Hi Rob. For many years I used to gas weld both aluminium and steel body panels as it was considered the traditional way. These days I will only gas weld aluminium body panels, but steel I will always Tig fuse with no filler rod as the distortion created by the heat affected zone is approximately half that of gas welding. This equates to a much shorter dress up time of the welded areas. Gas welding does a great job on steel - don't get me wrong - but when I weigh up the time taken for the job Tig comes out as the clear winner for overall neatness and lesser distortion.
Tig welding aluminium body panels tends to leave the panel prone to cracks, particularly at the end of the welds. Some folk tend to counter this by Tig welding both sides of the weld, but this makes the job twice the effort and isn't always practical when welding direct to a body. Gas welding aluminium is a very fast process once you become proficient and leaves a beautifully penetrated weld, which is virtually impossible to replicate with Tig due to not being able to bathe the underside of the weld in a shield of argon whilst fusing. It really becomes impractical - but not impossible - i guess.
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