body work for a newbie

[Speedy]

thank you everyone!
I felt confident enough to give it a shot today.
needed 18 guage first so I went to the local metal supermarkets and they were all closed on the weekends.
went home and found a small sheet in the garage, prepped it and set it up to be welded. got the welder out and found the sweet spot playing with the current and speed.
go to my part and it was out of wire!

so I will go and purchase the smallest wire my welder will take.
.024

[Speedy]

so here is attempt #2.
attempt #1 resulted in a epic fail. but I learned and todays attempt went much smoother.

woke up early stopped off at mr.metal. no small 18guage offcuts to give me so they handed me a large piece for free (enough to start patching the jeep after my practice)

with a nice flat sheet I took out the sawzall (wish I had something better) and cut out a test piece, got out the welder and found its sweet spot.

I know everyone is saying low wire speed and low voltage, but I went with what my welding book suggested (3-4 volts) as bench mark and worked from that.

here are some pictures.











shielding gas was used, compressor to cool down the welds with a blast of air, grinder with grinder wheel, 40 and 80 grit flappers to work it smooth.

I would always start my welds on the big piece of metal and move it to the smaller piece being attached. should I try just following the cut?

[Mike K]

Michael

looks like about 1/8" plate you welded ... try leaving a small gap between the plates for the weld to fill in, instead of butting them together .. you havent got full penetration yet . Good effort for a 2nd try . Im the worst welder in the world ..MIGS were invented for speed and non-skilled operators.. as in cheap factory labour in the 3rd world. 1 hour of training and away you go .

I found a great book at library here on Welding

[T Creighton]

Keep up the practise Micheal but practice the right stuff.
Read as many books and tutorials as you can find to learn the basics.
There is a forum, (http://weldingweb.com/index.php) that is a bit like MLU for welders. Very experienced and helpful guys there will answer your questions and critique your work.
Just reading the forum posts helped me a lot when I was starting out with TIG on my body panel parts.
Good luck with it all.
Terry

[ahleeds]

hi there
the only thing i can add is on cutting out the rusty hole for repair . I always cut the new patch first then lay your new peice over the rusty spot and trace around it with a jiffy marker or paint marker . Then you can cut out the rust with a zip disk grinder exactly following on the marker line . Then you know your patch will fit perfect the first time , hold in place with magnets ,and your weld gap should be perfect as long as you use the very thin zip discs to cut out the rust spot.
good luck Anthony

[cantankrs]

Anthony wrote:

Originally Posted by ahleeds

I always cut the new patch first then lay your new peice over the rusty spot and ... cut out the rust

Whereas ozm29c John Wilson wrote

14...determine the extent of rust damage. Once you have cut the rust out of a particular area, then and only then is when you will know where to start your repairs

I've cut and shaped patches only to find that the rust extends further than I realised. Rusty spots usually turn out to be larger than they initially appear from the outside. Perhaps the best method is a compromise between the two ideas - cutout almost to the edge of the rust and when you're satisfied that both sides are almost clear of it - make and shape your patch a bit oversize and then overlay it. Drilling and using pop rivets or self tappers at the overlap and then saw or slit is also an idea but would need a couple of mig pulls to fill each hole that remains.

Alex

[ozm29c]

Originally Posted by cantankrs

Anthony wrote:


Whereas ozm29c John Wilson wrote


I've cut and shaped patches only to find that the rust extends further than I realised. Rusty spots usually turn out to be larger than they initially appear from the outside. Perhaps the best method is a compromise between the two ideas - cutout almost to the edge of the rust and when you're satisfied that both sides are almost clear of it - make and shape your patch a bit oversize and then overlay it. Drilling and using pop rivets or self tappers at the overlap and then saw or slit is also an idea but would need a couple of mig pulls to fill each hole that remains.

Alex

Alex,
Once you become an 'Artiste' with MIG welding techniques, Making replacement patches to fill holes is an easy task. Also MIG welding is very forgiving and it is easy to fill holes/gaps that either exceed 1mm or holes that you have made an 'error of judgment' shaping the patch.
I would not get too flustered about finding more rust behind a section that you have just removed. Here are some photos of my weasel repair to give you an example.
Cheers
John W.

[Speedy]

Originally Posted by ozm29c

Alex,
Once you become an 'Artiste' with MIG welding techniques, Making replacement patches to fill holes is an easy task. Also MIG welding is very forgiving and it is easy to fill holes/gaps that either exceed 1mm or holes that you have made an 'error of judgment' shaping the patch.
I would not get too flustered about finding more rust behind a section that you have just removed. Here are some photos of my weasel repair to give you an example.
Cheers
John W.

WOW

here is todays attempts much better
bottom weld = todays


bottom again