butt welding on body lines
- Thread starter mblommel
- Start date
Black-Tooth
Tony Natoli
That's gonna work out well, Mike...
... and you get the PATIENCE IS A VIRTUE award for this YEAR!
Congrats and keep up the good work.
BTW... How much do those CLEAR marker lenses cost...
... and you get the PATIENCE IS A VIRTUE award for this YEAR!
Congrats and keep up the good work.
BTW... How much do those CLEAR marker lenses cost...
Almost fixed...
Just thought I would post an update on my fender repairs.
I've got the metal work done and the block sanding complete. The fender is now in primer, awaiting a final coat and then wet sanding before paint:
I primered the back side of the butt weld seam that was in the fenderwell with same 2 part epoxy primer I used on the exterior. I'll undercoat that area and call it good. The patch extends past the front splash shield into the well that the headlight motor and relays are in. I got in there today and POR15'ed the whole area to rustproof the back side of the butt weld seam as well as treat some surface rust of those inner hidden areas. I don't think it's going to rust back again.
Overall it came out pretty well. The repair is very good, but not perfect. Two things I learned:
1. If you find a small pinhole in your seam after you've finished grinding everything flush, leave it the hell alone. My repair would have been a lot better, except for the fact that I decided to fill in a pinhole. As soon as welding wire touched fender the area melted away. The more I tried to fill it with wire, the more of my newly repaired fender melted away before my eyes!
mg: Needless to say I was heartbroken. However, soon I was back at it. I had to cut out the affected area carefully with my dremel and cut a patch for my patch from the donor fender. After I welded that all in the area was not ideal. However, a little grinding, metal finishing and a skim coat of filler later and all is well.
2. At whatever cost stay away from body lines. Due to my fiasco in section 1, I ended up with a patch whose top seam ended up on the top body line of the fender. This royally messed up that body line and it took a lot of hammer and dolly work and a lot of careful block sanding of filler to bring it back. It still isn't 100 percent. But it's pretty good. So, to answer my original question that started this thread, when patching a panel STAY AWAY FROM SEAMS ON BODY LINES!
I hope this helps out those X'ers out there fighting the tin worm. With careful fit up of patch panels and a properly adjusted MIG, it's not so tough to fix this stuff the right way. FIAT's might be rust prone, but it's only sheet metal!
Just thought I would post an update on my fender repairs.
I've got the metal work done and the block sanding complete. The fender is now in primer, awaiting a final coat and then wet sanding before paint:
I primered the back side of the butt weld seam that was in the fenderwell with same 2 part epoxy primer I used on the exterior. I'll undercoat that area and call it good. The patch extends past the front splash shield into the well that the headlight motor and relays are in. I got in there today and POR15'ed the whole area to rustproof the back side of the butt weld seam as well as treat some surface rust of those inner hidden areas. I don't think it's going to rust back again.
Overall it came out pretty well. The repair is very good, but not perfect. Two things I learned:
1. If you find a small pinhole in your seam after you've finished grinding everything flush, leave it the hell alone. My repair would have been a lot better, except for the fact that I decided to fill in a pinhole. As soon as welding wire touched fender the area melted away. The more I tried to fill it with wire, the more of my newly repaired fender melted away before my eyes!
mg: Needless to say I was heartbroken. However, soon I was back at it. I had to cut out the affected area carefully with my dremel and cut a patch for my patch from the donor fender. After I welded that all in the area was not ideal. However, a little grinding, metal finishing and a skim coat of filler later and all is well.2. At whatever cost stay away from body lines. Due to my fiasco in section 1, I ended up with a patch whose top seam ended up on the top body line of the fender. This royally messed up that body line and it took a lot of hammer and dolly work and a lot of careful block sanding of filler to bring it back. It still isn't 100 percent. But it's pretty good. So, to answer my original question that started this thread, when patching a panel STAY AWAY FROM SEAMS ON BODY LINES!
I hope this helps out those X'ers out there fighting the tin worm. With careful fit up of patch panels and a properly adjusted MIG, it's not so tough to fix this stuff the right way. FIAT's might be rust prone, but it's only sheet metal!
I've had the same experience (on the Bugeye but it's also small and fun, so kinda relevant. Sorta....) and it pretty disheartening. I ended up taking that as a sign I needed to redo the area as well.
TonyK
True Classic
Back up metal
Two things I learned:
1. If you find a small pinhole in your seam after you've finished grinding everything flush, leave it the hell alone. My repair would have been a lot better, except for the fact that I decided to fill in a pinhole. As soon as welding wire touched fender the area melted away. The more I tried to fill it with wire, the more of my newly repaired fender melted away before my eyes!mg: Needless to say I was heartbroken. However, soon I was back at it. I had to cut out the affected area carefully with my dremel and cut a patch for my patch from the donor fender. After I welded that all in the area was not ideal. However, a little grinding, metal finishing and a skim coat of filler later and all is well.
![/quote]
If pressed with this kind of issue again take a section of 3/4" copper water pipe and slit it. Then hammer flat. Now using vise grip tongs position and clamp it behind the weld area. The copper will absorb the heat and allow you to weld a seam or pinhole. Even if the hole opens up the weld will build in the area, then just take a grinder and grind back to the body conture.
TonyK.
Grimsby Ontario Canada.
Two things I learned:
1. If you find a small pinhole in your seam after you've finished grinding everything flush, leave it the hell alone. My repair would have been a lot better, except for the fact that I decided to fill in a pinhole. As soon as welding wire touched fender the area melted away. The more I tried to fill it with wire, the more of my newly repaired fender melted away before my eyes!
mg: Needless to say I was heartbroken. However, soon I was back at it. I had to cut out the affected area carefully with my dremel and cut a patch for my patch from the donor fender. After I welded that all in the area was not ideal. However, a little grinding, metal finishing and a skim coat of filler later and all is well.![/quote]
If pressed with this kind of issue again take a section of 3/4" copper water pipe and slit it. Then hammer flat. Now using vise grip tongs position and clamp it behind the weld area. The copper will absorb the heat and allow you to weld a seam or pinhole. Even if the hole opens up the weld will build in the area, then just take a grinder and grind back to the body conture.
TonyK.
Grimsby Ontario Canada.