can make them look like they are not even there. Looks to me like you got fine welds and if the look is what your worred about grind them down so it looks like one you can always add more if you need/want to for the look.

 

Your welds look good. I would get a better camera. lol
Are those just nuts or are they sleved nuts that go inside the tube?

 

Your welds look good. I would get a better camera. lol
Are those just nuts or are they sleved nuts that go inside the tube?

 

looks fine to me.. the real question is - does it hold well?

 

.....

 

They are coupling nuts.

 

In this day and age I would say you shoud definetly get a lawyer to write up some type of liability form. If that nut breaks off on someones truck going 70 mph down the highway and they wreck guess who they are coming after.
We use threaded tube inserts and heims that have a 25,000 lb static load rating for most of our steering,traction bars and control arm links and we still have the customer sign a waiver that specifies it is for offroad use only.
Don't get me wrong, the stuff we make is probably 10 times stronger than stock but the Liability of a freak accident isn't worth the risk of not covering your butt.

Bryan

 

The only was to find out how good the welds are is to do a destructive test on it at an indy lab.

 

????

so you can get porosity and contamination? you weld will look like bird and have more holes in it than a aero bar. welding is my job....and i never heard that one before.

 

I heard hobart welders were the cheap version of the millers? .. or was it lincolns? meh.. forget. not that it matters i think lincoln and miller are same grade.

how do you like it?

 

oh and those welds look damn good for a beginner!

 

Ditto

 

Welds look good. Now you got to ask yourself, will a brittle fracture occur?
I always take a spring loaded center punch and centerpunch the two parts plus the weld itself. If they are all about equal in size at the punch sites, then its safe to assume that what you welded and the metal you used are similar in hardness. If, however, the weld is really hard, you may need to heat the weld and anneal it in a bucket of oil.

My $0.02

 

I love it. I finished the panhard bar today. The welds holding on the end bushing's look tough, those are the one I was really concerned about.

Is it a good sign of penetration when you get done welding and the weld is still glowing red you can't tell whats the weld and whats the object being welded? You can't tell were your weld started or stop because it transitions so smoothly?

 

I think the pro photog.s are going to make fun of you, not the welders. Very nice.

 

I'm not sure what you mean Steve.

 

I agree (having been a certified welder all my life), never put oil on your stuff before you weld. If you meen anti-spatter then ok. Though it looks like your welding with mild steel, so a properly set machine, and proper position will give you next to no spatter. If its flux cored welding then anti-spatter will help. For thick stuff I use dual shield wire that has better qualities than 70-18 stick.

Most coupling nuts are grade 2 and that is crap . They do sell weld-on bungs for tie rods. Other than that your welds look ok.

Hobart is a Miller !