Welding/body work

[Mike Koolhof]

My old 77 needs some stuff done....floor panels (got from LMC Truck) floor brace, bed wheel well stabilizer rods, etc. What's the consensus on rivet vs weld? I'm just getting the welding thing down and I don't really want a burn thru

 

[Charlie]

 

[Mike Koolhof]

Howdy

 

[dvdswan]

Welcome to the site. Practice welding, buy some sheet metal from a weld shop or metal yard. Metal yard you can find some old stuff to practice on. Be sure to clean the surface before you start welding, dirty metal will give you porosity (air holes in the welds). Turn down the amperage and just do tacks every 4". If you run a straight bead you will heat the metal too much and it will warp. Watch some videos too.

 

[Mike Koolhof]

Thanks!

 

[Old77]

Welcome! And definitely weld over riveting

 

[John Snell]

I’ve been trying to restore a rusty ‘68 Camaro, and have been using .025 hard wire and C20 gas. For things like a floor pan, you can position the piece and lock it down with some small self-tapping screws. Then tack welds galore. Set a tack, move a good distance and tack again. Keep doing that until you’ve got the piece welded in. You can remove the screws and fill the holes as you go. Prep and cleaning is extremely important. You really need to have clean, bare metal on those edges.

Took me awhile to get the hang of it without burning through. I used one of the old panels off the car to practice on before I tried anything serious.


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[Mike Koolhof]

Some great advice! One thing seems evident...my little hobby welder isn't going to cut it. It's a beginner MIG with flux wire and no gas.

 

[nvrenuf]

Prep and cleaning is extremely important. You really need to have clean, bare metal on those edges.

This ^^

I'm also learning to weld and learning on body panels. It cannot be stressed enough that what you're working on needs to be clean and bare, old paint, oils, rust, etc will make the job a PITA and result in poor welds.

Also, when working on body panels, just do the 1 sec spot weld and move on. Once you get the hang of it and the spot welds are good you'll have the urge to run longer beads, DON'T. Keep doing spots across the panel and then go back and fill in the gaps with more spots, this will prevent warping and blow through. The longer beads put a lot of heat in the panel and make blow through easy.

 

[ali_c20]

Preparation, patience and practice

 

[dvdswan]

Some great advice! One thing seems evident...my little hobby welder isn't going to cut it. It's a beginner MIG with flux wire and no gas.

Actually cheap MIGs will do just fine. If you have a plastic hose on the back of the welder you can attach a small bottle of gas. 75/25 or something like that, I really don't remember the mix, maybe argon/co2. Get a regulator for the bottle and set it. you will have to reverse the polarity, which is easy.

This is if your welder is setup for it. I started with a cheapo brand which was a great starter welder for me.

What kind of welder do you have?

 

[John Snell]

Mike, I have a Hobart 140 that works great on sheet metal. Used it to build a rotisserie for my Camaro, too. I got it on Amazon about 10 years ago for a hair under $500. Definitely in the lower end of the hobby range as far as power goes, but it’s done everything I ever asked it to do. And I’ve run quite a bit of wire through it.

Some of us just do what we can with what we got. [emoji6]


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[ali_c20]

I'm looking for a used professional one for my next project. A friend of mine bought a broken one for nothing and had it repaired and serviced for around 700$. The difference is really huge and welding with this machine is way easier and makes better welds.
I did my K5 with a hobby welder and it worked, on some occasions a better welder would have made life easier.

 

[legopnuematic]

Did all of the patch work (all Lower bedsides, inside bed, bed floor) on my 76 with the $100 Harbor Freight flux core welder. Biggest things I think is to be comfortable with your machine and to be confident (ABC's of welding- Always Be Comfortable). Don't be afraid to use some heat when tacking, that way you get good penetration and when you grind the weld down it retains its strength.

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[RecklessWOT]

For thin steel like body panels you can absolutely use flux core. It won't necessarily produce the cleanest looking welds but will get the job done just fine. Sheet metal is basically all that type of welder is for. You can do some thicker stuff with it, but hard to get good penetration, I wouldn't trust it for frame repair. For something like floors that aren't structural as long as it's not full of holes you're fine. For rockers and such, even if the bead doesn't come out super pretty you're going to have to grind them flush before paint anyway so don't worry too much. Just practice a lot on some scrap metal first till you feel confident. And as these guys already said be sure you're working with clean metal, dirty or rusty or painted metal will be no picnic