TIG welding rust holes

This 90% correct. Any finisher/fabricator/bodyman knows what happens with rust in certain areas. You do your best to prevent this 6mo deal. But then again I've been accused of being elitist, anal, hard to please, perfectionist, prick...

 

we have something in common then!

the only way to do a job right is to cut it all out. If you cut and are still seeing rust, keep cutting.

Light pitting can be blasted with spot blaster. larger panels carpeted with pits see the blaster anyway.

 

You can't always see it. This was an anomoly, there have no other troubles on the car, and the same guy has done a lot of body work for me. Your telling me you can see inside a tight corner where there is no access as less than a 1/4" gap? My snake cam would have trouble getting in there, much less you being able to see it with just your eyeball. you can't blast inside the deck lid on that car, there is zero access.
Besides, in my painter's defense, the hollow areas of the decklid had been filled with expanding foam 10 years ago, it wasn't his fault. Like I said, the decklid has issues and is being replaced.

 

If you take the decklid apart you can blast it where it needs it the most.

not trying to crucify anyone, just sayin if it popped in 6 months the job was not done correctly. If the job was done correctly it would not have popped. simple as that.


sometimes being correct can kill a budget. shit happens.


If he's taking care of it thats cool, count your blessings.

 

This cat ain't listening, it's not worth your time giving him any advice.

 

yah,, you are probably right.

worth a shot though.

 

Both my TIG and MIG hate rust...

 

You can't take the decklid apart. You are the one not listening, you don't understand the situation. I own a media blasting company, I think I know how it works. There are some just things that can't be accessed. Regardless, we thought we had it all, obviously we didn't. Sometimes you don't find it all. I have seen 100k show cars that had paint peel, rust bubbles, cracks, all manner of issues. No matter how much money and effort you throw at a car- it is still a car, it happens.
Please stop commenting on my thread, you are contributing anything positive. This was over and done a long time ago.

 

Yes you can take the decklid apart, it was built in pieces, the process can be reversed.
You simply don't want to listen.
What kinda car is this anyway? If it isn't rare you can find a decklid for it, and if it is it can be reskinned.

 

I already said I have another decklid. While technically you could disassemble the deck lid, that would take days. It is a '71 Buick GS. It didn't have any rust holes to begin with, we found a couple of small pinholes after blasting it for prep. They cut out a much larger section than the pinholes. Again, it happens, I only mentioned it to make a point, which you obviously missed. I am done with this thread, move on.

 

Here ya go buddy.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/70-71-72-Buick-Skylark-GS-Deck-Lid-Trunk-Lid-NEW-/120611161035

 

Thanks for the link. I already have one in the shop, just needs to be painted.

 

um, wow.

I've taken a couple decklids apart and put them back together. it sux, but it can be done. it takes time though and thats the part that kills budgets.

100k show cars don't have rust, paint pops, peels or rusty decklids. thats why they cost 100k. unless someone spent that money, showed the car and then let it go to hell like so many in the past. however at that point it ceases to be worth 100K.


if someone payed that much for a car and in 6 months it had rust popping out I'd say to his face that he got fucked.

 

clean it, lead it, and forget it!

 

Just because it cost 100k, doesn't mean it is worth 100k. and I have seen it, so I can say that it happens. You are so not getting the point.

 

Oh my god,,,, your right,,,,, geez I must be new to the game..... I'll leave it to you as you are the expert on restorations, since your a media blaster and all. Gollie,, its not like I do this stuff for a living........

 

poke around and see how the damage is..If its truly just a small pin hole..Silicon Bronze tig rod will be ok.

 

you can take the decklid apart. period. it sucks but it can be done even on this off topic car.

 

I realize this is long past the deadline, but here is some proper advice.

Any weld will cause shrinkage. Hammering while hot may increase the shrinkage depending on how it was done. The proper way is to make sure there are no lumps and hammer when cooler.

There are products such as POR15 or epoxy that can be used to fill the holes. On a car in a garage for most of its life it may be an adequate fix that will last 20 years.

If the pins are far enough apart you will find a MIG welder along with a TIG rod to be your best friend. Put copper behind the area and put the tig rod in the hole. Start the arc on the TIG filler rod. This will create a hot blob of metal that will be hot enough to melt the thin metal and not to hot to cause it to melt back. You continue to feed the TIG rod in while you get the whole spot back to thickness.
This method does a surprisingly good job of filling the hole.

You will quickly find that a moderate to heavy pitted area may be hopeless and only replacing the metal is the solution.

I find any use of brass on sheet metal to be a major problem if you are going to need to work the panel later. Any heat distortion may not be able to be corrected as working the brass will work harden the brass and make matters worse later.

 

just hack it! Fill it with Bondo!

 

No such thing as a $100K show car. The skin can come off anything, decklid or no and hard to get to or not. Argon mix has never ever stopped me from welding, that is an excuse not a reason. Every magazine article i ever did stuff for was at least 6mos from shoot to print, pics can be substituted up to when it is sent to the printer. And if you take offense at what the repeated message is on this thread you should never have started it - what did you expect, sympathy? Well, boo-hoo, it is a shame your painter has let you down, the argon mix is all wrong and you are running out of time for an important magazine deadline. WakeUp, this is reality and deal with it, make the right decisions and get on with the project.

 

Like many others have said the surrounding metal around a rusthole is paper thin .Best bet is to cut out to good metal and make a patch to weld in .As far as welding in a trim hole where its solid then its easy to weld the hole up.Believe it or not i weld them up with a stick welder with 1/16 6011 rods and about 60 amps and lots of practice which is way more difficult than a mig or tig on sheet metal.I can look at the metal color and see when its about to burn a hole.I have stitched a big hole (size of a qaurter) with my stick welder in sheet metal just to see if i could do it and i can ,while stopping to hammer and dolly occasionally but its not easy .Although i have mig and tig welded i have never bought one cuz literally a year may go by before i weld something at my house ,and my stick welder is paid for .If the pin holes are not very big another option is to clean the area real well and use a product called "All Metal" to fill them.You can buy it at most auto body supply stores and its made for this purpose.Once dried it wont absorb water and will stay in place .It stinks like Hell and its hard to work with but its good stuff ...

 

Who cares about the proper way to do it, IT'S A 1971 4 DOOR BUICK?!?!?!?! for those of you that didn't read the whole thread.

 

In that case i would use waded up news papers and sheet rock plaster
to plug the holes long enough to sell it ,lol ...

 

It's not a 71 4 door buick, man you don't pay attention to anything. The issue has been handled. As far as the 6 months to print, there are some that run that long, but most are 60 days. Its not nice to substitute pics at the last moment, the art department really does not appreciate that. AND the whole point is for the car to be one color for the entire project, not just the last picture, I am not going to fake it. And yes, I regret ever bringing it up. Since it will just be in primer, it will be easy to go back in and cut it out in a few months when time allows. The trim holes were easy.

 

A successful attention seeker.

 

Wait a sec,, because I dont agree with you and am trying (like many others) to tell you that your way of doing things is wrong, your going to tell me that I'm not contributing anything positive?

Wow you are some peice of work.

Hopefully the comments we made that told you how and why to do it correctly will help someone else to learn, cause you sure dont.

When the mods close this one, I hope they dont delete it so anyone who is curious about the quality of your work can still see it.

 

Like said before any welding process won't tolerate rust well. Especially tig.

If you are building a POS facade car and you can give a crap what it is other than for a photo shoot, why bother asking? Practice tig on scrap metal and learn the ins and outs the way others have...