body welding

a-bone newby

a-bone newby

Senior Member
well I finally own a tig welder and want to know from barner body men if I can stitch lower door skins with it thanks AGAIN
 
Sure you can. But it takes practice, practice, and more practice. You also need to have an understanding of how metal reacts to heat so you can correct it as you weld. I'm no expert so i'll let more qualified people fill you in on their methods.
 
TIG welding that is planished during the welding process is what we use. Another option is to oxy/acetylene weld it in. Both of these methods allow the two pieces of metal to be fuse-welded when the fits are correct.

Please understand that MIG will work, --and it is good enough to use on a hobbyist level, however the downside to a MIG weld is it is extremely difficult to planish because it is a hardened weld. Failure to planish a weld sufficiently generally always leads to warpage. Warpage leads to straightening, and lack of straightening leads to use of fillers. This probably more than you wanted to know, but .....
 
With TIG (Tungsten with Inert Gas) or oxy/acet welding you can control your heat or molten puddle a lot easier. The downside is that your other hand will have to feed additional wire or metal as you stitch weld and fill between stitches. I prefer these methods however. MIG (Metal with Inert Gas) uses a wire spool that is compatible or the same as the base metal being welded. A big problem with MIG is finding wire that has the same composition as the steel used in the 1920's and '30's. Mild steel welding rods may have lower carbon and magnesium content. Steel produced around 1900 is very hard to weld. I usually will have it analyzed rather than be sorry. Just my opinion. Good luck.
 
You need to go off to my website and see my metal working hints.

There are some scientific concepts of how metal works you must comprehend to know how and why the TIG welder is such a good way to put metal together.

In a very quick nutshell.

You first must understand that metal shrinks when you get it above the plastic point. Essentally the point at which the metal turns blue is approaching that point. So there is no way to stop metal from shrinking. You can can limit how much shrinkage occurs. You can correct for shrinkage by hammering the area.

Where TIG welding becomes the wonder weld is in heat control. The TIG arc is quick at melting the metal. So you can get in, make a puddle and get out. Move to an other area and do your next weld.

Now the next part of TIG welding (why I dislike MIG) is how little filler you need. The ER70-S6 rod (will I will use MIG wire as it is thinner needing less heat to melt) acts like a flux (it is not flux). The silicon and other minor additives helps clear contaminates and allows for a quick fusing puddle to happen. The key is you only need a tiny drop and you use the tight butt weld of melting the two sides together minimized the amount of extra material. A MIG weld is too thick to do hammer correction of shrinkage without significant grinding. With a TIG weld you do your spots and then do the hammer work. So you are continously keeping the metal one piece in the correct shape.

Here is where you test your skills even more. The patch panel must be shaped properly before you start welding. The butt weld must be tight. At first this is a bit daunting to make happen, but trust me it gets easier. An example is the door bottoms. The door is a compound curve. The patch panels are flat. So welding in the flat panels on a compound curve means the shape of the door will never be right. The beauty of TIG is you can have a finished piece of metal that needs little if any filling if you do it right.

Take your time to learn about metal work. Look at my hints, get some of the metal working videos I recommend. Keep in mind I am a horrible welder at best and I can get panels in that are hard to tell they have been welded in so you can do it too. The only thing worse then my welding is my painting, I am getting better at buffing out mistakes.
 
Vin-tin said:
Brent, he says he does have a tig welder. That's what he's asking about.
Click to expand...

Well you are absolutely correct and I missed that one BIG TIME. I guess if you look at the hour in which I posted that, you can likely see why I misread it. In the future I will try to just limit my time at that hour to doing my 'business' and then concentrate on immediately going back to bed!! :D Please accept my apologies A-Bone!!
 
I am no expert in welding. But I have done some of it on my huckster a few years back. I found gas welding worked the best for me. But I did take a welding course at the local CC college before I attempted it. Due to the fact I wanted to use gas, in the class I practiced and practiced on using gas on metal. I learned the hard way, as mentioned above, to control the heat. While trying to patch a hole in my hood, I warped the metal by using to much heat with the gas. So point being, practice before starting an important weld and the CC classes is a good way to do this without wasting your own gas and materials.
 
Someday I'll get to TIG steel, years ago I did all the Heliarc welding on aluminum bodies in a race car restoration shop. I've been told if I could weld aluminum I could do steel, I just never had the machine or offer. If $3,000 falls out of the sky I'll be at the local Miller Welder store. You're a lucky guy a-bone, enjoy your welder. haveBob
 
I have a miller tig that I bought a little over 10 years ago. I don't do a lot of welding but it is there when I need it. I paid some where between $3,000 and $3,500 so I guess so far it has been about $300. to $350. a year to own. I am not the best welder but I only do stuff for myself and the jobs I have done have really saved me more that I paid for it.
 
mine is a freq. welder and cost 600.00can. and does alum. I learned to weld as a first career didn't like smoke became a heavy duty mech. but I can weld not sure what blanishing is but recognize stitch welding would blanching be hammering to releive the stitch?
 
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