[DMCForum] Stainless steel frame

["Walter Coe" <BarefutWalt@xxxxxxxxx>]

Yesterday I separated most of the pieces that can unbolt from the
frame and took them to a metal polishing shop.  It will cost upwards
of $2K to polish the whole thing to a mirror finish.  Then it will
cost a few hundred extra to have the bad welds ground down and redone.
 The crumple tube must go, tho.  It is way too flimsy to be trusted as
a crumple tube.  I have had too many people look it over and scoff.
The thing already came pre-crumpled from the company which originally
shipped it.  (It came pre-bolted to the rest of the frame which made
it the weakest point when they dropped it.)  It would cost too much
money to have it straightened, and even then it would be a moot point.
 I'll drop it on eBay soon and see if anyone wants it.  Maybe it would
make an interesting wall hanging.  Instead for the crumple tube, I am
going to use one made by Ken Koncelik.  All I have to do now is
remember which building it is stored in.  It is currently painted gray
which of course dont match, but I am considering some fun
alternatives.  The guy actually doing the polishing work is a
pre-childhood friend of mine (his old man & mine were high-school
buddies), so I know it will be done right.  He hates the idea that I
want to use it as a daily driver afterwards.  Oh well...  I intend to
copper plate the whole thing anyway and then give it a clear coat.
Otherwise the stainless itself is too prone to corrosion.  That has
already been a problem storing it outdoors in the Florida weather.  So
I plan to copper plate the steel crumple tube with the entire frame
and then everything will match.  Copper plate is not near as much
trouble as one may think.  It is really a fast process and not that
much trouble.  There already are vats big enough for the job.  I will
just have to hang electrodes in some awkward configurations.  A penny
for your thoughts?  I'll glue 4 pennies together on the frame and make
it look like 88 miles per hour.  But why couldn't Bob & Bob use metric
units?!  Or were the foreign BTTF releases done in metric?  They did
change Marty's name to Pee-air or something like that, so did they
change the magic speed too?

The shipping company also scratched the bottom of the frame up, but it
looks like with enough sanding it will come out.  In retrospect, I
should have bought a frame that was not welded together at all, had
the pieces polished separately so that they would be less labor to
polish and then weld it together & polish some more.  Live & learn.  I
expect this to be my first and LAST stainless steel frame.  I'm going
to put a custom stainless air intake on eBay soon, too.  Dont need it.
 The bottom doesnt seal worth a crap anyway.  Maybe someone with a lot
of patience can fabricate an adapter plate.  It needs a foam ring on
the bottom with a ring plate to back it up.

Walt


 
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