Today I was able to knock out yet another milestone: welding.

As of right now, after my visit to a local welder I am —to my current knowledge— done with welding on this bird.

Now, to back up just a bit, I’m going to invoke my oft-cited mantra: It’s better to be lucky than good.  A couple weeks back Guy Williams asked me to help assess a broken arm on the soft top of his convertible car.  After some discussion, I told him that I would look for others having that issue on any online forums.  He did, and then found a good local welder through a fellow EAA’er.

Well, after his glowing report of the welder at our last EAA meeting, I decided it was time to get my exhaust pipe bracket seams welded up… versus relying solely on my ugly tack welds to keep them cobbled together!

Here’s the result of that welding effort.  And after I got back to the shop I cleaned up the inside of each exhaust pipe cradle.

I also spent a good little bit of time last night and this morning to prep 3 attachments that I wanted welded onto the roll bar (here, after I shot it with 2 coats of primer).  You can actually see all 3 accoutrements in this pic below: A RAM ball mount threaded insert on the left aft side (just above the support arm), a RAM ball mount nub on the upper right side, and a lanyard tie-off loop on the lower right side support arm.

Here’s another look at the roll bar after I shot 2 coats of primer.

Here’s a closer look at the attachments that I had welded onto the roll bar:  On the aft left upright I had Noah weld a 1/4-20 threaded circular insert to allow attaching a RAM ball mount for a video camera, etc. (pic 1).  On the forward side of the upper right upright I had an NPT nub welded on to accept another RAM ball mount, that will be mounted permanently.  This mount will also serve as my headset holder when I’m parked (pic 2).

The last accoutrement that I added to the roll bar was a simple lanyard loop, that I fashioned by bending a 16-penny nail, that Noah welded to the aft bottom side of the right support arm.

Specifically, this will be used to attach a lanyard to secure the canopy air strut block to ensure it doesn’t run off or get lost somewhere… my canopy is a very large canopy and any time its open, it needs this block in place.

Tomorrow, I plan on painting and clear coating the roll bar and pressing forward in my GIB area configurations and installations.