I am not disagreeing that I am not getting a proper weld. I have not experienced anything like this which is why I posed the question to an experienced professional welder such as yourself.


While I am not a professional welder, I have spent every weekend for the last 10 years or so doing it in my shop as a hobby. I have read your thread, not because I felt I needed to, but because I thought maybe there were some things in there I could pick up. Through trial and error, I have the best results with .030 wire and slight gap between my panels (Typically .045", the thickness of a cutoff wheel). The areas are prepped with a 50 grit bristle disc, and then edges knocked down with a 2" 80 grit flap disc.


Here you can see the initial ground down area after welding, this picture shows the pits (left from blasting, the P/O didn't have a clue), they are deep and the skin wavy the trucks skins are all a wavy mess. I am afraid to grind much more off or they will be thin. I figure a good coat of high build primer and they will even out. I will take care of the waviness through hammer dolly/slapper, and a shrinking disc.





Here is the outer skin of the opposite door, no issues................





And a close up of the same tack (the left one above) of the inner...............





Look just as the ones you posted above? No?


The only difference I can see, is the left door apparently had a thinner coat of primer? Didn't get as deep in the pits?


I am not sure what the answer is.............

 

You know sitting here looking at what I just posted, I may have just answered my question.... I didn't clean the back sides of the panels (something I typically do on more accessible areas.....

 

CV, What I meant maybe didn't translate. I do things completely differently than you, wire diameter, panel gap, etc, so if you find that you are sucessful and happy with your way, good, If you don't want to change, learn a different way, then if you have a problem, I have no experience with the way you are doing things, then I can't help you, any more than I can help with a problem on a Mac computer operating system when I work in windows on a PC. What I do know of the physics, chemistry, metallurgy involved in welding, I cannot agree you are getting a true weld but are filling a long narrow hole with filler wire. Since sheet metal is not structural, I guess it might be strong enough, but I wouldn't be surprised if you have some cracking along the seams later. My spots are smaller, don't usually have a crater in the center, my heat affected zone is darker around the welds.

 

Where is a good online source of the .023 easy grind wire? Also I have a very hard time keeping my helmet lens and magnifier clean in the gritty shop environment. When I see a layer of gritty grinding dust on it, what's the best way to clean it off? I can see my puddle ok after changing the lense cover and magnifier, then less and less as time goes by.

 

Hi CV,

This tutorial contains pictures taken from my project. Ax has been working with me and teaching me in his shop how to do rust repair and making patch panels. I can tell you that his advice and approach to metal working produces the best results every time. I am self-taught as well so I am always trying to improve my skills and open to try something new. Using the aluminum killed steel, .023 wire, making tight fitting patch panels, and hands on training with Chuck have yielded top notch results. I will never use anything but these materials for welding sheet metal going forward. Again, I am only a student here, but make sure your ground is on clean metal, adjust your welder by practicing on a few scrap pieces to test penetration and adjust welder as necessary, clean the panels of rust and paint a few inches from the seam on both sides, if original panel is too thin keep cutting back until you get into thicker metal, take caution when prepping for welding that you are not removing metal at the seams - you just want to clean not take metal away, and bring the two pieces of metal closer together (you will learn in this thread how to make patterns and use wood forms to make a patch panel that fits tight) before welding. If you use the easy grind wire you will be able to grind welds without thinning the metal. Essentially, if you are not getting good results then change something because you are not doing something correctly. Good Luck.

 

I got mine from weldingsupply.com part # 130PS43. Also, don't forget to get the .023 tips.