white_n_slow
Senior Member
Nice. A welder is dollar-for-dollar the best purchase you can make for an off road vehicle except maybe a lunchbox locker 
Plus, you can use it to fix your barbeque 
Plus, you can use it to fix your barbeque 
txbonds 97 4runner limited project
- Thread starter txbonds
- Start date
txbonds
Senior Member
Nice. A welder is dollar-for-dollar the best purchase you can make for an off road vehicle except maybe a lunchbox locker
That's what i was thinking. Would be handy for all sorts of stuff even if it is a light weight unit. I'd have liked to get the hobart 210 dual voltage unit to grow with but it was nearly double the cost of this refurbished unit. I figure I can always upgrade later if needed.
I already have projects in mind from making my seat brackets, to attaching light tabs, to making battery brackets.
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jason in tn
New member
Congrats on the welder (and all the other goodies) I use mine all the time, its so nice doing metal projects and not having to worry about getting things welded you just do it. Have your dad so you the basics then get you some scrap steel a spool of wire and practice practice practice.
smkd13
New member
That's what i was thinking. Would be handy for all sorts of stuff even if it is a light weight unit. I'd have liked to get the hobart 210 dual voltage unit to grow with but it was nearly double the cost of this refurbished unit. I figure I can always upgrade later if needed.
I already have projects in mind from making my seat brackets, to attaching light tabs, to making battery brackets.
Honestly you really don't need the 220 volt welder for much of anything for offroad. Most of that is duty cycle and current flow. Most of the rigs I have seen garage built on Pirate4x4 use.... Wait for it.... A Hobart 140. It does pretty much most any weld your gonna want to do. And if your doing thicker stuff then just multi-pass it. No shame in that. I multi pass anything above 3/16 on a 110 welder.
txbonds
Senior Member
Got side tracked from working on the carpet to tear apart my passenger front seat and get the feet brackets off so I could start fitting my new seats. I need to pin down the process on the passenger side before I mess with the driver side or I'll be sitting on a bucket.
More nastiness in the form of wads of dog hair stuck under the bottom of the seat hardware. Here you can see the stock sliders are attached directly to the feet using hardened steel rivets.
I'll go ahead and post it here but these are a total b i t c h to drill out. Not only are they the type of rivet that is probably hardened steel, but I'm guessing they press them in hot like a rivet on a skyscraper. Either way, they are press fit and solid so drilling them is lots of fun. The frustrating part is that every single foot also has a blind rivet or weld on it that you can't see. So once you finish drilling through the ones you can see the heads on, you have to locate the hidden rivet and drill and additional hole. So in the case of the one pictured, there are two visible rivets and a blind rivet between them that must be drilled out to get the feet off. I'm not looking forward to the driver side. LOL :Cry:
Here is one of them bolted to the floor pan after drilling out the rivets
Here is an idea of how the planted technology base plates will sit in the vehicle.
With a little work, I was able to line the plate up with the holes in the feet produced by drilling out the rivets. I'm thinking that I can bolt these down with some nice grade 8 hardware and then weld them after the fact for extra strength.
More nastiness in the form of wads of dog hair stuck under the bottom of the seat hardware. Here you can see the stock sliders are attached directly to the feet using hardened steel rivets.
I'll go ahead and post it here but these are a total b i t c h to drill out. Not only are they the type of rivet that is probably hardened steel, but I'm guessing they press them in hot like a rivet on a skyscraper. Either way, they are press fit and solid so drilling them is lots of fun. The frustrating part is that every single foot also has a blind rivet or weld on it that you can't see. So once you finish drilling through the ones you can see the heads on, you have to locate the hidden rivet and drill and additional hole. So in the case of the one pictured, there are two visible rivets and a blind rivet between them that must be drilled out to get the feet off. I'm not looking forward to the driver side. LOL :Cry:
Here is one of them bolted to the floor pan after drilling out the rivets
Here is an idea of how the planted technology base plates will sit in the vehicle.
With a little work, I was able to line the plate up with the holes in the feet produced by drilling out the rivets. I'm thinking that I can bolt these down with some nice grade 8 hardware and then weld them after the fact for extra strength.
txbonds
Senior Member
I realize this isn't too sexy and exciting but here we go anyway
First bracket coming together. The feet are attached using the holes created from drilling out the rivets and through the existing slots in the planted technology plate. Used grade 8 hardware with 5/16 x 1" bolts, 5/16 washer above and below and a 5/16 lock washer and nut.
It is really strong once,bolted up so in an effort to stop the rust from getting worse and having a ton of cleanup work I decided to go ahead and prime and paint. I realize if I decide to come back and weld this will mean clean/prep work and repainting but I decided to take the chance on the bolts alone working for now.
Primer
Flat black paint
Inside to finish drying and curing. I have temp in garage at 76 and humidity brought down to about 45 to 50 percent so it should cure out overnight pretty well.
First bracket coming together. The feet are attached using the holes created from drilling out the rivets and through the existing slots in the planted technology plate. Used grade 8 hardware with 5/16 x 1" bolts, 5/16 washer above and below and a 5/16 lock washer and nut.
