It makes really FEd up slugs. Best thing is to find a local sheet metal shop that has a turret punch. Dozen donuts or pizza or 12 pack will usually get you a box full. A special request of say 100 7/16 slugs might cost you a shop hour Those come out really nice
Affirmed I completely forgot you still end up with a hole in the slug, I guess I was thinking about the "knockouts" from boxes, panels, etc. I've used them with reasonable results.
Ya, there no good. My set actually cuts the punch out in half as it goes so the slug isn't jammed in the housing. You end up with two half moons.
If you really want to have some fun, try butt welding 20 g sheetmetal with .035 wire. In a general purpose welding shop, most of the stuff I did was 1/8" to 3/8" thick, you can't feed .023 wire fast enough. Swapping between the two wire sizes wasn't practical, so the .035 was in the welder. Gene
when I butt weld, I try to weld from inside the car, and use air to cool the weld, So in one hand I have the torch head and the other I have the air nozzle. Welding from inside the car you wont have to grind the weld that make's heat, and if you have a large gap that needs to be filled, I use a piece of brass and hold it on the outside of panel and spot weld from the inside....Hope this helps.
I've done most all of what's been mentioned with "reasonable" success. Thankfully there's bondo, my appreciation level will allow an 1/8" skim coat.
Lots of ideas thrown around on this but practicing on throw away pieces that some suggested is the best suggestion of all. You can always find a panel or cut one off some hulk that has the same thickness of metal you are working with and practice on it and play with it until you feel that you have a pretty decent Idea of what you are doing. I'm going to have to do the same thing when I do the work on my 48 or my Model A dig in the scrap pile and cut and weld until I feel that I am back on my game and then go at it. Other than that don't get in a big ass hurry. Just about every ruined sheet metal project I have seen on a car was done by someone who was if far too big a hurry to get it done and not willing to take the time to do it right.
Isn't this where ya just open the Body Man in a Can, dump the full content out right in place, mix in the full tube of hardner and just use a cement trowel and spread it out?
They are not even done welding that. Maybe it’s just a roughing form for the edges while they make a new roof skin. Take yourself an oval and slice it up then stretch it out. It can’t work out smooth again
the main thing is take your time!! I always start with spot welds that get longer on each pass , then say screw it and run beads . then I use a 2x4 screed board . a couple passes and good . I always run a couple sticks of rebar to hold it together after it cracks !! fixall fills the cracks great.
Disclaimer: I have very little experience but I'm getting ready to jump in. Question: What do you Tig guys think of using silicon bronze to butt weld sheet metal? I know it's technically not welding. It would be for a floor pan.
I really dig silicon bronze in the right places. I even got some from a mig welder haven’t tried it yet. Nor have I tried a butt weld. Ive used it in floor pans however on lap welds. Try a test piece and destruction test see if you like it.
I use a mig because I don't have a tig. I have been experimenting with using a flanger and putting a lip on my panels so they are same level and gluing them together with panel bond. No warpage from heat ,just use tiger hair filler to fill the gaps. Remember if you weld panels to spray the back side with weld through primer so you have some rust protection if you can't get to the back side after you weld it in. Another advantage to epoxy is you completely prime or paint the back side without heat burning it off.
In collision repair today, many manufacturers recommend silicone bronze for weld joints in quarter panels. MIG only. The TIG frequency is not good for control units on new cars Less heat and less corrosion issues are the main reasons. I don’t see the advantage in your application.
Several car manufacturers glue in panels and BMW even has a glue butt joint in some section repairs. This is used in aluminum replacement. No manufacturer I have ever seen recommends a complete glue in process. Self piercing and normal style rivets along with occasional strategic placed welds are generally use when gluing panels. The instructions on a 3m tube of glue lists these manufacturers in their advertising and show in their instructions the complete gluing of panels. This is false advertising. A manufacturer may use the glue but not that process as described by 3m. A shop in Texas lost a big lawsuit over that recently. As far as patch work, I’m not painting over a glued joint as it can eventually show a shadow line due to expansion/contraction from weather change. I have knocked off about as many glued on patches/ panels as I have poorly welded or riveted ones.
grind til clean metal, but up, weld a tack every 2 inches at opposite ends of the seam to minimize warpage, then weld the rest a small 1/4 in at a time.
This dash patch (removed radio hole and ashtray) was tacked with a MIG, keeping the tacks around a half inch apart and then subsequent tacks all around until the gaps were closed up. I never ran a continuous bead, but I do work from side to side with tacks, also top to bottom. Not metal finished, but only a skim coat of filler and high build primer. If you take your time and work slowly it can turn out pretty good.
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