TIG welding rust holes

I have a few pinholes in the doors on my wagon, I have been thinking about firing up the new TIG to try my hand at filing these holes. These are really small holes and getting to the backside will be a challenge. What do you guys think? I do realize that cutting out the offending section would be the best solution, but there is a time issue that simply does not allow for it.
I just got the TIG, and I kind of just want to try it out!

 

Give'er!

 

A nice test for your skills, you could try putting some brass or copper on the back as a stop so you can fill easier.

 

yeah, I have some copper spoons for that exact purpose.

 

I've filled small holes by brazing them before, pretty easy.... but if you have a TIG to try out, more power to ya'

 

Tiny rust holes usually mean the surrounding metal will be very thin. You can try but you may find yourself chasing all over thin metal that would be better cut out and replaced in a larger panel.

As far as time goes, not fixing it right may come back to haunt you later on. There's always time (or should be) to do it right.

 

Rust and the TIG welder do not mix. Clean metal with the TIG and rusty with the MIG.

Fritz

 

as far doing it again later, that is actually in the plan, to fix it right later, but for now, I have to gloss over it.

 

And the car has been media blasted, so the metal is clean on the outside, but I know its going to be thin

 

Won't work unless you are just trying to make bigger holes and contaminate your tungsten.

Edit... If it's media blasted you will have better luck.

 

I watched a TIG video by Ron Covell. Ron used silicon-bronze welding rod to TIG up small pin holes. I just bought some rod today and plan to try it myself

 

x2 on the silicon-bronze, it's really not that hard you can do it with a little practice.

 

tig will be next to impossible! mig it!

 

x3 on the silicon-bronze. Low heat,flows good, and little warpage from the heat. Impossible to weld any rusty metal with the tig*(for me anyway).
Could sand blast the area,cut out the rusted area and tig in a new piece, but it is lot more work. Good luck in which ever way you decide to go.

 

If you can access the backside you can tig it, though first timers its hard i learned the hard way on sheet metal before i started welding thicker stuff. Use some 0.30-0.35 mig wire to fill the holes. Start out on the material next to the hole to get your arc going holding the filler over the hole move the torch over to the hole as the filler melts feed it in. Have your hammer and dolly handy to keep warpage down while the weld is still hot, sand it down and finish it off.

Or just zap it with a mig, grind it down and sand it. Just a little bit easier.

 

Fritz,
What if the rust holes are the size of a Woodie? LOL
Dale

 

That's the problem, it will be almost impossible to get to the backside, the doors are really tight, can't get inside there. MIG will blow right through the thin metal.

 

Have you seen this yet.?
http://www.eastwood.com/magnetic-hole-plug-welding-tool-not-for-gas-welde.html

 

Are you using a 110v or a 220v MIG? I agree with the MIG blowing holes IF you are using a big welder.

A 110v welder turned way down will fill the pin holes. Yeah your going to burn through the thin stuff, but eventually you'll get into the thicker material. Once you get there you can go back and fill the holes you made.

Rust is a pain in the ass, i deal with it almost daily.

 

can you tig aluminum foil?

becasue the metal around those pin holes will be about that thick, your gonna spend hours chasing holes youll be burning. it will be easier in the long run to cut it out and replace.

 

You could consider this stuff, but ive heard mixed reviews.
http://www.eastwood.com/metal-to-metal-filler-quart-with-hardner.html?reltype=2&parent_id=2859

 

The doors are too narrow to get that eastwood tool in there, but I do have a magnetic copper strip from Eastwood that might (stress the might) fit. I have a Miller 211 with autoset, I can run it down to 22 gauge, and it runs on both 110 or 220, but it seems to work a little better in 220. I just got a Miller Diversion 180 TIG machine, it has a similar auto-set feature. I used the same machine at SEMA, first time I had ever TIG'd, and seemed to be pretty simple. It may not have looked like a stack of dimes, there were some nickels and quarters mixed in there, but I thought I might try it for these small holes. There isn't anything much bigger than 1/4", but most of them are 1/16"-1/8".

 

you can use brazing rod as the filler and file it down nice!

 

Might I suggest dimpling with a ball peen hammer and cutting a small disk of good metal and tigging in small increments and filling it with body filler

 

Lotta bad suggestions here, only a couple good ones. Quit fooling around and do it right, cut it out and replace it. Absolutely NO reason not to, if you're TIGing it anyway!
Almost every time I hear someone say, it's just temporary, it turns out they never get back to it, and it's permanent.
Probably only take a couple minutes longer to fit up a nice patch, than to chase around ever-growing holes!
AND the surrounding area is probably thinned out on the backside, as well, and will soon pop through to the outside as soon as you put paint on it!

 

Listen to chopolds. The difference between good and perfect is about 15min. I figure you'll piss away more time than that trying to "save" time. The patch should take maybe an hr to fab up, the welding another 20-30min. Do it right you can skip the bondo too.

 

I mig welded a few holes in my car, you are not going to do it withought something on the back side, the hole is just going to get HUGE QUICK! Take the time to cut it out and weld in a new piece. Just my .02

 

Long story short, I have an article due on a section of the car, I don't have to do anything about the rust holes, I could just primer over them, but I would rather take a few hours and see if I can close them up. There is simply not enough time to go the full resto route, I need two months for that, not two weeks.

 

I'd use the MIG first then fire up the TIG and go over those welds to soften them up and then you can hammer and dolly them a lot easier. The MIG welds are really hard and I've always used the TIG torch to go back and soften them up before I stretch 'em back out.

Let us know how it goes.

Andy L. Kaempfer
St. Louis, MO

 

Do it right!!! it'll blow there just like a mig welder would in those areas!!