I am thinking of getting a welder to replace the rusty tailgate section in my 79 bronco. Are mig welders the way to go? or would i do as well with an oxt/acetylene set that i could use to heat up bolts, and cut with?
Thanks,
Chuck

 

Mig Welders Are great for nice clean welds. But if are already a good welder you can do the same with a Oxy/Ace Torch. But before welding with the torch I highly recommend practicing on some scrape. It wont be as clean of a weld as a mig would give you but you can always smooth it out. I personly would buy both, if you could afford it. A Tig welder is the best you could get put their hard to use for beginners.

 

I bought a very large oxy setup and it's great for cutting and general welding BUT for thin metal it's tough. One down side to the oxy setup is that most places won't sell you the larger tanks, they want you to lease it and that just wouldn't work for me becuase it'll sit there for months.

If you can find someone that's selling a used setup w/tanks you can get them refilled for about $40~50ea and they last a long time.

I think the mig is MUCH better for body work and thin metals. I think some wire feed setups have options for tanks that allow for alum welding too.

The downside to these is that the nicely priced ones (<$400) usually have a low duty cycle and the ones that have a good strong duty cycle, have ugly prices.

Overall, I'd get a mig then get one of those $50 1cu ft oxy setups from HomeDepot for cutting bolts. the oxy cost about $6ea and goes fast, but if you don't use it very often it's ok.