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Home Made Control Arms


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Your control arms look awesome! I want to build something very similar for my car.. also thanks for the coping link, looks handy and is now in my bookmarks! I have a few questions though on material use and construction. It may be a subject for a completely different thread in the fabrication section but thought i would mention it.

 

Here is an quote from a fab book I just finished reading:

"One final comment about using chrome moly - DON'T. There are few applications that warrant the use of chrome moly unless your building and airplane, a formula-1 car, or an indy car. Unfortunately, chrome-moly shteel has become trick. It literally falls into the category of "a little bit of knowledge can be dangerous"

 

It goes on to mention that annealed chrome-moly should be used for suspension parts and it should be preheated to around 500 degrees before welding to prevent thermal shock and crack. After welding the metal becomes brittle and need to be stress relieved. It says the affected zones should be heated to a cherry red color (around 1250F) and then allowed to cool slowly to room temperature.

 

I fall into the little bit of knowledge category but I thought I would just bring this up as its food for thought, and suspension failure wouldn't be a good thing. :)

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Thanks Austin.

 

From my research and recomendations, 4130 under wall thickness .120'' does not need to be pre heated if the surrounding temperature is somewhere above 70 degrees F.

 

Also, one must make sure the welds cool slowly and no surrounding "breeze" of air contaminate the molten metal.

 

I'm no expert but, I was guided all the way though my build by my welding and metalurgy professor who used to build drag race frames. Very knowledgeable guy.

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