Body welding

this is what I started to weld on too about 15 years ago....a rusty old zuke. After welding the first piece or at least trying, the welding bug got me and I've been going crazy with the welder ever since.

You need a 110/220 mig welder with gas. I've had a 110 for years and if you got the cash for a 220 get it but the 110 will work great for this. The reason you want the gas is that it will let you weld at a lower heat setting than with no gas. no gas or "flux cored" wire requires alot more heat and it will cause some "burn throughs" and alot or warping.

now if you don't want to bring your zuke to the show then I'd advise you to try but if you want some nice shinny straight panels then pay someone. Get some scrap metal and weld as much as you can. After playing on scrap pieces then get some scrap sheet metal and start playing with that. You're going to find it alot different than square tubing or angle. Get some practice on the big stuff first to get used to the whole thing.

They say that you should use the same thickness as the original. I counter this by concentrating my weld onto the new thicker panel. The original panels are way too thin and if you are going to use that you might as well just cover the hole with long strand fiberglass filler.

After some practice then cut your patches and start to weld them in. You are just going to put a million tacks on the panels and always move from here to there and back. IF I want a nice patch then I will tack so many places and then cool it with compressed air. This will really help with warping. You don't want to use water. You can let it cool normally between tacks. Don't just blast it with air while you weld because even the smallest breeze will take away your argon mix. If you need more than one patch then get them ready and work on a few patches at a time, I've had 5-6 patches going on at a time.

One trick I learnt is to get the sheet metal shop to cut you strips of sheet metal about 1/2 to 5/8 wide. You put these inside the Original panel making an inside lip to mount your new piece to. On the show they tell you to leave a gap about 1/16 to have a space for the weld. This works once you got some practice but don't start this way....you end up with some major burn-throughs. try to fix those after. So you got your hole cut out....you weld in a lip on the inside and then you place the patch over the lip and then weld it in...just that easy....I wish.

#1 take your time, #2 patience, #3 fit everything real good and if you mess up and cut it too small get another piece.

A few extra pieces of advice....get an auto darkening helmet...this will make anyone a welder and if your budget for a welder is $400, save up some more money and buy a good brand. Don't buy the cheap one that is just going to break down and make it impossible to work with.

Choosing the metal is important too....galvinized is very toxic to weld so you need a good resporator/mask if you value your health and "satin coat" is pretty good but the paint doesn't like to stick to it. If you paing like me that is ok....spray the paint from a can every spring over the mud.

three years ago I was an average welder, I went to work in a shop that has great welders, Lincoln 255, now I'd brag and say that I'm a great welder. Now when I go back to my own shop and take my little lincoln I can weld 500% better than before I worked in the welding shop. When I started at the shop I used to grind every third weld due to it being ugly and they were fussy...last winter I might have grinded 3 welds in total.....When I went and applied for the job he looked at me and laughed....he said. "you paid me to weld for you last week" I told him that my welder was very light and that I knew he had good gear. The only reason that he hired me was that he couldn't pay right away and no one else would work for "pay you later" work. I was just using this to get extra money for toys. He gave me a $4 per hour raise after just 3 days of working for him. Now I do all his welding.