13 replies to this topic

[sandhopper2]

The hood hinge on my new to me 18/6 is broke , It looks like the fiberglass just could not take the stress . How do you all repaire these things would like to fix this right and not do it several times

[sandhopper2]

here is a picture of my problem

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[Tecumseh power]

Are you good with metal? You can make a steel one like I did

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[TAHOE]

Are you good with metal? You can make a steel one like I did

 

What's your address, mine is in the mail            

[Tecumseh power]

What's your address, mine is in the mail         

If I had more time I could do it for you, is just the bottom busted on yours? I can maybe give you an idea, can you weld at all a torch helps too.

[sandhopper2]

I do have a welder , so any ideas how to fix will help

[Tecumseh power]

Let me install the photo editor on my tablet so I can draw on it to show you where to cut it

[Jazz]

Are you good with metal? You can make a steel one like I did

That looks great from here. Did you take any pictures of how you fabricated the grill?

Edited by Jazz, January 04, 2016 - 10:37 PM.

[Tecumseh power]

I do have one when I had it mocked up before paint, the picture I put is steel from the bar right under the lights down its 50/50. I used a flat piece of metal from a radial arm saw top I cut and shaped and welded it. I made a whole steel one for my other one and a fiberglass one for one of them. I hAve 4 gt18s.

[Tecumseh power]

I'll post the pictures in the morning

[Tecumseh power]

This one is steel from under the gt 18 down . I cut the grille in half to make it. I had a round piece of steel about 3ft round. I took that and heated the bottom grille bar up with a torch and pushed the round steel into it to get the bow in the bottom bar . The I attached it to the upper half.you can see the bottom left corner before I filled it with weld you can only split it so much before you get a gap. There is alot of different angles on that corner now that it's painted tho you can't tell. I will take some pictures of the back so you can see the gussets I made on it

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[indslpwr04]

We need to find someone who works at a forgoing shop to make one out of cast aluminum just like the older ones were.  Why anyone would have ever thought that these should have been made from Fiberglass is beyond understanding.  

[Tennblue59]

Metal is definitely a better fix. If you find someone who does sand casting forgework, it wouldn't be too difficult to make out of aluminum. I used to do some small sand casting in aluminum and brass, but haven't for a long time....

 

There were some books put out by Gingerly telling how to do cast work and even making lots of things like lathes, shapers, etc out of home castwork. One of his books explains how to make a furnace and forms, casting sand, etc That was how I got started some time ago. If someone wanted to get started in that sort of stuff, that would be a good intro...

 

My ss16 had the same typical damage when I got it. I used wood and a metal plate to make an inner form to strengthen the piece, then reglassed over it to make it look original. Not the best fix like an all metal piece would be, but stronger than the original fiberglass only design.

[TAHOE]

There was a guy on MTF that had made a template and was making metal pieces on the bottom half, kind of like Tecumseh did here. He had plans to sell them, but after on 2 or 3 people bought them, it lost steam and he ended up leaving MTF anyway. I had heard someone had a mint nose and was going to try to build new fiberglass ones with metal hinges and interior metal structure but that too never caught flight.