Firstly I never welded anything before.
I was thinking I'll just buy a welder and replace my front jacking points myself after all how hard can it be
Should I just get one and practice on a few scraps or is there more to it?
I've even googled welding courses
Cheers
Firstly avoid "gasless"
You'll only need a mig welder up to 130amp max so don't spend lots, maybe wait till the next machine mart vat free day near you.
Buy replacement 0.8mm tips for the welding gun at same time.
I highly recommend you avoid disposable gas bottles, before you know it you'll of spent £60+ on little bottles.
Try find a small co2 bottle rent free. You might have a Hobbyweld supplier near you that can supply what you need at a fair price, Trust me when i say you'll have better welds and work out cheaper in the long run with a proper bottle than disposables.
Good grinder with cutting discs and wire brush attachements and use "flap disc" wheels, the normal grinder wheels are good but bounce around and noisy dirty etc. a flap disc is much nicer to work with.
Practice on some sheet metal off cuts, find a local metal supplier and get friendly for any scrap pieces etc
Jacking points are nice to weld as the metal is thicker because of the layers.
Have a water spray bottle for any small underseal fires that may happen, and always remember sparks will go through clothes and leave burn dimples in the skin its not fun
Great advice , cheers Fordy
Good advice. I'm looking into buying a welder myself soon as I've found a bit of rot near the axle.
eBay would be best to buy from, a sealey mighty mig 130 is perfect
A good upgrade is to remove the plastic torch internal liner and upgrade it to a metal liner, the welding wire won't grab inside, it was the best upgrade I did to my mig welder and transformed it
Auto darkening helmet is nice to have, but if your under the car you have to jack it up high to get the helmet under with room too move around etc
What's the difference between mig and tig ?
Why not gessless ?
http://youtu.be/VClAJbdeotYOriginally Posted by Junglist
Thanks .
I thought welder used like rods lol or was that years ago
All excellent advice from Fordy.
I did one side of my car last year - front jacking point and loads of sill patches, plus front & back bumper mounts. Its a bit of a messy dirty, fiddly job sometimes as your lying under the car trying to weld, but if you take your time its easy enough. Hard bit is sometimes finding decent metal to weld against. And, once you cut your old rotten jacking point off, you may be surprised at how much more rotten everything is than you first thought.
Couple of other things. I found cheapest place for welding wire was ebay - big rolls of the stuff. I used 0.8mm (if i remember rightly) sheet metal for the sills. Quite easy to cut rotten bits out then weld new bits in. Get some underseal / anti rust stuff to spray about too.
Word of warning. Check whats the other side when your welding. You dont want to set fire to carpets or melt wires. Also, make sure you finish all the welding before you apply underseal. I found the underseal I used was mega flamable.... ahem... car was up in flames at one point before I got the hose on it. Luckily only damage done was to my underpants.
I found watching a few youtube videos on welding really helped me understand it. Plus, start off with the welders recommended settings based upon the material you are welding - they arnt usually far off. Then you can play with stuff like the wire speed if need be. Practise makes perfect, so practise a bit with some spare metal. Take your time and its all pretty easy! Good luck.
Thanks m8.All excellent advice from Fordy.
I did one side of my car last year - front jacking point and loads of sill patches, plus front & back bumper mounts. Its a bit of a messy dirty, fiddly job sometimes as your lying under the car trying to weld, but if you take your time its easy enough. Hard bit is sometimes finding decent metal to weld against. And, once you cut your old rotten jacking point off, you may be surprised at how much more rotten everything is than you first thought.
Couple of other things. I found cheapest place for welding wire was ebay - big rolls of the stuff. I used 0.8mm (if i remember rightly) sheet metal for the sills. Quite easy to cut rotten bits out then weld new bits in. Get some underseal / anti rust stuff to spray about too.
Word of warning. Check whats the other side when your welding. You dont want to set fire to carpets or melt wires. Also, make sure you finish all the welding before you apply underseal. I found the underseal I used was mega flamable.... ahem... car was up in flames at one point before I got the hose on it. Luckily only damage done was to my underpants.
I found watching a few youtube videos on welding really helped me understand it. Plus, start off with the welders recommended settings based upon the material you are welding - they arnt usually far off. Then you can play with stuff like the wire speed if need be. Practise makes perfect, so practise a bit with some spare metal. Take your time and its all pretty easy! Good luck.
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