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Welding in No. VA?
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Dark Earth
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PostPosted: Sat Aug 18, 2018 2:55 pm    Post subject: Re: Welding in No. VA? Reply with quote

vamram wrote:

6 hours, $650 including his travel time from Frederick, MD to Arlington, VA. Not money I wanted to spend, but, given the progress made, I think it was well worth it.


You got the work done and some valuable information and pointers as well. I'd say that was money well spent.

I think you'll always have to bondo a patch panel due to shrinkage and warping.
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PostPosted: Sat Aug 18, 2018 3:36 pm    Post subject: Re: Welding in No. VA? Reply with quote

Dark Earth wrote:
vamram wrote:

6 hours, $650 including his travel time from Frederick, MD to Arlington, VA. Not money I wanted to spend, but, given the progress made, I think it was well worth it.


You got the work done and some valuable information and pointers as well. I'd say that was money well spent.

I think you'll always have to bondo a patch panel due to shrinkage and warping.


Money well spent.
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PostPosted: Sun Aug 19, 2018 11:50 am    Post subject: Re: Welding in No. VA? Reply with quote

Totally agree with the above posts!

Plus you got to see it done first hand! I am a visual learner, so for myself, watching that welder work, would have been the education I would have needed. Cheap classroom with the bonus of knowing your welder works for the tasks!

Bonus is it is further along too!
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vamram Premium Member
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PostPosted: Sun Aug 19, 2018 2:54 pm    Post subject: Re: Welding in No. VA? Reply with quote

I'll probably have to bring him back at some point to finish it off right. I spent almost 2 hours on it today and accomplished very little. Still get many more bad welds than good, always finding more to cut out. One patch I tried today the metal was too thin in the adjoining area I was welding it to so ended up burning thru and now need to cut out a bigger peice. He would have probably been finished in those 2 hours.
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PostPosted: Sun Aug 19, 2018 4:28 pm    Post subject: Re: Welding in No. VA? Reply with quote

How much did you pay for the welder/equipment?
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PostPosted: Sun Aug 19, 2018 5:37 pm    Post subject: Re: Welding in No. VA? Reply with quote

Joey, the Lincoln welder was $300. $45 for the welding helmet; a couple of vise clamps and a welders pliers, welding gloves; don't remember the cost of all that.
Plus the 80lb tank from Robert's Oxygen. Oh and a cheap HF welding cart. Pretty flimpsy, but does the trick for now.
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PostPosted: Sun Aug 19, 2018 6:06 pm    Post subject: Re: Welding in No. VA? Reply with quote

Ask the welder if he would be interested in the Lincoln/hardware. If you're not going to use it, might as well trade it for work.
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PostPosted: Sun Aug 19, 2018 8:03 pm    Post subject: Re: Welding in No. VA? Reply with quote

joey1320 wrote:
Ask the welder if he would be interested in the Lincoln/hardware. If you're not going to use it, might as well trade it for work.


Haha, don't think so. He's got quite the rolling workshop, including a super hi-tech Miller unit that costs more than $1400 + all the extras for tig, stick and who knows what else. Thing had a digital readout where you could watch the volts and amps fluctuate as he operated the gun, quite entertaining for the novice.
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PostPosted: Mon Aug 20, 2018 6:18 pm    Post subject: Re: Welding in No. VA? Reply with quote

I was going to buy a miller but the duty cycles are way low on them. They don't even list it straight out but put it in a chart which looks to be about 10%,.Low for the average welder is 20% with 40-60 being high.
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PostPosted: Tue Aug 21, 2018 5:41 am    Post subject: Re: Welding in No. VA? Reply with quote

I like the color.

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green1303
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PostPosted: Tue Aug 21, 2018 5:52 am    Post subject: Re: Welding in No. VA? Reply with quote

I used the same approach with my car, replacing the lower body metal and floor pans myself but getting a professional (Skyline) to work on the quarter panels. They also replaced my frame head bottom plate.
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PostPosted: Tue Aug 21, 2018 6:01 am    Post subject: Re: Welding in No. VA? Reply with quote

green1303 wrote:
I used the same approach with my car, replacing the lower body metal and floor pans myself but getting a professional (Skyline) to work on the quarter panels. They also replaced my frame head bottom plate.


I need to have my frame head bottom plate done - can you send me contact info on "Skyline"?
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PostPosted: Tue Aug 21, 2018 6:06 am    Post subject: Re: Welding in No. VA? Reply with quote

http://www.northsiderestorations.com/index.html
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PostPosted: Tue Aug 21, 2018 6:32 am    Post subject: Re: Welding in No. VA? Reply with quote

vamram wrote:
PROGRESS AT LAST!! Found a small business out of Frederick, MD who will come to your house. Here's what we accomplished today.

Fixing my handy work as much as possible.

Image may have been reduced in size. Click image to view fullscreen.

