I am a begginer welder and was wondering if anyone would be willing to give me info on how to put in a wheel well patch. I would appreciate anyones time.

Thanks
ocno37

 

Not a welder here, but will give my 2 cents until someone else can help you better. Go to the top of this page and look at the sticky panel / patch/ repair thread, its a good one. Lay out your replacement against your old panel and be sure all the contours match, and scribe the outline of the new panel on to the old one. Check, Check, and check body line alignments and contours to be sure they will match with the new panel. Try not to cut the old panel out right at the rusty part, back up some, if your new panel size will allow it, so you will have good ,solid, old metal to weld your new panel to. As always , measure twice, cut once, will save a lot of headaches. Doesnt hurt to allow a little more to work with, trimming is a lot easier than trying to weld in large gaps. A mig is the best welder for panel replacements, just start with tacks just to hold the panel in place, say four to 6 in" apart, then to keep from overheating the metal, go back and tack in your joining seam solid with spot welds , but once again, move around , so one area wont get warping hot. Then, grind the welds down flush( dont warp metal with grinder heat) thats my 2 pennies worth, imo, good luck

 

You can do it a couple of different ways, it depends on what kind of job you want. you can either do a lap joint or a butt joint. If your looking for the original look you would want to do a butt weld if looking for ease of welding and fitting do the lap joint.You need match the size sheetmetal of what your replacing. usually 20 ga. measure out the area that you want to replace, cut your sheetmetal. Here is where you need to decide which way to go. If you do the butt weld , you lay the piece you cut on the area that is damaged and scribe it and cut it out, err to the small side you can always grind more off ,the fit makes the job of welding alot easier. grind the paint from the area and start tacking. make sure everything lays flat. start welding a little at a time, skipping around , it just takes a while. With a lap joint you essentially do the same thing except you make your hole smaller, so you have a lip for your new plate to sit on which makes the the job of fitting much easier. they make a tool, I believe you can get them at Eastwood (I made mine) for making an offset in the edge of your hole. You work your way around the edge, which makes a kind of "tray" for your new piece to lay in and doesn't sit above the rest of your panel. Then weld it the same way. Mig welding is the way to go. use .030 wire at the max , .023 is better, I use 75/25 gas mix. or you could use co2. I would practice on some scraps first. Just wanted to throw my 2 cents in.

 

If you are fitting a patch in a non structural part of your truck you could consider using panel adhesive rather than welding,
Do a search in this forum and you will find lots of information

 

What would a machine shop charge for something like that if you are not a welder?

 

Go to auto bodydepot.com and buy lord FUSOR 113 pannel adhedsive $15.00 aplicaror gun $40.00 thrn just tack weld panels. there is a lot less body work with adhisive than welding. if you want to weld only weld about a inch at a time then move to othre side. let cool before welding agin to keep warpage to a min.
TA