I have recently brought home my first project truck and have been going over everything with a fine tooth comb. The previous owner had widened the front fenders 4”, welded the rear fenders to the box and skinned the tail gate. There are areas where there has been some warping as well as pin holes and hairline cracks along some of the welds. I have included some pictures in my gallery that show some of the worst stuff.

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Does anyone on here have any experience with body solder (tin-lead vs. tin-copper-zinc) and is this stuff hard to work with. Would this metal-metal filler provide more rigidity to these weak spots or would I be better off welding and shaping these areas.

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I am aware of the methods used to avoid warping the sheet metal and I know I can’t just use regular filler to patch this for fear of cracking or disbanding of the filler due to flexing of the metal and water infiltration.

 

Leading is an art form, its not easy at all, It is one of the things i keep trying to get better at but experince is the key and if you dont have it you have two choices choice 1 forget about it and go on with your life living happy and lead posion free, Or (and my personal fav by the way) choice 2 spend the money on all the stuff and try like hell. Only way to get experince in anything is to just do it.

However if you want this done quicky weld it. maybe not mig maybe gas welding would be better if its just sheet metal but if its structral at all mig weld it.

If your wondering will lead fill in the craked welds and reapir the wled no it wont. the only way to fix a bad weld is to reweld it sorry. however the weld isnt in a place that would the panel to fall off it were to totaly break then it would fill it in and make it look nice.

 

Sounds like I will be welding the these areas of concern. I know it is something I can do without messing things up too bad. I use the mig rather than gas be cause of the high temps for longer duration in gas welding results in a larger hear affected zone and increased potential for warping the metal. Only other option may be if the gas welding is low temp then maybe it could be an option. What products are you using?

With the mig I use 0.025 wire lowest heat and medium feed in short bursts on the thin stuff and pin holes. Where the material is thicker I turn the heat up just a little still only welding 1/2' segments at a time allowing the material to cool between each spot. Just start dancing around the truck to various locations in a circle so the previous weld is cooled before I start the next weld in teh same spot. Requires a lot of patience as when you are in the groove of a nice bead it sucks to stop.