Personally I would stick with the fox body. Yeah, there are lots of them out there, but that is because parts are fairly cheap, easy to find and its a great platform to start with. Just my 2 cents......

A few guys hit it on the head earlier, get as much hood time as you can! Get some extra tungsten (I only use 3/32" 2% lanthinated as it works for everything) and a stubby gas lens, and find as much scrap metal you can get your hands on and get to making stuff. Bead on plate is great for learning how to weld in straight lines, but just go make "stuff". One last thing- CLEAN EVERYTHING! If you think its clean, clean it again. If you think you may have dipped your tungsten, go grind it. Clean is going to be your saving grace while learning. That's one of the best tips I ever got when I first started. Have fun!

 

BTW, keep us posted on the FITech system. That is the system I want to use!

 

Thanks for the words of wisdom. Unfortunately I still haven't been able to plug the thing in yet since I do not have the correct outlet for a 220v at my place. I finally got the plugs that I needed and then left town the next day. Have been gone since the 9th of December and won't be back until a little after New Years. Hopefully I will then be able to change the plugs out and start practicing with it.

I will update on everything that goes on with it. I bought it off of a buddy that had it on a well built 347 that did some work. He never really dyno'd the car or put it on a track though. It was purely a grudge car for the streets so he was better off not knowing what it actually did. Our best guess from other cars he had run against was that it put out about 600hp. Only reason he got rid of the system is so that he could buy the Ultimate LS from FiTech and run a turbo LS for his new build.

 

I finally got around to getting all of the stuff that I needed in order to set up my welder and start testing it out. I learned a few things pretty quickly. These are things that should have been pretty obvious, but after spending an hour or two in order to set it up and ensure everything was good, I rushed the start to test it.

1. Sitting with on a chair with the material you are trying to weld lower than your knees is very frustrating.
2. Use a table that is not going to burn when it gets hot. I had my material set on a cardboard box and after one or two hits with the arc, it started to smoke.
3. Using an old flexplate is a terrible decision. I cleaned it off on both sides and then went at it with a flap disk. before I started my bead I wiped it down with acetone. Well...apparently I didn't clean it far enough out on the back side and it lit on fire because there was old oil back there that obviously got hot extremely quickly.
4. Figuring out when the puddle has started is very frustrating when you can't see through your hand and the torch.
5. Dipping the filler rod before there is a puddle just scorches your filler rod and doesn't even begin to melt it.

I would post pictures of what I did...but there is literally nothing there because I was mostly just trying to figure out the puddle.



PS I sold the Mustang on the 1st of the year because of some other reasons not explained here. I still have the entire engine/transmission though and am actively searching for something else to put them in. I will figure out what exactly at another time and post up a new thread when the time comes. I will also be sure to link it here when I do.

 

Still building the engine even though I don't currently have a car to put it in.

I recently got a 90* oil filter adapter, some nice valve covers, a new cam on the way, and I'm sure a few other things I'm forgetting.

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Finally picked up a new ride. Will be starting a new thread when I get more of the parts and start tearing the car down. For now it is just going to be a driver to enjoy. At least as much as I can enjoy a 100hp rotary...lol

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Link to rx7 thread?

 

A red 1980 rx7 almost ended being my 1st. When my stepmother got pregnant with my half brother, she traded the car in for a brown 1981 Honda Civic Sedan. That car ended up being my 1st car and I donated it to the Volunteers Of America in order to get a 1996 Kawasaki ZX9R that I still have.