QUOTE(infraredcalvin @ Jan 6 2018, 11:38 AM)
Nice work, I’ve been contemplating doing this as well. I have a couple of questions.
- the upper sleeve appears to be for strengthening of the welded joint while the lower is necessary to address the material lossed from cutting the strut. With the thickness of the strut tube itself, along with a good weld, do you really feel the upper sleeve is necessary?
Correct; it's possible the sleeve is not necessary; however, in my case I wanted to be sure strength was maintained because, even with beveled edges, my butt welds did not penetrate the entire strut tube wall; they probably would have if I had separated the tubes a bit more.
QUOTE(infraredcalvin @ Jan 6 2018, 11:38 AM)
- in your pic, the sleeves appear to be in different locations along the upper portion of the tube. I’m assuming that the lower strut in the picture is your 2nd pass, where you didn’t have to remove the brake line retainer?
Thanks for posting!
actually, that is my first attempt; the brake line mount is farther from the spindle compared to my second attempt where it is retained at the original distance. My reasoning for this was to ensure no binding or interference of the brake lines with the inside of wheel/tire
QUOTE(TargaToy @ Jan 6 2018, 12:32 PM)
I think when I've seen this done before, the section of strut body removed from the upper cut is grafted back in at the lower cut. This is how the overall length is maintained. I also seem to recall another member here posted the process and did not add the external reinforcing sleeves.
I thought about that also, but a couple of things prevent that from being feasible:
1. the width of tube removed is too short due to the 2mm cutting wheel removing 2mm on each end of the graft so instead of a 19mm graft you end up with a 15-16mm graft
2. the strut body narrows at the spindle so the OD (outside diameter) of the upper strut section is larger (2.09") than OD of the lower section (2.00")