filled, peaked my I-beam & it's ready for chrome...

I took off work this thursday and friday and filled and peaked the I-beam. It was a little bit of work but well worth it! It's going to the chromer this week.

The tip of the day, use a 7" grinder to get a nice flat peak!

 

looks good.
no holes ?

 

Looks good! I'm about to grind/polish mine for chroming. I think the hardest part will be working the center of the beam area (just harder to get at the bottom). I'll polish it before I drill the holes!

 

Holes are cool, but no swiss cheese for me please!

Polishing the center of the I was easier than I thought it was going to be. I used a worn out 4" sanding paddle on my small grinder. I used a up and down pattern down and back the I center. It feels a little wavey. I did the same thing again but moved faster down the I and ended with a pattern that looked like a A. I then flipped the I over, still on the same side, and did the same A pattern, and then I ended up with a light cross pattern. It was almost smooth. I finally used a soft 80 grit sanding sponge to finish. Smoothing both side of the I-beam center only took about an hour.

 

Looks good what grits did you start and end with?

I need to post up new pics on how to make a flapper wheel out of an old belt sander belt. They are perfect for this kinda work.

 

Looks like you did a very nice job. Improvising polishing tools is SOP.

 

I used a worn 60 grit paddle wheel on the grinder and finished with a used 80 grit sanding sponge.

 

Cool. You would dig the home-made flappers then. Much easier on something like that work inside the web.

 

A flapper in the shape of a ball would be the ticket for the corners!

 

That's going to look great. Nice job.

 

Thats what these do! I had a tech here years ago and Tuck even did one with pics.

Take the longest sanding belt you can find.Various grits are great but even a course grit will polish finer than you think. If you have industry around see if anyone has Looooong belts 6 or 8 feet even. More length equals more layers to your flapper. break the belt at the seam. Then you start folding like you would a flag, pretty self explanatory as you get going. When you get a few folds you will see you can kinda change directions. You will end up with something that looks like a couple stop signs on top of each other but rotated a tad from each other. You then center punch to chuck it to your polisher,grinder etc. When you start to polish with it the edges will start to fray exposing more layers and fresh grit. they become very flexible and conform to areas like the web you have there!


Hey ct!

 

Nice !!!

 

how did you fill it ?

 

I used 3/16" plate cut to shape. Left a gap around the edges, then welded them in. I'll post a pic later today.

 

Who is doing the plating?

 

The peak will look great. Used to see alot of the old timers do that. Dropped, peaked and filled. Great work. The FOGGER

 

Thats one of the nicest axles I've ever seen, can't wait to see it chromed !

 

I made a template and plasma cut 3/16 plate.

Metal Plating Co. in St. Paul is going to chrome the parts. They're a little on the high side for pricing, but they do excellent work which they stand behind. I've seen their work and it's A1.

 

Looks good. I'm guessing you musta read the recent RnC article that had Gene Winfield fillin and peakin one.

 

Chroming is done! Filled, peaked, and chromed.





and hairpins.

 

Beautimous!

 

Ooooooh....shiny. Me like shiny!

 

Looks good, whats it going on?

 

Shinalicious!

 

very nice!

 

Bling Bling. Looks nice, will look even better on the car.

 

WOW looks great!!!!!!


I have thought about chroming my axle but I'm not to sure if I can afford it. If you dont mind me asking whats something like that cost to chrome I know you did a lot of the prep work







Tom

 

5-6 bills for the axle alone, but they did the polishing. You could probibly cut that in half if ya had it polished and ready for plating.

 

When I took my axle to the chrome plater he raised Holy Hell with me, because I polished my axle with a 4" solid, and a 4" flap wheel. He told me to use no co****r than 120 grit and 9" wheel.


Ago

 

Hey that looks great. Its weird , I was doing the same thing this weekend to my axle. Got a nice peak down the center now and its all smooth. Its a lot of work but satisfying!