Re: Welding 101

["Craig Baulderstone" <cbaulderstone@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Biba

I am sure you will find a good book easily but my comment to you would be
to join a car club (if you arent already in one), find the person that
is a great welder and does this sort of work (there is usually at least
one), and see if you can pop around and give him a hand on his jobsand
practice!. I did tech study classes at school and read books but the real
art of it and tricks of the trade I learnt from an old guy that lives
locally.

I agree with Mark that a MIG is a handy tool but depending on what sort
of work you want to do, the MIG has limitations, and once you master the
oxy you can do all jobs. You cant heat shrink with MIG, and I gather
from mentioning this that you want to do the sort of bodywork that
doesnt use filler or very little of it. When I bought the various pieces
that became my Amilcar, there were beautifully formed panels for the
pointed tail body but they had been MIGed. Not enough care to limit
distortion over very long welds meant there was a lot of knocking and
heat shrinking to do. I realised while doing this that the MIG weld is
harder than the surrounding metal, so grinding it back is difficult
without damaging the surrounding sheet metal. Also with hammer and dolly
work the actual weld behaves differently being harder.

Im not knocking the MIG, I use my brothers if I want to weld in a patch
on a door corner or say a sill on a car. You tack it carefully, grind the
weld back best you can and wipe some filler over it and nobody will ever
know and most importantly the demon rust is gone and it should stay that
way with good body maintenance. Like I said, it depends on the finish you
want, does the whole car warrant the effort etc. etc. but just wanted to
make the point there are things an Oxy can do that MIG cant.

Craig Baulderstone

'68 1750 GTV

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