WELDING RC10T ALUMINUM TUBS

[MIKE VALENTINE]

Has anyone tried welding the older worn out or unused holes to redrill fresh holes. I have an worn chassis with elongated rear holes and was wondering if it has been tried with good/bad luck. And looking for any advice.

[jwscab]

it is 6061 T6 aluminum, so it's readily weldable. You have to be careful, once it's welded, it loses it's temper in that local area. For filling holes, it's not a big deal. just watch distortion, you'll probably have to fill a little extra and grind it flat.

if you can weld aluminum, then you should have no problems. 5356 alloy is what you need to maintain color matching after anodizing. If you don't care about anodizing, you can use 4043 filler.

[SteveK]

What about Alumalloy, from that unbelievably low-rent infomercial? lol

Actually I'm curious about that myself, not so much for the holes but because I have a chassis that was drilled all to heck before I got it, and I'd cut the sides down to a short lip but there are holes right next to the front edge. I'd want to weld a plate over it so I could cut it down.

[1of1547]

if you can weld aluminum, then you should have no problems. 5356 alloy is what you need to maintain color matching after anodizing. If you don't care about anodizing, you can use 4043 filler.

That's good info there. Everything that we weld and anodize looks awful. It might as well have a big waving hand saying look at me.

[SteveK]

What about powder coating it? All the chassis except the gold tub were power coated anyway.

[jwscab]

that's not entirely true, but if you powder coat, it won't matter what filler you use.

[cyclepsych0]

I just finished welding up 4 chassis'. I filled in all the unused holes before I sent them in for powder coat. Because I was powder coating them and not anodizing, I used the 4043 filler like previously mentioned. I only filled two holes in though that had to be redrilled/countersunk. All the others were just filled and sanded flat. Here are some before and after shots of the welding before I sent them in for powder coating...... The 2 rear stealth holes on the second pic are what were redone.

[treehugger]

thats pretty cool it looks so much cleaner with less holes and when you powder coat and fill the holes with screws very clean

what colour are you going to do ?
Paul

[cyclepsych0]

Thanks paul. That's the look I'm going for. Super clean looking. I'm actually doing them in the neon green like AE used to offer back in the day. I have been obsessed with that color for years and years. Now that you've posted pics of the neon green chassis run you did, and Rick also building a few cars with your tubs, It was all the motovation I needed to get this project under way....

[bearrickster]

nice job, its going to look much nicer clean. and I like less holes, I always seem to get dirt all up in the chassis through the holes. when are you getting them coated?

[cyclepsych0]

Thanks Rick! I sent them in last week. I expect them any day now...

I started my own thread about my builds so I don't hi-jack this one anymore.....

http://www.rc10talk.com/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=16562

[RABIDFOX50]

Outstanding work.