Ok, I am for now just going to rent a welder to get these small things that I need done. I have 4 holes like this And then my floor. What is the best way to accomplish this? What kind of tips, what kind of metal should I use to fill these spots? Help a newb out.
first take the weed eater and clean up the rust areas then attatch your metal blade onto weed eater and cut out rusted out areas...LOL...seriously tho, cut out the bad metal into nice easy shapes like a square or circle then make a template of the hole, trace the template onto 18 gauge steel, then cut steel and fit to the hole...next slowly weld the new metal in skipping around as to not warp the panel, grind the welds smooth and apply a little filler, sand smooth hit with primer then repaint the car!!! and your done, those patches seem pretty straight forward so they should be a good start to learn on, just remember to go slow and take your time
if you get into a bind on what to do next, do a search for "bodywork" or something along those lines...alot of great info has been posted that will help you out a lot
Make sure that everything is clean before you try to weld it. Welding over rust is a fools game. Grind it all until it is shiny.
Ok, little more help. I have n idea about welding. When welding the 18g steel, is there any wire that I need for the welder or is it just going to weld the two metals together using the actual sheet metal?
cut 3" more the you think. if there are pin holes and pits cut it all out it will be less work in the long run.
I bet if you look at the metal around those 'small holes' it will be way thinner than the rest of the metal on the car and you'll be apt to burn through the thin metal when you patch it. The Home Depot near me rents welders, by the way...
i dont know how much the rental on the welder is gonna be, but if you got zero experiance welding sheet metal, let alone old and thin to new metal... i'd suggest buying a welder outright and practice for a while before you make your car a learning tool. couple weekends worth of rental prolly pay for the unit anyhow
If I recall correctly the welder rental is actually kind of high, something like 10% the price of a new one for a half day. If you need it for a couple days, and find it handy enough that you might use it for other things, or find that your rust is worse than you thought, might be better just to buy one.
The place I am getting it fom is 20 a day 50 a week and 100 for a month. It's a small wire feed. For a millermatic it is 50 a day 150 a week and 250 a month
Don't cut the old metal out first. Lay the new metal over the old metal you are cutting and cut them both at the same time.
Thanks for the little tidbits guys. I'm gonna do the job sunday. They gave me a weldmark 135 plus (gas not flux core).
ok, do tell why. unless he's got a plasma cutter, cutting the patch and rot at the same time makes for ****ty ****in cuts and almost impossible to do. people have been cutting out rotten tin and then making patch panels for decades...
The Jalopy Journal
