Any tips for welding sheet metal? I want to weld body panels. I've never welded before. I grew up watching my Dad, but he usually worked with thick metal. He tends to consider modern car panels "tissue paper".
Any tips for welding sheet metal? I want to weld body panels. I've never welded before. I grew up watching my Dad, but he usually worked with thick metal. He tends to consider modern car panels "tissue paper".
Ean Orsel - 1987 Chrysler LeBaron coupe (The Blue Baron) 1987 Chrysler LeBaron coupe (The Silver Cloud) 2002 Chrysler Neon LX (Lex) "It has the turning circle of the moon." -Jeremy Clarkson
Clean the metal of any contaminants and just prior to welding wipe with acetone. The cleaner the metal the better the welding will go. If you're butt welding thin metal a copper back up plate also helps hold the bead and to absorb some of the heat. HTH.
You're supposed to to make little tack welds, one here.... one there, etc.... to minimize the localized heat. Laying a normal bead will totally distort the panel(s)
Originally Posted by 22mopar
Steve
'90 VNT competition package Shadow - T-III SC6262 conversion/restoration
'91 Spirit R/T - white
'91 Spirit R/T - white
'92 IROC R/T - red
'67 Barracuda 273 now, 440/727 awaits....
Yeah, I'm up on theory but short on practice. But yes, tacking the panel into place is important. Penetration, you're always going to have wayyyy too much. Gotta use the thinnest electrode/wire/stick possible, and keep the amps way down. Very easy to blow holes in it.
The technique espoused in the bodywork books I've got is "hammer welding" where you immediately flatten the weld with hammer and dolly, while glowing. This I think has the benefits of forcing all the gaps and voids out of what is a very quick weld, and also neatening it considerably... I think otherwise you attack it with a grinder after and find huge voids and cracks.
In then end it probably comes down to practice, and I think the techniques are somewhat different than for joining tube or angle iron, i.e. needs a lightness of touch and efficiency of movement above that required of other welding. There are numerous legends of the grizzled old guy who can invisibly weld bodywork with a coathanger and jumper cables.
I'm eager to patch up my van in a couple of spots. Maybe I have a slight advantage in that I have the experience of welding tissue together... used to mess with model aircraft covered in doped tissue... if it landed in a tree, you'd have some rips to deal with, and delicately tack them back together with a bead of balsa cement...
DD1: '02 T&C Ltd, 3.8 AWD. DD2: '15 Versa Note SV, replacing.. DDx: '14 Versa Note SV << freshly killded :( ....... Projects: '88 Voyager 3.0, Auto with shift kit, timing advance, walker sound FX muffler on 15" pumpers wrapped in 215/65/R15 H rated Nexens.... and a '95 phord escort wagon PnP head << Both may need to go :( ..... I like 3.0s ... so??? ... stop looking at me like I've got two heads!
if you got a mig welder, get some .023 wire and a bottle of argon co2 mix. the sheetmetal on these cars is very prone to ripping where its welded, your best bet is make a lap joint and spot weld through the sheet on top of the other and spot weld the seam, with repeated zaps over and over, spread it out over as much of an area as you can. peening the weld after welding minimizes the weld areas contraction as much as possible, if you dont peen it it will shrink and pull the panel out of shape.
Tack and move, it will seem painfully slow but its faster than trying to fix a warped panel.
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