First time welding....opinions
 

My first time making patches, trimming repo floor pans and welding. I had to hand form the patch above the floor section, and wheel well patches. I did have a few blow outs that needed filling.......lots of grinding!

I am having a hard time with the pictures. Not sure if flash is causing this but I am unable to see what I'm looking at. Doug

You did a good job. A little grinding, thin coat of bondo, and then primer and you are where a lot of body shops would be.

Hey Mrrat1
Looks good. Weld looks to be on top of the metal,which is fine. but if you leave a bit of a gap you can then fill the gap with weld and it will be smoother, less grinding. I see ur from NJ, i used to live in Jackson, home of Six Flags. Now live in NC.

Good job, good luck and keep welding.

Ed

OK Thanks....don't see much patch work posted and the customs shops on TV just about make the welds disappear. Getting better with the welds as I go along.....Thanks Again!

Looks pretty good, I found a lot of welding tips on Youtube. That said you're doing well. Body panels are easy to blow through.

They look good to me. I see we are in the same neck of the woods, do you drive a Red convertible Firebird by chance? I've seen one cruise by my house several times. My wife even noticed it!
Kevin

Remember ... just a touch will do, on typical body metal ... maybe 1/2 second per spot. Just a few spots to hold the patch ... then a little dolly/hammer work, a few more spots, a bit more dolly/hammer work, then when the patch is in there where you want it, how you want it, finish the beads.

And ... always better to go too large with the patch than too small. Good, clean, unrusted metal to weld the patch to. Every minute you spend cleaning the metal is 10 minutes you won't have to spend fixing messed up welds. Once the hole in the body is cut ... try to get a little wire brush in behind the metal and clean that up too. Lots of contamination can get through from the back to the front and make your life miserable.

Don't be afraid to grind the heck out of it and look for bad areas that need to be hit with the welder again. Typically your patches will be more than strong enough, but not necessarily sealed up well enough. And of course take a lot of time doing any area that can show warping.

I've certainly seen worse than you have there.

Hi Kevin, I live off Atsion Rd & drive a silver & blue Silverado SS......I rent a shop in Tabernacle.

Thanks for the kind words and encouragement fellas.....

What welder, wire type, wire size etc?

lincoln 155 220 volts & .025 wire. Set on A for heat (lowest) and 2.5-3 wire speed.

Thanks for the advice Dataway......I have ground too much off and rewelded in many places.

Small world, I live on Tuckerton rd. What gauge steel are you using for fabricating your patch panels?
Kevin

bought repo floor sections, trimmed down to eliminate the rusted out areas and used what I had left over for patches.

Rear seat foot well partially welded in. I finished up the welds, ground them down and had a few places that needed to be rewelded. It's all done & will post a few pics when I take them. I have moved on to the tail panel & trunk pan. Have to do a little patching on the end of the frame rail & bumper bracket mounting braces on the pass side. Pretty happy with the progress on my welding skills.

One tip that has nothing to do with the actual welds...Keep a squirt bottle of water or a fire extinguisher around. You'll be shocked the first time you set something on fire and don't realize it until you smell or feel heat.
When you have the welding helmet on you can get in a zone and not even realize you set some shop rag or magazine or something on fire.
Also, it can be enlightening (no pun intended) in the dark to shine a strong light behind your welds. You may see pinholes that you didn't know about.
Looks good!

Thanks for the tips Greg..I do have a fire extinguisher handy and will get a water bottle. Have used the light under the panel trick...Thanks Again!!

Rear foot well finished. I removed the upper bumper brace to do the trunk floor and opened the next can of worms.....have to replace a 5-6" section of the frame behind leaf spring mount.

Looks pretty good to me. Especially for a newbie. If you have any questions YouTube is a gold mine for instructional videos.

Your car is getting stronger by the day :)

Cut the frame off from the spring mount rearward. Made a patch from square tubing.
I'll take a few pics and post them up. I made the patch for the inner valance/support & tail panel already. I hope to be done the passenger side this week. The drivers side doesn't look as bad but inner support has a little more rust. I have to cut out a little more to get a better look.......

Thanks for the help & compliments!

Frame section removed and the patch tacked in. Think I'm gonna grind the welds off and do a little more fitting as the next layer doesn't fit quite right. Plus I don't like my buddies welds......lol. Have to weld in the frame end cap as well. Gonna drill out the bumper mount holes after it's all in place. A pic of the section of the trunk pan cut out.

By the time you are done you will probably be pretty good at that kind of work :)

Over the years I've done quite a bit of similar work to farm vehicles and equipment to keep them going. Amazing what can be salvaged with enough MIG wire, grinding disks and cutting wheels .... and time.

