Butt welding made easy!

Been welding panels now for a long time and found that butt welding was not always the easiest thing to do.. making you patch to fit into a hole,trimming it to fit then have it move around on you as you weld it. clamping it and have it move in the clamps.. well this is what I came up with. Now I say it has been done before but I dont see it alot so I figure I do a post on how I do butt welds that I find so easy and fast..

Well here is a hole I cut out of my quarter that was metal that was not going my way after shrinking it one too many times.. lol



Now I like to reuse metal.I do this so as to get the same metal thinkness and besides it was free!!



here you can see the size of the hole Im going to patch



Nothing fancy I just clamped the panel right over the top of the hold and over lapped the panel.



Now that i was happy with the fit I just cleaned the edges and tack the panel on the car.did not tack the corners as this is where Ill start. I tack it in place as so that it wont move as I cut and weld. Ill cut those weld when I come to them.



Now no fancy tools. I just use my 4 inch grinder with a thin zip wheel. I played around with this and found if you use the patch as your guide and cut into the quarter on a 45 dregree angle the panels tend to fit tighter. Now i start in a corner and make two 2 inch cuts.



here you can see the cuts



Now all I did then was pushed the corner in till it was flush with the car and tacked in place



Now that the corner is welded i cut about 4 inch of the panel along the top.. I only go four inchs cause the panel will fall past where you want it and you then have to push back on the panel.



Here you can see how the panel is falling into the car. I stop here ,tack it in place and then move on another 4 inch.



Now just keep cutting ever 4 inchs and tack till your all the way around the panel.



Now before you start welding it up remove the old cut panel from the back side.I find it may have a few tacks holding it in place but they seem to brake very easy for the most part.



As you can see the fit is good and ready to be fully welded.



here it is all welded and grind down



this works great on crown panels.what I like is by over lapping it this way the panel your installing stays tight on the car and cant move. also Im find that the time spend doing this is way less then cutting and fitting and the finsh fit is always better.

 

for welding butt cracks?

 

That's what ya call, thinkin outside the box.

 

Well thats a method Ive never seen, but I could see how it would save time with fitment.

 

Fitzee!
Great tech sir!

 

I have never tried it your way but it looks easier than cutting the patch to fit the opening.

 

　
That’s some good thinking
Iv always found it a lot easer the make the hole fit the patch rather than the patch to fit the hole.

 

i like it

 

That's how I did the filler patchs on the quarters of mine and my brothers altered wheelbase cars.

 

That's one of the best ideas I've seen in a while. Thanks I have a couple quarters to put on I will try it. Sure beets fitting, cleaning edges and clamping. And holding the shape of existing panel

 

Good info fitzee, thanks!

 

Hey! That's a pretty damned good idea. I'll try it. Thanks for sharing.

 

up here I dont have to many people to learn this stuff from so I study and play around with it and teach myself.One think I learned over the years is your not the only person to think this way. I new someone else out there was doing it just never seen it..lol

 

Good Idea, Thanks for sharing

 

here are some crown panels I welded the same way.. I cut up another 52 chevy roof to get all my shapes from.

 

Good one Fitzee

 

thats how we do new quarter panels in the body shop, in the sail panel area

 

Thanks for sharing a Great Idea!

 

Thanks for showing us another way. Keeps my options open when its time to do repair work.

 

Fitz, you never cease to amaze me, good idea, and Flatliner is looking good.

 

Love it. Well documented too!

 

thats pretty darn slick... i like it

 

i've been doing that for along time. works great. fits perfect everytime.

 

Thanks for sharing!!! It's threads like this that keep me liking the HAMB...

 

Good post! Use a air saw and you can make an even nicer fit. Easier to round the corners too.

 

Thanks!
I'm gonna try that.

 

Great idea! I cant wait to try it out.

 

Stopped in the shop and saw the patch...it looks good! And the method looks to be easier and faster... All in all i'd say that it was a wicked job!

 

I love this method. I wish I had thought of it long ago, or at least told about it. I will definitely try it your way next time.

 

Yep...been there, done that.... works very well !!