Technical welding

[benjii]

ryytt i have just got a welder and grinder but i have got a clue how to weld, what the best metal is to get and everything about ha

any help to give me or a lesson would be great guys

cheers benjii

 

[Panda Van]

Its only a skill that comes with practice, but as a help try these sites:

http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/tutorial.htm

http://www.learn-how-to-weld.com/mig-welding/

Good luck

 

[firstcar-Y10]

if you haven't done it yet, invest in an automatic welding mask, nothing makes life harder than trying to learn to weld when you can't see what you're doing

 

[benjii]

yehhh i hav a maskk but i have a arc welder so am hopin it will do the job just wandering what size metal to use etc etc :-D

 

[panda1408]

I think you'll struggle with an arc welder, much harder to do than MIG, even more so on thin car bodywork, MIG is hard enough!

 

[Harllequin]

I'd never try any car welding with an arc welder, in order to do the weld correctly you have to develop a pool of liquid metal once you strike the arc. By the time you have done this there will be a hole the size of a 10p coin in the metal.

Mig is the way to go for cars, but dont by the cheapest one you can fine or you will find you have burned it out the first day or you become fed up with the thermo protection circuit kicking in every 2 mins.

Go for one with at least 100 amp and you will never need to buy another one ever again.

As for what metal to use.

Depending on the job I've bought various guage metal to fit what was needed or for an inexpensive patch I've been known to use old oil drums

 

[blackpool]

my brother does tons of mig welding and he just grabs bits of mental from the local tip, heavy duty filling cabinets mostly. The sides of them tend to be thick enough.

 

[benjii]

yeh there quite good ideas, i got the welder off my uncle he use to build cars but illness stopped him so he gave his welder to me so he must of used it on a car, dont know if i shud just buy a mig welder or try with this one,, orr any1 kind enough to do it for me

 

[alexbpl]

MIG welders are the only thing for welding Pandas unless you have serious skill levels and very nice, clean metal. Most of us have neither!

I have tried all types of welding like tig, arc, gas etc and MIG is the best for beginners and DIY car repairs. Tig takes a long time to perfect and works best with fresh metal, arc is too brutal for thin metal like Panda's, gas requires lots of equipment like oxygen tanks etc.

Benji, have you decided 100% on the places you want the welding to be done?

I can weld some of your holes (not all) with my MIG setup and have my own materials and metal for fabricating patches.

The welding required at the front under the window is possibly beyond my skill level due to how thin the metal is, and the fact that it's on display, but I'll assess it when I see it.

Can you drive the Panda, even better leave it at my house, or will I have to come to you?

Send me a PM and we'll work out a price and time etc

 

[benjii]

pm'd youu