Built a steel sunshade

Sublifer · May 31, 2011

Over the last 4 weeks or so I've spent nearly every bit of spare time I had building my sunshade. 4 weeks worth of evenings and weekends later I've got it finished. I value the experience of putting it together, particularly from a beginner welder point of view, but if I'd known how long it would take, I'd not do it again unless I was being paid very well :laughing:

I'm very happy with the finished product, don't get me wrong, what bothers me is that I saved $100-200 and maybe not even that, but spent so much of my free time working on it. I did want something with a bit of fall protection to it. I don't think any of the flat top shades available offer much protection from falling objects and that is why I won't regret building it.

So here are the pictures, beginning to end with a few words where needed. Due to the amount of pics it is going to take several posts.

The first here are the beginning of the frame.

Sublifer · May 31, 2011

Note to self, "Insert all" makes the post too tall.

These next ones are the where I added the bracing to attach to the ROPS and then the first pieces of sheet metal going on.

Sublifer · May 31, 2011

Here the last piece of sheet are going on. The angles weren't perfect so I had a fun time welding to fill in the gaps. This was one of the most time consuming parts. Better cuts would have made it easier but the frame wasn't welded perfect either so after a weld it would often shrink an angle due to the contracting weld metal and screw up measurements and angles. Possible fix for that might have been to tack weld everything together before completing all the welds. Not sure though as I am a welding noob... fill me in if you know. Ok, the pics:

Sublifer · May 31, 2011

These pics are where I am cleaning up and grinding down welds and then the first coat of primer. I loved the rustoleum sandable ultimate automotive primer or whatever they called it.

Sublifer · May 31, 2011

I tried filling pinholes and grind marks with a sandable "filler" primer paint. Don't ever waste your money on it. It might could fill a micron or so sized imperfection but after several coats it wouldn't do anything for me. So a little more research into the subject and I found spot and glazing putty. So here are some pictures with the glazing followed by sanding, priming, sanding. Those pieces below in the first pic are the brackets to hold it to the ROPS.

Sublifer · May 31, 2011

Here I am getting the color on it and then putting clear coat over the top.
By the way, I put the enamel on the underside right after priming it. Its just gray with black on the supports. Nothing fancy but I did have to go back over some parts after because of the glazing compound, extra primer and bit of blue overspray. I have to say, I am not very impressed with the Rustoleum enamels. It doesn't spray very well and it gets torn up way too easy, even after 24 hrs curing time. The clear coat was even worse. I used the crystal coat enamel and while it might be okay for small parts, the overspray leaves a fine white dust on EVERYTHING so unless you wash your project after every single spray the clear coat is not going to look very nice. Next time I have a project to paint, after I put the primer on I'll take it to my friend who has a few spray guns and does a very good job on the cars he has painted.

Sublifer · May 31, 2011

Time for insulation. Both to help keep the heat from the metal radiating down and also to keep the engine noise from bouncing back. I had some good ideas on attaching it but doing the big main pieces as single solid pieces turned out to be a real hassle, mostly because of trying to slide it into place between the supports. Next time I'd use more supports and do it in 2 or 3 pieces. I'm proud of the engineering I put into the brackets. Fully adjustable with wood shoes to keep it from putting holes in the insulation. The wood is spanish cedar so it ought to hold up to the elements pretty well and if not can be easily replaced. I ran into several problems here though. First, this is where I had the biggest problem with the enamel, every step of the way it got messed up so I ended up just spraying some clear coat over it at the end. The one good thing about the clear is it dries in about 3 minutes. I also broke a tap in one of the ends and I couldn't get it out so I welded it in and redrilled and tapped. I should have tried harder to avoid where the tap was because that tool steel made it difficult to drill and even harder to tap. I stripped two more of those cheap Cobalt brand taps and the threads still weren't deep enough so I ended up filing the threads down on the screw and then used visegrips to screw it in :confused2:

Sublifer · May 31, 2011

So we took the shade up to our property but I had to wait on help to put it on because it ended up weighing around 200-250 pounds. While I waited I thought I'd go ahead and wash the tractor. Here are some pictures of my LS R4047. It may never be this clean again.

Agrantina · May 31, 2011

Sublifer said:
Time for insulation. Both to help keep the heat from the metal radiating down and also to keep the engine noise from bouncing back. I had some good ideas on attaching it but doing the big main pieces as single solid pieces turned out to be a real hassle, mostly because of trying to slide it into place between the supports. Next time I'd use more supports and do it in 2 or 3 pieces. I'm proud of the engineering I put into the brackets. Fully adjustable with wood shoes to keep it from putting holes in the insulation. The wood is spanish cedar so it ought to hold up to the elements pretty well and if not can be easily replaced. I ran into several problems here though. First, this is where I had the biggest problem with the enamel, every step of the way it got messed up so I ended up just spraying some clear coat over it at the end. The one good thing about the clear is it dries in about 3 minutes. I also broke a tap in one of the ends and I couldn't get it out so I welded it in and redrilled and tapped. I should have tried harder to avoid where the tap was because that tool steel made it difficult to drill and even harder to tap. I stripped two more of those cheap Cobalt brand taps and the threads still weren't deep enough so I ended up filing the threads down on the screw and then used visegrips to screw it in :confused2:

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Looks really good.. I like it alot and dont cut yourself short it takes alot to learn this stuff. Looks like you did a FINE job.. Those taps suck I know. I have tried the same thing. What I do now is drill the hole thru the metal and weld a nut over the hole and then the bolt screws into the nut thru the hole and does the same thing! Way easier than tapping steel... Great Job...

AndyG

Sublifer · May 31, 2011

So I finally got the shade on it. Not without more trouble though. While waiting I tried to make sure I had all the nuts, bolts, and washers ready. It turns out that I forgot a bag of bolts for the ROPS attachment. In the process I used one of the wrong nuts and stripped some of the threaded rod. Well, after a lot of digging we were able to find some in my brother in laws truck box and he thought it'd be worth trying to put it on over the stripped part of the rod. Well, no luck there, the nut got stuck and then wouldn't come back off with the impact wrench. My BIL went to get a cutter to take some of the rod off as it was long enough to spare some and I used a ratchet to try to get the nut off as we were going to need it. Bad luck strikes again, while trying to take it off I broke the threaded rod right past the edge of how much we needed. The shade is on and the brackets will hold it on, but the one bracket is going to need me to cut it shorter so I can weld a usable piece of threaded rod back on it. Have to cut it shorter or the welds would be right where I need to tighten down the bolts. Well, thats for another day. At least it is on there now.