Rainy day = parts to pickup

So - I'm now caught up on the blog for the Rust Bomb AKA 1952 Dodge Fargo.

It's raining today so I went and picked up the parts for the front end.  It has all new bushings and ball joints.  Thanks City Spring.  The total cost was $366 and if you add in the Dodge stealership $160 to do half the job then it was over $500 bucks to replace the front end.  WOW!

That may put a dent in the budget.  Here are the new parts.

New control arm bushings

New rear spring bushings

And the old shackle bushing so you can see how crappy they used to look.

I also got a new toy - a Miller 180 welder.  I bought it to finish off the frame welds I have to do.  I have an old Miller 115V welder that I used for welding thin sheet metal projects.  This new Miller 230V welder will weld up to 5/16 thick steel.  It lets me be more versatile with what I can fabricate and what I have to send off to get done.  It is pretty cool. It has a setting on the dial where you set the wire speed at the size of wire you are using, set the temperature for the thickness amount you are welding, and the machine automatically sets itself to weld.   

This is to date one of the coolest things I own.  Yay welder.

I used it to finish the box plates welded on the frame.

I will finish this today and hopefully grind it down for paint tomorrow.  The paint can't be applied while it is raining anyway.

And here is a photo of the air compressor I have.  Since I have been singing its praises I though it only fair.  I use it for the plasma cutter, sand blaster, and a ton of air tools.  It works really well and is on its own dedicated 230V circuit.  I used to have it wired directly into the wall but changed that to a plug so I can plug in the new welder.  It has temporary outlets that work OK but I would really like to mount the hoses on the wall.  Maybe when I get a dedicated shop I will.

I love this compressor.