Question on restoration/welding wire screens

[Stuart Fedak]

Text removed as information is no longer current

[Robin Craig]

show us a picture of the item in question and I will give you much more of an idea.

MIG is your best hope, maybe as a welder myself I would see this as an easy fix, likely by replacing whole piece, but show us what your playing with and I will as usual give you an opinion

R

[maple_leaf_eh]

Don't overthink the solution boys. If a man made it, a man can make another one. I suggest looking at fabricating a new piece(s) with stock grill material. Maybe there is a flat sheet of "raw" grill at the neighbourhood steel supplier, and all you need to do is buy and form a section.

[cletrac (RIP)]

Google welded steel mesh. There's quite a variety available that's not diamond pattern.

[Robin Craig]

I am not going to get laborious in detail but I will offer some advice phrased in questions.

What are you trying to achieve?

If you are trying to provide a mesh screen then use "expa mesh" as you did in the previous project.

If you are trying to recreate the original then remove the damaged material and buy a new sheet (unlikely anyone will supply small pieces unless they have a part sheet) and buy a resistance welder which will enable a spot weld.

Understand the terminology, a spot weld passes a current through both pieces to be joined and melts one into the other. A MIG adds material.

MIG is by definition colder than oxy acetylene.

Feel free to call me one night by arrangement, and I can answer more welding questions

regards

Robin

[Robin Craig]

Just to be clear, the original is a "woven steel mesh" and the use of that name will get the best results.

I have a small company who sell a wide variety of materials locally. You have a Metal Supermarket in Ottawa I think, they are a good source of the obtuse.

Regards

Robin

[rob love]

Technically, the mesh over the headlamps would not pass a safety. Just remove it altogether.

[Bob Carriere]

Woven steel mesh will allow more light to go through than expanded mesh.

Individual strands of the woven wire mess can be individualy spot welded..... Do you know anyone who has a spot welder and a couple of metal brakes???.

On the Ford CMP grill they very easily got around the time consuming process of welding individual wires by making a 3/4 in. sheet metal frame similar to a glass widow channel...... deep U shape...insert the wire wesh and spot weld...... and for a safety check arrange for your headlight wiremess screen to be a removable/bolted section within the headlight rectangular guard.

We can discuss over tea if you wish.

Cheers

[chris vickery]

Perhaps with the plethora of NOS parts and scrapped Iltii vehicles out there, suitable replacements may be sourced at economical prices without the added work?

[Ron King]

Why MIG weld ?
On my Stalwart woven wire air intake screens I managed to straighten the wire and at every broken criss cross braze the wire back together and brazed it back to its support frame......less heat and brass flows and follows the heat well.
Just make certain no flux is left behind.