ON friday there was a post started by derangedfcker who wanted to weld his chevy hood and there were lots of guys saying how hard and how long this takes to do well this is the way that i do them and this only took an hour and a half the first step is to remove the center strip and tack it about every inch i tig welded this one but you can mig it but there is one more step to miging one the second step is to cut the flanges off the bottom of the hood and some of you may say why use it to soak up heat but any one that has used a lancaster shrinker will understand why you cut them off now if you leave the flanges on at this point and start welding the edge of the flange is going to shrink and sway back the hood and it is a real pain trying to stretch that back out so just cut them off now. now grind the flanges down so there is just a little less than1/16 left now weld that ****er i welded as much as i could in a shot thats right no one inch welds no little tacks as much as possable and with very little distortion and no i did not cool it after all your trying to make a cool hood not a cutting tool this is why you cut the flanges off the bead just sank alittle but there are no waves in it. the seam is kindof a V but the hood is straight see i told you now on the back side with just that 1/16 of the flanges left is completely fused together so the next step is to grind the back and hammer and dolly the seam back flush so i put the dolly on the top side of the hood and hammered on the back to drive it back out ok now this is where its at after about ten minutes of hammer and dolly work pretty decent but after alittle bump and more hammer and dolly work it will get better pretty straight just a hair flat through the center but im happy with it well guys thats about it i didn't weld the front becuase its going to get a peak sometime and this is the way that i do them this is not the only way to do it there are 64000 ways to do the same thing but this is the way that works the best way for me so what do you guys think.
thanks its not that big of a deal when you sit down and think about it and no it was tig welded if you want to use mig you need to pre stretch the seam so that it is alittle domed and as you weld it it will shrink flat i did everything that way before i had a tig i call it dialing in your shrink there is probably a better term for it than that.
sorry it must of been camera/light angle on the weld...(or my eyes! )to make the weld out.hope i didnt offended.Your completely right regarding pre stretching deal.Good work anyways
Do you have a better picture of that roller you have on your english wheel. It looks like mine Its a handy tool Nice job on the hood.
cool post , thanks for the pics! i'm doing one right now and this thread will help me out 100%. everything is tacked up right now and was going to leave those seam flanges, i already noticed a little warpage going on...so i think i'll try your method instead. btw i ran out of argoshield so i'm using the TIG ,that may be why i'm warping it. the TIG and i don't get along when it comes to doing body stuff.
simple rolls,pick your radius and it will turn your English wheel into a endless slip roll. Sorry to high jack the thread,I'm done
NOpe not affended at all and jhnarial your simple roll set up is alot nicer than mine all mine is is just a caster frame i bought the caster to make some panels and had the frame laying around for along time and then i stumbled onto metal meet and i thought duh i could have had this thing for a year. Where abouts are you in missouri?? 50merc808 this is just the way that i do them so if you do it this way do not chase the warpage that you get the warpage is just the aftermath of the shinking that weld just hammer and dolly your heat affected zone don't worrie if there is a wave in the skin the waves will go away when you have hammered and dollied it enough and it still might be flat at the weld seam but just knock it back into arangement.
oh almost forgot metalsurgeon the reason the weld looks kinda funny the two hood sides were not really lined up the one side was about 1/16th higher than the other but it all came out pretty decent after it was hammered. and thanks for all the kind words guys
big oscar when you weld that hood with your mig make sure when its tacked and the flanges are cut off hammer and dolly that thing until its to high at the seam so when you weld it it will shrink flat i can't stress this enough a mig bead is harder than a tig bead and if you have ever beat on a mig bead til it cracks that always blows i used to pre-stretch everything when i only used mig it will save you alot of finish work and let us know how it turns out!
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