Shield your eyes, I'm new... Victim 3

you have just inspired me to teach myself to weld, (ok i did do a tiny bit many years ago but that is long forgotten) if my first results turn out half as good as yours i will be well pleased.

Thanks for the response, its a great encouragement. I Love the tips, they help me and hopefully other people avoid pitfalls.

Obviously important to know when patching a sill for MOT, glad I didn't have to find that out the hard way. I did however find out the hard way that if a wing is originally spot welded on that any replacement must be refitted that way too. I bolted the wing on as is the case on many other cars but this was not acceptable for MOT and I had to have the garage weld it for me. (Could do that myself now but that was 4yrs ago when I bought the car as a salvage write off.)

Good Tip! I can vouch for this too because the MOT garage the fitted my cover sill some years ago scorched my seatbelt reel, unfortunately I didn't notice for months being the passenger seat belt. I did remove and tie it out the way for welding, the pics must have been taken after as I see its back in place.

I'll get one ASAP, If its anything like the revaluation that was the knot wheel for prep it'll be valuable. There seem to be a few styles of flap wheels which is best? For drill or grinder? Water wheel style or flat pancake style? (good descriptions eh!)

I'm not sure what gage I used as the neighbour had it spare in his garage, May have been marginally thicker than the piece cut from the boot for the fiesta patch. I will add here that bending the metal over the rails was quite tough, Its much easier if you blow torch the metal (until it just changes surface colour) along the line to be folded. That was a useful tip from my neigbour.

My tips:

The £25/30 ish ebay auto darkening mask I bought works great, not got the build quality of a Speedglas but good enough. Its a real must buy piece of kit makes the world of difference compared to a flip down one when your on your back in the small space under a car on axle stands.

Have a hose pipe and fire extinguisher near by too and a fire watchman too if poss. I set fire to the underseal a couple of times and while its easy to deal if your ready I wouldn't want to be unprepared.

I was over concerned with getting the cardboard template just right, but really just get it rough as when you get the metal up and start hammering it forms and twists/stretches to shape much easier than cardboard. Also if you cut a bit short/long its not too bad to add a bit or cut a bit more off.


Question:
I had a go at welding one patch latish on an evening (read a little cold, but not like the current snow cold) and the first welds I tried welded to the patch as normal but there was no penetration to the floor metal, It could be broken off with a firm yank of the screwdriver. I tried adjusting the settings on the welder (something I'm not good at yet) but couldn't get any better. The higher power just obliterated the patch while not really attaching it either. More wire speed just sat on top more. It seemed to sort its self out so I came to the conclusion that It was the temperature of the car and my failed efforts had eventually heated up the area enough? Is this likely to be right after all i tried moving the earth clamp, welder settings, clamping it up firmer, cleaning it more etc so not sure what made it start welding normally again in the end.

And finally... I'm sure you don't really forget this stuff but one reason for adding to this post is to try and give something back to the forum. If it encourages someone to have a go or if just one tip helps someone else along the way it'll have been worth it. Ha Ha might be blind leading the blind but if I can help I will.

-Steve-

good point made about hose/ bucket or extinguisher and watch person.....probably the most important, I'm sure all of us have a few excitments and brown trouser moments! A mate was once welding away under his astra, heard a scream, and found himself shooting out from under the car feet first. Neighbour saw car completely engulfed in flames and pulled ! He had no idea what happened, but felt a breeze getting up! lol

seeing those pics has given me encouragement about attacking my mk1 fez. been teaching myself to mig weld on scraps of metal in the shed in preparation to starting the sill and floorpan.

so is overlapping new metal and welding is acceptable then, i was under the impression it had to be butt welded??

Good work, very very impressive.

I think that welding is good, it looks solid and you have something to burr back the bumpiness, so who cares! I've been doing it for years and I'm still absolutely rubbish. I forget to put gas on and everything, but at least I can get metal to cling to metal!

You can do it Steve, no worries.
Nice thread mate it's given me hope and tips to improve my own metal gluing skills. Every time I weld it's different, sometimes good other times bad (must set up proper). I've bookmarked this and the scary welding thread, thanks for that and good luck ;D
If I happen to be in the North East I'll be at the next one and no mistake.

Hmm, AA route finder says 270.4 miles and 5hr 8mins to Durham.

Scary - Some northern competition to Area52 would be nice. If there's enough demand another welding day should be organised, it sure helped me. I would sure make the effort to attend although I work a lot of weekends.

Will & volksangyl -
Thank you both, It's why I keep adding to this thread. I welcome all constructive criticism, tips and advise. If you see something that worries you or that could have been done a better/neater/easier way then I ESPECIALLY want to be told about it. It helps me and hopefully others too.

just read this,

and you are progessing perfectly.

the escort was a "big" project IMO and i would of got rid, but you have patience.

welding upside down is the worst, so it can only get better for you.
get a big gas bottle from BOC, you don't need to be in the trade etc, and its about 100 to get set up, but from there the gas is cheap. you will save so much money over the smaller gas bottles.

and the renault will be tricky, just carry on making up cardboard templates, and put in each part one by one, don't try to make a massive part to cover it all lol.

keep up the great work