Anything welding

Looking for suggestions here:



This is by the windshield reservoir in a 2nd gen. The prior owner punched through a snorkel here, and I've since beat the shit out of the truck on washboard roads. Its not clear in the photo but the top of the crack is totally unaccessable from above--it's under the hood flange.

My plan is to see if I can drill out the end of the crack from below, then weld the accessible part of the crack shut. Then maybe clean up some of the mayhem around the snorkel cutout, and if possible, weld a 1/16" doubler piece over the crack.

I know this is a stupid question, but... any suggestions for welder settings for repairing the crack? I'm quite inexperienced at welding but have so far been successful in a handful of projects. I don't have a scrap truck body to tune it in and practice though.

Edit: this would be with mig, .035, and whatever the standard gas mixture is... I'm using a green harbor freight setup, sorry, it's what I could afford.

 

If you remove the fender, you will have access to the top of the crack.

Kinda hard to give setting suggestions. All welders weld different.

Whatever you do, you will be basically tack welding. Welding vehicle sheet metal is easy to burn thru.

I have a piece of flat bar copper that I use as a heat sink and backer when welding sheet metal.

 

Better safe then sorry disconnect the negative battery cables.

For all the welding on lighter gauge metal I only use .023 wire it gives much better control.

Like Kirk said setting is all so very different so many things effect it.

Source some scrap metal even if you use steel cans cut apart trial and error.

A vertical butt joint is going to be difficult for a novice welder without some practice .

This is one of those things being up close and in person gives one better ideas of how to just do this fix.

Perhaps a piece made to fit on the outside of the inner fender that way a heat sink can be placed on the inside.

Good Luck!!

 

@la0d0g
Got this last week, going to use it in a few hours. Can't wait to end making all my metal cuts with a cut off wheel on a grinder!

 

It's the best purchase I've made for clean cuts to support the hobby since I got the welder. It's also a lot quieter which allows me more time in the garage not frustrating the family and neighbors.

 

Myself i use a Cutoff wheel before a Vertical band saw any day

I have not used my Deep Cut band saw but one time since it was removed from the Truck .

My Horizontal Band saw gets used often.

Best of Luck I hope it works out to your liking.

 

nice one!

 

I wanted a horizontal band saw, but I have no room for it so this was the next best thing IMO.

I did 90% of my cuts for my SAS, including the massive fish plates for my new frame section, free hand with a grinder. Launching sparks all over, with the death wheel screaming has gotten old for me lol. Plus I always feel like I'm one metal cut away from going to the hospital using it.

I do love my flap discs though!!

 

Looking to start welding and someone told me to come check out this thread. Needless to say lots of cool stuff here but information overload.

Going to be taking classes at the local community college but in the meantime I'm going through options for which welder to buy. I have 220 outlets already wired in the garage (had the foresight to do this years ago). Not afraid of spending money but I'm not rich either. Craigslist and Facebook have nothing good right now.

Hobart was my original choice but some talk about plastic internals kind of turned me off. Miller always gets good reviews but seems like they have parts that are unique/special order if they break where other brands are more universal. Lincoln, ESAB, and surprisingly HF seem to get good reviews.

Any suggestions for a 220 welder that should last me? Also I'm intrigued by the multi-process units but under no delusion they are perfect, just curious because I could start learning TIG without need to buy another machine. Good/bad/indifferent comments on those?

Sorry this is probably a stupid and common question but I searched back a ways and didn't find answers or I can't read today. Or both. Gosh I need more coffee. Thanks in advance!

 

Well I'll be damned, the fender does come off!



Thanks for the suggestion. I can now see that the whole panel is fucked, there are like 6 cracks radiating from that cutout. Perhaps not surprising, this is a huge opening that appears to have been cut using a pair of pliers and a hammer, not a saw.

None of the surfaces are flat here, I'm definitely in over my head. Hopefully I can cut, bend, and weld something to fix it. Presently at a loss.

Also, the antenna mounts on these trucks suck. I had to drill mine out. Now I'll have to buy a new one and pull the dash to wire it to my radio.



Just wanted to complain.

Thanks! I might have a spool and a tip for .023 somewhere, if so I'll swap it in.

I'm thinking I might do some practice welds on my commuter car, maybe inside the trunk? Just to get a feel for welding on body sheet metal. Zero experience there.

 

The practice sounds like a good idea. Seems like you could get some crunched body panels for free from a wrecker yard or the median of the highway or something before you go messing up a good car

 

I love my Hobart 210. Reasonably priced.

 

Just because I'm already here... here's an answer from a total novice.

I am pretty happy with my green harbor freight multiprocess welder. But if I were to do it again, I wouldn't get the multiprocess. Just the mig machine.

I can't imagine I'd ever need or want to try stick welding, but the notion of being able to do tig on stainless sold me on the multiprocess. And also the spool gun for Aluminum, but that option is also available for mig-only machines.

However this particular unit isn't very good for tig because there's no foot pedal. I tried it a few times and quickly ran out of electrodes. I later wound up getting a plasma cutter that also does tig, and with a foot pedal. I still suck at tig, but definitely the foot pedal seems to help, now I can at least melt metal more frequently than electrodes.

Foot pedal or not, any multiprocess tool in this price range (well below $1k) is going to be DC only. So it won't allow tig on aluminum, or ever be as good as a dedicated tig machine.

I have tried the spool gun a few times too, it does indeed poop out hot aluminum. But so far my aluminum welds have been ugly and weak. Not that I've made much effort there.

So anyway, I wish I'd have just got a mig welder first, and saved a few hundred bucks vs. the multiprocess. My plasma cutter is better for tig, and it cost less too, but is still nowhere close to what you'd get from a proper AC tig machine. Maybe if you're serious about stick welding, the multiprocess could be worth it. Otherwise, just get a mig machine and save the money for a plasma cutter or a dedicated tig machine, depending on your interests.

 

Don't have much to offer other than, I'm soon going to buy my own machines (just started welding months ago) and will be buying a separate MIG and TIG machine.

TIG with high frequency (no scratch start), with AC/DC (to weld aluminum) is what I'm going with.

For MIG, hoping I can find a nice old used transformer-based Miller.

The newer multiprocess machines are cool and all, but I've learned to like the basics of simply adjusting heat and speed on a MIG setup.

I had a thread I posted about my welding progress, as I had just started school. Learning a lot but I already landed a job as a welder at a fabrication shop months ago. Kind of no point to really post in my thread anymore

 

Most body shops have a dumpster of bent fenders to practice on, stop by and politely ask and I'm sure they will help you out.

 

I agree. I dont have a need for a multi process machine. I've been MIG welding ro 25 years. It's been 30 years since I stick welded and I never want to TIG weld. I don't have enough life or desire to learn 3 different types of welding.

Like those machines, I'd be half assed at all three.

 

I finished up the trailer. I was wonhdering how long it took me working 3 hours a day on the thing.

 

I've been on the bubble for ten years about selling one of my transformer Miller units. I just have become so used to having one machine on opposite sides of the shop. I've got a lot of history with both units.

 

A person can find a use for damn near anything these days.

An old scissor jack with a shitty socket welded to it makes a great board compressor. as most know, the lumber these days is only less crooked that a polatition.

 

We have 3 transformer based Millers at work; 1 I use exclusively, the other my co-worker uses exclusively, and the 3rd us setup for push-pull with argon for aluminum.

Been happy using any of the 3; just rotate that handle to move up or down your heat and that's it. Barely need to touch wirespeed.

And the spool sits outside the machine too.