RogerN wrote:
"ATP" wrote in message
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"RogerN" wrote in message
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At first attempt it seems my Century welder should do the job for auto
body welding. After some more practice I would like to go to the Lincoln
dealer and see if they have a Power Mig 140C demonstrator I could try and
compare it to my old Century. I see what you guys mean about the
continuous heat adjustment, I was able to fine tune the heat and wire to
run a nice bead, but the adjustments were tiny.

RogerN

Did you try the punch/flanger? It really helps to flange the metal and
overlap it. I'm getting my Nissan Diesel cabover back on the road, I
rebuilt the cab several years back with the Hobart Handler 175. Still runs
like a top, but the fender I didn't rebuild disintegrated, I will probably
have to fabricate a new one.

Not on this one, this hole had metal behind it about 3/16 or so, it was
tempting to just fill it with body filler. For this area I thought a butt
weld might be best to leave no place for moisture to get trapped.

I plan to get some rear fender arches and will probably flange the metal for
them, I feel I could do a much better weld, as in less grinding, if I
flanged the metal. I may still try to butt weld on the fender arch itself,
since it gets road crud thrown up there that might get trapped in a flange.
I would like to use the flange on the patch panel part that is more than a
couple inches away from the wheel arch.

Use a flange, weld in the panel AFTER spraying the area with a weld
through primer. Then once the weld is cool and grinding is done shoot
the back of the panel with a good undercoat. Will probably outlast the
rest of the vehicle then.


After spending so much time with this one rust hole I'm going to look into
the price of a new fender since the wheel arch looks much more difficult to
repair, much larger damaged area.

Wheel openings are a B*(CH on some vehicles. If your not worried about
keeping it "all original sheet metal" then grab a replacement. CLEAN it
very well and undercoat it prior to install. Makes them last longer.

Also keep in mind that primer is NOT a paint. It will allow moisture to
pass through it enough to cause problems. What I generally do if I'm
going to be working on a daily driver is to repair ONE panel at a time.
Then sand it, prime and shoot a single coat of paint on. Don't buy the
expensive stuff for this, just cheap enamel that can be sanded off later
when you shoot the entire vehicle.


I let my 12 year old son play with the mig welder on some 22Ga and he got
where he could run a bead on it, without burning through most of the time.
Seems like a lot of work for a little repair but I had a nice time with my
son and he loves messing with these kinds of things. Hopefully I can have
something to pass on to him before I go.

RogerN




--
Steve W.
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