Filling holes with solder?

[El_Duderino]

I'm not a welder and dont pretend to know how. Usually have someone to take care of these things for me. I saw some videos online about filling holes with solder.

Opinions on that? Also, will epoxy stick to solder?

 

[dhutton01]

Old school lead was essentially solder. I’ve never tried using it to repair holes.

Robert is going to have something to say about this... ;^)

Don

 

[chevman]

Where are the holes and what size? It would be a lot easier to learn mig welding, than to learn proper lead work.

 

[El_Duderino]

Discovered them on the rocker after stripping. Some are previous rivet holes and some are holes from pulling dents. They were filled with what looks like "all metal" filler. YouTube makes it look too easy to fill with soldering iron. Just not sure how well it lasts.

 

[chevman]

Its not good to lead holes without access to the back side, you don't want the strong acid used while tinning the lead to get inside your rocker panels.

 

[John Long]

Solder will not stick to steel without it being properly tinned and you can not tin metal that is not meticulously clean. I would not be interested in attempting to do that. I really believe you would be setting yourself up for issues down the road.

John

 

[metalman]

You would be surprised just how strong the liquid soldering flux is. Recently I got some on my steel welding table while soldering some copper and I’m still chasing the rust two weeks later. This was the Ruby liquid and I probably could have diluted it a little bit .
If the flux was left on a inaccessible back side the rust would be guaranteed and severe.

 

[Chris_Hamilton]

I've taught guys with lower IQ's than most Primates how to MIG weld. It's not hard, decent welders are cheap and there's plenty of info out there on getting started MIG welding.

 

[El_Duderino]

Thanks for all the info! I figured there were multiple drawbacks. I first learned to weld with a stick welder in HS well over 20 years ago, then picked up a little mig. That was all farm equipment, not thin sheet metal of a classic car that I could ruin in a hurry. Our metal tech is an older man that still prefers to lead. He hasn't been to work in months for his health.

I question lead now, knowing about the issue with acid and epoxy. A shop I previously worked for used Tig for everything. No lead, no mig.

 

[crashtech]

Being able to fill a hole with a MIG or even a small torch tip is a necessary intermediate skill. Just do it!

 

[MP&C]

Robert is going to have something to say about this... ;^)

Don

Yeah, because that's how the factory did it..

As Chris said so eloquently , weld it in!!!