Using this as a learning tool & experience for my 66 2+2 which needs help on every panel inside & out....top to bottom!

Frame patch welded in & patched the part of the inner tail panel that covers it. Still need to weld in the top brace on the frame end. I also had to make a small patch where the rear 1/4 meets the trunk drop and tail panel. I should have the pass side wrapped up very soon.

You probably don't need us to tell you that you are getting better .. but, in case you do ... you are getting better.
When you start enjoying that kind of thing ... step back and take a break :)

Finished up the rear frame section & passenger side of trunk partially welded in.

trunk pan welded in. I still have to grind the one corner, had to patch trunk support on other side......

Nice work! Wait till you learn on how to do TIG welding! Now you can weld aluminum, that is fun!

Unless you're going for concourse I wouldn't worry too much on grinding everything smooth on floorboards and trunks. Spatter paint, seam sealer and undercoating works wonders on covering everything up.

One trick I used was to turn the lights off and put a shop light behind the seam, any pin holes show up easily.

Want to make it look as good as possible! I like the challenge! I have been doing the light under the car trick.....I found it by accident.....Thanks!!

It's been some time since I posted any progress pics.

the tail panel is done.

moved on to the drivers rocker panel. Found a previous repair on the lower 1/4. Surprise!!

I finished the lower 1/4 didn't take any pics. I moved on to the pass door. I don't have a fancy metal stretcher/shrinker so I have to make relief cuts for the bends.

I still have to trim the outside edge. I figure on doing the lower door skin in sections. Any advice?

I still have a couple small patches on both sides of the corner patch to make and weld in also...

If people learn by doing ... you are definitely learning.

doing good! i'm not that far beyond you as far as welding skills. are you grinding the welds with a mini belt sander? many brands but I have a dynabrade and use 40 grit ceramic belts. grinds welds so easily.

something Iv'e used to hold metal while I get a few tacs done is metal tape. the metal tape used on hvac ducts. cheap and handy. just got some of those earth magnets from eastwood have not tried those yet.

The new door skins are not expensive I would just reskin it yourself. its not hard.

also there's a lower door structure panel available if you need to replace the bottom door structure. used this on both my doors but cut the panel and replaced the minimum needed.

what year firebird? love seeing the diy process.

Thanks for the tips!! The skin would probably be the best way to go but I need the experience for a future project where skins are not an option. This is a 79' Formula 403 car. Atlantis Blue/Nocturn Blue rockers & bumpers, Oyster gut. Bought as a roller with not much left of the interior. It was being used as a race car and sat for some time. Have a 400 & turbo 350 we mocked it up earlier in the build.

Been using a Dewalt electric grinder for heavy stuff then rolec's. I will look into the mini belt sander....Thanks Again!

I started with the heavy duty electric grinder routine until I got the dynabrade. the electric grinder seldom comes off the shelf now. thick steel maybe.

the big grinder heats the welds up and warps things. as well as throws a lot more sparks.

I'm guessing the doors were gutted when it was turned into a race car. I patched up the holes where the spot welds were drilled out.

Finished up the rusted out corner. It's not perfect but it's the best I could do.

Bottom of door shell was pretty bad. My patch making skills are improving also.

I was a little too aggressive with the weld grinding and had to reweld a few spots and a portion of the seam and added a blow out fix to a thin spot. I was surprised how well it came out. I even match the curved areas between the drain holes.

I assume you are using gas and something like .024 wire? If you play with your settings a bit more you might be able to get the spot welds to lay down more. Can be touchy with thin metal as it requires a bit more heat. If there are any areas where you can get a copper backing bar behind the weld you can turn up the heat some and get flatter welds.

I'll try more heat....I have it on the lowest heat setting and wire feed at 4 which is on the fast end of the scale. Thanks Very Much!

I'm no expert, taught myself and learned a lot. probably the hard way no doubt.

maybe an expert will reply if i'm wrong here...…..what I learned was you want as much heat as the metal will take not how little heat you can get by with. as dataway said .024 wire is best also. I tried .030 and wow was much harder to work with.

as your doing, "stitch" welding is 99% the method on a car restoration. may seem obvious to other experts but I learned when stitching it all together after tacking, hitting the previous stitch as you go at just the right angle saves a lot of time and keeps burn thru to a minimum.


burn thru doesn't bother me. gonna happen. just another hole to carefully fill. learning how to keep em to a minimum is the key.


after doing a car, thick metal is a fun piece of cake!