Yes, there will be lots of bondo on this side and an imperfection that probably can't be covered up. Oh well...
Image may have been reduced in size. Click image to view fullscreen.

Replacement fender captive bolts in place too.
Image may have been reduced in size. Click image to view fullscreen.


Driver side -
Image may have been reduced in size. Click image to view fullscreen.


He had an interesting way of cutting and fitting the patches. He'd cut them a little bigger than the hole, weld one of the edges in place, then form the piece and cut the other edges to fit. In a couple of spots, he would cut through the car's metal underneath for an exact fit to the patch. Seemed to work pretty well to me.
Image may have been reduced in size. Click image to view fullscreen.


And I've got welding and finishing work that I'll have to do myself, as you can see here.
Image may have been reduced in size. Click image to view fullscreen.


While he might have been a professional welder, he was definitely used to working with thicker material. He got it stitched up but he transferred a LOT of heat into the body panels which causes excessive warpage.

As I've stated before, get some scrap & practice, practice, practice..
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PostPosted: Tue Aug 21, 2018 6:53 am    Post subject: Re: Welding in No. VA? Reply with quote

Yep, definitely some warping even on the panels that were precisely cut to fit.

Green 1303, beautiful green but different than mine. Mine is more of a viper green, yours looks more like that British racing green.
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pondoras box
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PostPosted: Tue Aug 21, 2018 7:18 am    Post subject: Re: Welding in No. VA? Reply with quote

Don't get discouraged. I have the very machine that you have and it is very difficult to dial in. I took two welding classes (two and half months long each) at a local technical school and learned very quickly the machine is a large part of the problem.

The instructor told me to bring it in and he would try to help me dial it in and he had a very hard time trying to get it to weld thin sheet metal without being either too hot or too cold. The range of setting just isn't there. You either blow threw or the arc doesn't strike clean, it just kind of dances around and doesn't penetrate right away. Most of your adjustment will come down to stick out, how far away you hold the gun from the metal.

I also learned that a 220 machine will weld sheet metal very nicely. The arc strikes almost instantly allowing you to get good penetration quickly without a lot of excess heat build up. I thought that it would blow threw instantly but that is not the case.

One thing that he did suggest is using a different gas blend instead of 75/25 use 90/10 welders supply carries it here but it is more expensive. It does improve the "quality" of the arc somewhat. Still not as nice as the big millers I used during class.

Another problem with this welder is that you can not upgrade it. You can not upgrade the gun at all the fittings are entirely different. I tried using Lincoln products and welding shops don't have any replacement parts for this machine.

With different gas and a lot of practice and getting good with a grinder you can make this work but you will be frustrated and think you suck when a better machine will make your life a lot easier. I will be upgrading soon as I have 3 current projects that need some metal transplanting done.
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PostPosted: Tue Aug 21, 2018 8:05 am    Post subject: Re: Welding in No. VA? Reply with quote

The passenger side looks like the contractor had to fill in a big gap.
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PostPosted: Tue Aug 21, 2018 8:33 am    Post subject: Re: Welding in No. VA? Reply with quote

theKbStockpiler wrote:
The passenger side looks like the contractor had to fill in a big gap.


Yep, gap created by yours-truly, contractor began to fill it in. Pondora, thanks for the post. My experience is as you describe. Some of my spot welds are great and I think I got it. Then I go on a tear of shitty welds and blow thru.

Glad to hear it's not all me, yet i can't keep buying equipment to throw at this thing. I'm already over $1k beyond what I intended to spend for the whole car and I haven't even tackled the engine yet.
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PostPosted: Tue Aug 21, 2018 9:42 am    Post subject: Re: Welding in No. VA? Reply with quote

vamram wrote:
theKbStockpiler wrote:
The passenger side looks like the contractor had to fill in a big gap.


Yep, gap created by yours-truly, contractor began to fill it in. Pondora, thanks for the post. My experience is as you describe. Some of my spot welds are great and I think I got it. Then I go on a tear of shitty welds and blow thru.

Glad to hear it's not all me, yet i can't keep buying equipment to throw at this thing. I'm already over $1k beyond what I intended to spend for the whole car and I haven't even tackled the engine yet.


Yeah, I feel your pain!
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PostPosted: Tue Aug 21, 2018 10:01 am    Post subject: Re: Welding in No. VA? Reply with quote

fail early, fail often, fail forward. I feel your pain man, it's almost an affront to our manhood!

Take solace in the fact the reality of thinking you are going to unbox a welder and be doing Overhaulin quality welds in a day is just not real. Welding is so ubiquitous these days we kind of take it for granted.

It requires hours..many hours of practice and most importantly one needs a mentor. Ya know you can keep making the same mistake over and over, but you only change your action if you know you action is wrong. Getting a real welder to come over and watch your technique is money well spent!

I imagine you are feeling a little frustrated at this point in your project. Soon this set of rapids will behind you and you be drifting down the river to completion. Beware, more rapids lay ahead.
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Keep on keepin on man.
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