Wheel Pant Repair

[pa20]

I have the original metal wheel pants that came on my Pacer in 1950. They took quite a beating over the years, but all in all, are in pretty good shape. The biggest problem is that they have numerous cracks in the mounting area that need to be repaired.
Many of them could be repaired by riveting patches for reinforcement, but the appearance would not be so nice. What I have wanted to do is find someone who was able to weld the cracks with MIG/TIG and then bake the entire wheelpant to relieve the stress areas at the weld. Has anyone ever done something such as this?
There is a shop here is the US that is licensed to repair spinners using the above methods, but so far they have not responded to my inquiries. I have 6.00X6 tires with '60s era wheel pants for normal ops, but would like to be able to go "retro" for the "classic" fly-in's.
Thanks!

[Hillbilly]

If it were me I'd go find the best local tig man, and get it done. you might save money if you tell him they are fenders off an antique wagon or something tho, soon as you say "airplane" he'll hear ka-ching! -Good luck

[Steve Pierce]

I could TIG them but I do not know the correct process for normalizing afterward.

[pa20]

I could TIG them but I do not know the correct process for normalizing afterward.

NORMALIZING!! For the life of me I could not remember that word today when I posted my initial message. It really is the pits to get old!

I believe that I could find out what the alloy of the aluminum is, and then try to do it myself. I am sure that a regular home oven probably does not get hot enough (although if my bride saw me using our oven to bake the wheel pants, she certainly would), but I thought that maybe a potters kiln or some such appliance. I live near Sacramento, so there may be a metal shop there that could do the whole job. Some time surfing the net is going to be required.
If I strike out, I will send you an email to discuss the welding and if you want I could send some pictures of the wheel pants.
Thanks!

[Hillbilly]

Mark, I'm pretty sure your home oven will get hot enough, if not send them to me and tell me how hot for how long, I got a kiln in the kitchen just waiting to consume some wheel pants...lol

Normalizing is a type of heat treatment applicable to ferrous metals only. It differs from annealing in that the metal is heated to a higher temperature and then removed from the furnace for air cooling. The purpose of normalizing is to remove the internal stresses induced by heat treating, welding, casting, forging, forming, or machining.

Aluminum has a much higer heat conductivity than ferrous metal, I seriously doubt you will cause any embrittlement or stress from welding. but if it makes you feel better pop them in the oven with the next batch of brownies....

[Steve Pierce]

I have seen welded aluminum crack just outside of the heat effected zone. I would think there is a stress there.

[Hillbilly]

I have seen welded aluminum crack just outside of the heat effected zone. I would think there is a stress there.

Oh yes, as have I and anyone else that has welded much aluminum. Aluminum just does not react to heat the same as steels
and I bet a coffee the crack you mention appeared just after welding, no amount of annealing will fix that. There are many varibles involved. So let me re-state, If he has his pants successfully welded (no cracks after cooling) then I stand by what I said

[Gilbert Pierce]

I attended a metal forming seminar that Jim Younkin put on. He talked about work hardening aluminum and how to normalize it. Use a torch with excess acetylene to soot up the part and then set the torch for a neutral flame and burn the soot off. You have achieved the correct temperature. Might be a stretch to do that on a part as large as a wheel pant.

[Hillbilly]

I attended a metal forming seminar that Jim Younkin put on. He talked about work hardening aluminum and how to normalize it. Use a torch with excess acetylene to soot up the part and then set the torch for a neutral flame and burn the soot off. You have achieved the correct temperature. Might be a stretch to do that on a part as large as a wheel pant.

That is correct Gilbert, it only works on non heat treatable AL though. The heat treatable ones are in my experience the ones likely to crack when you weld them, Kent White has a nice article that details the process ofannealing aluminum with
a torchover at http://www.tinmantech.com/html/aluminum ... tinued.php (http://www.tinmantech.com/html/aluminum_alloys_continued.php)
It looks as if hes practicing on wheel pants too although for forming purposes, So this is probably the way to go.

But if the part cracks when you weld it, it still wont help.

[Vagabondblues]

Mine were also cracked around the mounting areas on both the outboard and inboard positions. You may want to replace the existing doubler with larger doublers to strengthen this area. I also beefed up the area around the outboard single mount bolt by removing a 2" circle around the mount hole and inserted a new circle that was backed up with a larger doubler of stronger alloy (2024) so it won't elongate and crack. Of course everything was dimpled, alodined, primed and pro sealed. I used metal-set to cover the flush AN426 rivets and seams so you could not see the repairs from the outside. Another area that cracks is at the back where the horseshoe shaped former blanks of the tail of the wheel fairing. Mine was cracked at the edge which left the metal rod at the bottom seam exposed. This makes for another "judgement" about removing the steel rod for welding or beefing the area up with a doubler. I went with the doubler and made a new former again from stronger alloy. Also, if you use 3/32 rivets on the repair, you can set them without a rivet gun or squeezer. Just use a metal bar and secure the rivet in place with masking tape, turn it over and hit the rivet with a punch and ball peen.

Todd