Welding

[chappy]

Im gonna be doing some (aloooottttt) of welding work to my car next year.... ive never welded before does anyone have any advice? Im looking to get a clarke pro mig 90 as that can do low amps.
Ill be doing chassis rail sills (inner & outer rear arches floor plan and under the bonnet

Ive asked the guy at work to teach me but hes mugged me off for the last few months and im leaving there soon so ill be going in blind

Has anyone done any How To guides on welding sills up before or anything?

TIA

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[pointz]

First tip! Have a look at the likes of spice weazels project thread he has well documented a lot of the repair work he has done, although on an s14 but same principals! There are alot of project threads detailing sill repairs etc

Welding is not terribly hard, the hardest thing to achieve is good penetration and neatness you won't learn in half an hour so be patient and practice on some scraps of metal 1st (good prep will always work in your favour)

When welding thin metal do it in little bursts ie- an inch then let it cool then another and so on and so on.

Loads of vids on youtube mate good luck.

[watson]

Don't worry about neatness, as long as its strong and theres no pin holes you'll be fine. Just as long as you're good with an angle grinder

[norfy]

get yourself a auto darkening mask, by far the best thing you can do. get a cheap ebay one (£20 iirc)

as pointz said, weld in bursts. when you weld you create a lot of heat in the metal which warps it and thinner the metal the easier/more warped it will get. on a sill panel i usually tack weld it in place every couple inches, and then seam weld an incha at a time but after every inch weld i move on 12" to keep the panel as cool as possible. if you are welding something like a door skin or welding the holes up on a boot then the smallest of spot weld is enough to warp the panel.

you need clean metal to work with and the panels have got to fit snug.

practice on some nice clean thick metal to get used to using the mig and working the bead. youll need to put a lot of heat into the chassis rails to get a good penetration. also if the chassis rails are holed in the usual places near the front in the wheel arch then youll find theyre a three piece construction at that point, not hollow like i thought.

cut all of the rust out, go back as far as you can.