Any ideas to protect the paint from getting burned? I hate the look of bolting it on. What I'm thinking, if I set it up right, I can run a garden hose and have a constant stream of water running along the hood flange/hinge. A very small tack at each hole, about a 1/4 inch away from the finish paint. Anyone ever do this or is there another way??
umm, yeah make sure you stand in the puddle as you weld it! I don't think there's any way you're going to weld sheet metal without destroying the paint.
the water is going to get in your weld and not bond properly then you will have a weld that looks like shit. your best bet would be to just D.A. where you need to weld and then weld it.
does the hood sides have a return flange pointing down toward the engine and thats what your going to spot weld the hindge to? like this 30 chrysler has.
IM with four-thirteen on this, some 3M panel bond + hood and hinge prepped correctly and you are good to go
I have a flange exactly like that. I realize the paint will get fried on the flange at the weld, but there I dont care. The flange will guide the water along the hood surface and the welds will be up on the flange, out of the water.
More than likely the water will carry the heat away so fast that you won't be able to weld it. JB Weld will do it.
Try holding a wet rag or sponge behind the area to be welded,if the weld is on a laminated structure [two layers of material] you should be ok just be shure your settings are ok the quicker the better
AC guys use a heat absorbing paste when soldering lines. Either that or some panel bond would be my choices. Good luck
Check with the local body shops, or sheet metal shops. Ask if they have a resistance spot welder. The body shops should know how to weld bond it. It would be worth paying someone to do this.
Many years ago there was a product by the name of "Form-A-Jig". It was a light blue paste, consistency of play dough. Lay it on the painted surface and weld the back. VERY little heat was felt on the surface and yet a MIG weld worked just as well as ever. Now I have got to go goggle the product name and see if it's still available. Alternative...3M products as suggested by others. Many structural adhesives are FAA approved for aircraft use.
Several really good adhesives out there 3-M and Lord Fusior are worth checking out.P.S. the glue bond if prepped correctly will be stronger then a spot weld.
i think what you want to do is run water over the painted part of the hood as i have the arrow in my pic, which would no be a problem, but if who does the spot welding doesnt have there machine set right could cause metal to go shooting out and burn fast to the the hindge and hood a little, its called expulsion, just make sure that doesnt happen and it should be ok, as for water effecting the weld i dont think so, anyone who has worked a water cooled spot welded in production will tell you they leak water over everywhere and everything, a little water wont hurt anything.
Thats kinda the idea, I have no clue how to draw it up and post it. I would be laying the hood down flat, upside down with the hinge flange clamped to the hood flange. the flanges would be vertical with the weld spots about half way up, water slowly flowing along the flat part of the hood along the corner of the flange
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