Hey guys

Looking at trying some patch repair on my truck. It will be my first time welding body panels, but I have welded before. Figured if I mess it up to bad ill already have what I want replaced cut out and can take it to a shop. I tried to search on here for metal suggestions and have found 20ga is pretty common. I can't find 20ga around here for some reason, I find 16 and 22. I picked up a smaller 22ga to try, will this be thick enough? The 16ga seemed pretty thick at the store. I'm just doing small 4"x6" size on average.

Thanks
Mike

 

I'd go for the 16 over the 22 if it were me. 22 gauge is pretty flimsy stuff. 16 is way overkill. Better to keep looking for 18 or 20 gauge. My 2c.

 

Try your local body shop. Find a damaged hood, door skin or other fairly large flat panel. Some shops will give them away and others glad to get a few dollars cash for the piece. And then there are some that will probably not talk with you. I picked up a BMW hood a few years back that provided several patches and I still have the remnants of the hood covering a rototiller.

 

Thanks guys. I will look and call around some more and try to find a piece.

 

I used 16ga because that is what was in the scrap pile at my local steel supplier. Most say that 18 would match factory. The 16 worked fine for me, especially since I am not the best welder (wouldn't want to try to weld in 22ga patches).

 

I would suggest first reading my MIG welding tutorial where I talk a lot about welding body sheet metal, it's a different technique than welding heavier metal: https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...-practice.html Practice a lot on the same thickness metal before tackling your panels, you can easily do enough heat damage to make the panel irreparable (at least cost effectively).
Next, you didn't mention what you are working on or where, but you want to match the parent metal thickness or one ga heavier to allow for finishing. typically 18 ga for fenders and cab, 16 ga for running boards and bed, 19 ga for compound curves/shaped patches. 22 ga is VERY thin, you'll likely blow holes in it when welding, and/or grind thru it in finishing. I'd suggest investing in a sheet metal thickness gauge (looks like a steel disk with slits cut in the edge) to measure the thickness of the panel. Use cold rolled sheet steel (silver surface color) only. DON'T use hot rolled (black surface color), galvanized, or scrap late model (>1970) body panels (thin, hard and aluminized coated) for patches. There are plenty of metal suppliers online or in almost any major metropolitan area. Here's one major online supplier that ships and also has warehouses around the country: Alro Steel Corporation - Metals, Industrial Supplies and Plastics and one that offers cold rolled sheet in sizes down to 12x12" with no minimum: Online Metal Store | Small Quantity Metal Orders | Metal Cutting, Sales & Shipping | Buy Steel, Aluminum, Copper, Brass, Stainless | Metal Product Guides at OnlineMetals.com

I am concerned when you say you only need 4x6" patches tho. A panel that requires that small a patch is virtually rust free, no more than a few clustered pinholes. A panel with a rust hole 1x3" will usually require a patch ~ 6x12" or larger by the time all the surrounding thin metal is removed back to solid workable metal. What you see is just the tip of the iceberg. You can't weld to thin corroded metal. I suggest you do an advanced search on here on rust repair, body work, cab corner repair, fender repair, etc and see just how much metal is typically needed to be removed (plus there is usually internal sub structure corrosion that will also need repair/replacement).

 

Thanks for the reply Ax. I am still reading the article but so far very interesting and full I knowledge that will help me out.

As far as the patches i think right now I'm lucky, but we will see when I dig into them. I sandblasted it last year and no big holes, mostly pinholes here an there, nothing too concentrated but I won know more until I get into it as your article says.