It is really strong once,bolted up so in an effort to stop the rust from getting worse and having a ton of cleanup work I decided to go ahead and prime and paint. I realize if I decide to come back and weld this will mean clean/prep work and repainting but I decided to take the chance on the bolts alone working for now.
Primer
Flat black paint
Inside to finish drying and curing. I have temp in garage at 76 and humidity brought down to about 45 to 50 percent so it should cure out overnight pretty well.
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txbonds
Senior Member
Went ahead and got the drivers side bracket setup and coated with paint also.
Bottom of drivers seat.
Drilled pilot holes. Raised ring is the rivet and the other hole is what I call the blind rivet. Probably a tack weld.
After drilling out to 5/16, it still takes hits from a hammer to get bracket loose.
Slider underneath bracket once they come off. Sticky residue almost like glue.
All 4 feel brackets removed
And two quickly painted brackets drying
I've already decided to go back with wire brush on the feet to clean them up a,bit and to put some tack welds between foot and plate. Then I will repaint again but this initial paint will stop the rust that was already starting on the raw steel plates as they sat in the box waiting.
Next up is fitting sliders to seat bottoms.
Bottom of drivers seat.
Drilled pilot holes. Raised ring is the rivet and the other hole is what I call the blind rivet. Probably a tack weld.
After drilling out to 5/16, it still takes hits from a hammer to get bracket loose.
Slider underneath bracket once they come off. Sticky residue almost like glue.
All 4 feel brackets removed
And two quickly painted brackets drying
I've already decided to go back with wire brush on the feet to clean them up a,bit and to put some tack welds between foot and plate. Then I will repaint again but this initial paint will stop the rust that was already starting on the raw steel plates as they sat in the box waiting.
Next up is fitting sliders to seat bottoms.
txbonds
Senior Member
Few more updates but more waiting too........
My rear bumper is in route from CBI. It was just leaving Utah transfer location on last update from truck line and should get here late next week. No pictures to share yet.
My roof rack was complete today and I am picking up on Saturday. Josh sent a picture. Looks really nice. What an awesome job Josh. Hope it's okay that I shared the picture
And got my welder setup in and put together to start learning.
Planning to get wiring for amp, speakers and antenna run this weekend so I can start fitting carpet.
My rear bumper is in route from CBI. It was just leaving Utah transfer location on last update from truck line and should get here late next week. No pictures to share yet.
My roof rack was complete today and I am picking up on Saturday. Josh sent a picture. Looks really nice. What an awesome job Josh. Hope it's okay that I shared the picture
And got my welder setup in and put together to start learning.
Planning to get wiring for amp, speakers and antenna run this weekend so I can start fitting carpet.
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txbonds
Senior Member
Nice!!
Great little machine, I have one myself.
I can promise you will want a larger gas bottle though...
can't wait to see what you do with it
Yeah, I figured as much. That's a 40 but Airgas said I could trade it towards an 80 at refill time if I need to.
Whitson Metalworks
New member
HOBART FTW!!! My welders are Hobart, love them, use the crap out of them! No worries on the picture, I guess I coulda got you a better one to share but oh well. Guess I need to trim that bush...:laugh:
txbonds
Senior Member
It's just fine. The bike is awesome too.
Ill be posting a ton more pics as I paint and mount the rack I'm sure so ill do it justice with pics.
I'm still wondering if I should have bit the bullet and bought the 210MVP hobart but the 140 should help me learn for sure.
Whitson Metalworks
New member
You're probly fine, mine is a 210 and over never cranked it further than half way, even doing my bumpers.
smkd13
New member
Isn't the main advantage with the 210 a better duty cycle??? And well a little more one pass capability for thicker welds??? That is how my welder buddies were explaining it to me
smkd13
New member
I am normally using a 220 miller matin and that thing is definitely stout. It is definitely smooth too. And easier to get the setting more fine tuned
And man oh man your doing the whole build at once. Thing is gonna be sweet to watch when you actually start getting all the stuff installed. Before and after pics are gonna be epic
txbonds
Senior Member
The main reason I am thinking I should have done the 210MVP is that I hear it welds a little nicer on 115v due to the 220v components inside, and also it would give me more capability for aluminum repairs and welding.
The 140 can do aluminum but it cost a fortune to convert it for a spool gun and I'm seeing very mixed reviews on using aluminum wire without a spool gun.
The 140 can do aluminum but it cost a fortune to convert it for a spool gun and I'm seeing very mixed reviews on using aluminum wire without a spool gun.
Whitson Metalworks
New member
IF you weld thick metals which most people do not. a 140 is just fine for 3/16 which is a beefy piece of steel, however, if you're welding up a plate bumper with miles of seems you will certainly notice the shorter duty cycle.
smkd13
New member
Makes sense honestly. Most people won't be doing thick stuff but in the near future I will beig doing a fairly decent amount of 1/4". Basically fabricators that do it all day will notic me the difference I think.
Btw txbonds I your planning on welding aluminum then I would look more into learning how to do TIG
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