shenion
Tool Pack Rat
- Messages
- 7,586
- Location
- Stone Mountain, GA USA
My Mustang had an odd DIN radio setup The hole is basically a double-DIN size. Then there is a plastic pocket that mounted to the bottom of the original radio.
Add to that, noone seems to follow a standard on how to hold the radio in. The first radio I fitted had fingers on the side that gripped the back of the face frame. Then a special tool to release them.
Old radio was completely dead. I had taken it apart and bolted the box to it as the original.
This radio is reall odd. Has screws on the sides that slide into some channel. I don't want to modify it to mount the box.
So, what to do. Decided to make an aluminum faceplace with sides the radio will bolt to. Mount the box. Then the radio+box would slide in as a unit and mount with screws.
So fired up plasma cutter and made up a frame and sides:
I had nothing but problems. Just eroded one side and could not get them to fuse. Fitment was not perfect but I was also holding one side trying to tack weld them. Found the beast was set for HF start instead of continuous and the hidden "start on/off" was on. The start is for arc welding, higher current to start. Was using a footpedal and assumed it disabled the start.
Finally found a way to clamp it tight. That allowed me to use a bit of filler to bridge the two, Then just run a fusion weld with no filler. The bump in the middle was where I used filler.
Took a break and on to second side:
Now it all went to crap. Did a bit of weld and it just turned black. I had turned the gas off (gauge still read fine.) So, screwed up section in middle. I went over with some filler to float the oxide up and finished the weld. Then ground off the mess.
Here it is so far. I don't know if I'm bold enough to make an aluminum box. A lot of tight inside corner welds. Will brood on it a bit. Either make a box or weld a bracket for the plastic box.
Then again, a box would look cool. I do need to make the welds look more a "stack of dimes". So worried of blowing through, i just moved continuously.
Add to that, noone seems to follow a standard on how to hold the radio in. The first radio I fitted had fingers on the side that gripped the back of the face frame. Then a special tool to release them.
Old radio was completely dead. I had taken it apart and bolted the box to it as the original.
This radio is reall odd. Has screws on the sides that slide into some channel. I don't want to modify it to mount the box.
So, what to do. Decided to make an aluminum faceplace with sides the radio will bolt to. Mount the box. Then the radio+box would slide in as a unit and mount with screws.
So fired up plasma cutter and made up a frame and sides:
I had nothing but problems. Just eroded one side and could not get them to fuse. Fitment was not perfect but I was also holding one side trying to tack weld them. Found the beast was set for HF start instead of continuous and the hidden "start on/off" was on. The start is for arc welding, higher current to start. Was using a footpedal and assumed it disabled the start.
Finally found a way to clamp it tight. That allowed me to use a bit of filler to bridge the two, Then just run a fusion weld with no filler. The bump in the middle was where I used filler.
Took a break and on to second side:
Now it all went to crap. Did a bit of weld and it just turned black. I had turned the gas off (gauge still read fine.) So, screwed up section in middle. I went over with some filler to float the oxide up and finished the weld. Then ground off the mess.
Here it is so far. I don't know if I'm bold enough to make an aluminum box. A lot of tight inside corner welds. Will brood on it a bit. Either make a box or weld a bracket for the plastic box.
Then again, a box would look cool. I do need to make the welds look more a "stack of dimes". So worried of blowing through, i just moved continuously.