New member introduction.

[dsharp]

Hello, my name is David Sharp. I live in Lake Jackson, Texas. Being 10 miles from the Gulf of Mexico replacing rusted out sheet metal on classic cars and 70's muscle cars is pretty common. I have decent welding skills but, controlling warpage needs help. I hope to cut down on the amount of body filler used.

David

[HEATNBEAT]

Hi David and welcome!

[David Gardiner]

Welcome to the forum David. Distortion is caused by uneven heating and cooling in sheet metal. Having an even heat effected zone keeps distortion to a minimum.
The other way of controlling distortion in sheet metal is by peenining the weld this is known as hammer welding in the sheet metal trade in the USA.



David

[dsharp]

I have read about peening the weld bead but have also read that the bead from a mig weld is too hard to get the desired result. The biggest mess was a quarter skin on a 71 Mustang convertible. I'm ashamed at the amount of bondo that I used even though it looked perfect. If you gas weld do you use a jewelers size torch? The quarter's were probably 24 gauge

[David Gardiner]

Hi David, I use a lightweight torch but for many years I used a full size torch. I have welded with dosens of torches over the years and found them to be much the same.The problem as I see it with jewelers torches is just that, they are intended to work on tiny things so will become overheated when used on thicker material, this can lead to all sorts of difficulty with the welding process.

Welding a doorskin is always going to give you problems because it is almost flat and a large expance. It can be done but mig is not going to give great results on something like that in my opinion.

David

[Peter Tommasini]

Hi David welcome to the forum
Peter

[Jere]

Hello David and welcome to the site.

MIG welding is not what you want to use to weld up any panel. And hammering it out is not what you want to do anyway. The weld bead should not have any more mass than the material you are welding if you try to hammer it out you are displacing that excess mass into the rest of the panel.

Be sure to look at David and Peter's U-Tube vids and you will see what I'm talking about.

Jere