Hi all, with winter coming up I've been pondering welding in a clean radio patch piece, that I was happy to get from a fellow FTE member a while back. My question is , is it better to do a butt or flange weld after trimming to fit? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated, since I'm not the most experienced welder. Thank you all.

 

If I were doing the patching with the piece you got from me , I would cut it to fit, then do stitch welds and then grind away. A little body filler to smooth everything and you'll be good to go.

 

Thanks Ilya, yes its the nice piece I got from you. That sounds good, stitch, grind, fill, smooth. I still have enough paint left to match the rest of the interior with the ext.

 

I hate doing butt welds, but I have a similar situation with my dash, and it's the only way to do it. The worst of it is pulling everything out of the way so the spatter doesn't start a fire, or melt wires.

 

Jimmy, I will agree with Ilya. Go with butt welding. Leave a little space (1/32" or so) between the patch and the dash metal, weld real short stitches and let them cool. Watch for warpage all the time. Leaving that space will let your weld metal flow onto both parts, giving you a stronger weld. It also will allow enough weld metal to fill so your grinding will not remove too much strength. If you have it, use a good Argon mix gas (80% argon-20% CO2, or 98% argon-2% O2, or such) rather that straight CO2. Maybe AX will confirm or correct, let's see.

Some progress pictures will be nice.

Aloha, Tony

 

Butt weld, small tacks, alternating tacks and lots of cool time in between. I would also do a couple of tacks on the back side for extra strength before you grind the front welds down. The panel holders work well, I think you can still get them from harbor freight.

 

I laid mine on top with C-clamps , welded & did filler

 

Thanks for the response Guys. I have 75/25 mig gas, I also have butt weld clamps along with clecos, c clamps, magnets, and copper for backing.

 

Looks like you are good to go Jimmy. I think I need to get some of those butt weld clamps. Horror Fright? I will check. Thanks.

Aloha, Tony

 

Thanks for sharing your work, I hope mine comes out as straight as yours.

 

Butt Welds! Use the copper backing plates whenever you can and just go nice and slow. Better to jump around and come back to the project than to rush it and get it too hot and warp it. My problem is once its welded, I grind the welds down too far and they when I go back to fill the pin holes, its like tin foil. Not good. It took a lot of practice to avoid this. Careful with that grinder on a butt weld.