Treeslayer
Mike
i wanted to post this in order to give readers who have never welded in a panel some confidence.
i am no stranger to welding, but never did much with light metal other than a very little bit years ago with FC.
my youngest bought a 87 W150 for his first vehicle. it looked really straight except for the bed lower front drivers side. i couldnt quite figure what was wrong with it but it looked funny. yes, we are dodge people, i think there is 13 dodge pick ups here lol. any way i knew the ugly light blue flat paint some one had put on it had to go so we started sanding that area. yep, almost a half inch of bondo. no rust, but a big dent they tried to pry out with a 2x4 or some thing. after digging out most of the bondo, i decided no way i could ever get it to look close to right, so i went and cut the whole lower bed side from a parts truck, from the wheel well to around the front just under the fuel filler.
i used the old panel to experiment. flux core was a no go. i could weld with out blow through, but it warped awful. so off to the compressed gas place for some argon and i ordered some .023, a new liner, tips and a new drive roll for the ol LN7..........stuff for that is getting hard to find. i guess my equipment is getting old like me.
power source is a miller shop master 300 cc/cv, so its a lot of welder. surprisingly welding city has a liner to fit my magnum 300 and tips. also their wire, i like it.
so i start messing with this set up on the scraps. this metal is thick for auto body, 18-20ga?
folks i wound up over 100amps with wire speed up around 225fpm. this gives a fairly flat full penetration zap, WITH THIS MACHINE. im not sure who said it with out going back and looking, but these guys are right, you want it fairly hot so the zap happens fast, but you will have to fiddle with your own machine to find that happy range.
i did a lap weld down side, but the short front section was but welded. i want newbs to read this twice, i could have and should have but welded the entire thing easily.
the only warp i got was a slight concave section up front on the side. its really shallow so there wont be but about 1/8" of filler. the rest of it stayed straight.
the take away here is, yes you can, its not really as hard as your mind will make it out to be. dont be afraid of heat, your only going to make maybe a zap a second so the panel wont really get that hot.
if i can do it, any one can do it. now that i have the machine settings figured out, i have all kinds of projects in mind i prolly will never live long enough to get done lol.
i know, long winded, but i want guys to understand, this aint rocket science, it can be done.
i am no stranger to welding, but never did much with light metal other than a very little bit years ago with FC.
my youngest bought a 87 W150 for his first vehicle. it looked really straight except for the bed lower front drivers side. i couldnt quite figure what was wrong with it but it looked funny. yes, we are dodge people, i think there is 13 dodge pick ups here lol. any way i knew the ugly light blue flat paint some one had put on it had to go so we started sanding that area. yep, almost a half inch of bondo. no rust, but a big dent they tried to pry out with a 2x4 or some thing. after digging out most of the bondo, i decided no way i could ever get it to look close to right, so i went and cut the whole lower bed side from a parts truck, from the wheel well to around the front just under the fuel filler.
i used the old panel to experiment. flux core was a no go. i could weld with out blow through, but it warped awful. so off to the compressed gas place for some argon and i ordered some .023, a new liner, tips and a new drive roll for the ol LN7..........stuff for that is getting hard to find. i guess my equipment is getting old like me.
power source is a miller shop master 300 cc/cv, so its a lot of welder. surprisingly welding city has a liner to fit my magnum 300 and tips. also their wire, i like it.
so i start messing with this set up on the scraps. this metal is thick for auto body, 18-20ga?
folks i wound up over 100amps with wire speed up around 225fpm. this gives a fairly flat full penetration zap, WITH THIS MACHINE. im not sure who said it with out going back and looking, but these guys are right, you want it fairly hot so the zap happens fast, but you will have to fiddle with your own machine to find that happy range.
i did a lap weld down side, but the short front section was but welded. i want newbs to read this twice, i could have and should have but welded the entire thing easily.
the only warp i got was a slight concave section up front on the side. its really shallow so there wont be but about 1/8" of filler. the rest of it stayed straight.
the take away here is, yes you can, its not really as hard as your mind will make it out to be. dont be afraid of heat, your only going to make maybe a zap a second so the panel wont really get that hot.
if i can do it, any one can do it. now that i have the machine settings figured out, i have all kinds of projects in mind i prolly will never live long enough to get done lol.
i know, long winded, but i want guys to understand, this aint rocket science, it can be done.