Welding in No. VA?

[vamram]

Does anyone know any shops or individuals in northern Virginia who can help weld in deathfoam repair sections? I had the work scheduled for tomorrow but the guy fell through. Here's what I need to fix.

Thanks!

Victor
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'74 Super 9/16 - present, in refurb process.
'73 Super - 6/18 - Present - Daily Driver!
'75 Super Le Grande...waiting it's turn in line behind '74.
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[TDCTDI]

Wow, that’s a mess! Your best bet is to buy a welder & start learning how to do it yourself, I don’t think there are many shops that are going to be interested in digging in from there.

Anyone who would start with where it’s at is going to charge BIG money or they’re going to be worried about negative feedback when you’re not satisfied with any number of reasons that could pop up & yield poor results.
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Everybody born before 1975 has a story, good, bad, or indifferent, about a VW.


GOFUNDYOURSELF, quit asking everyone to do it for you!


An air cooled VW will make you a hoarder.


Do something, anything, to your project every day, and you will eventually complete it.

[Eric&Barb]

Agreed, if you have more than two left hands, get a welder and do it yourself.
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[vamram]

Welll...normally I would. But I thought about it and I've got too many "honey-do's" to dedicate the learning time I would need for this. I have found a couple of guys in the area recommended by local grub folks. I'll probably go with one of them
_________________
Eventually, "we are what we pretend to be.’”
Give peace a chance - Stop Russian-Soviet Aggression!!

'74 Super 9/16 - present, in refurb process.
'73 Super - 6/18 - Present - Daily Driver!
'75 Super Le Grande...waiting it's turn in line behind '74.
Click to view image
Save the Supers!!

[Eric&Barb]

Totally understand, but might be better to hire out some of the honey do's and do the VW work yourself so you know it is done right. If not, hopefully you get more then one or two recommendations for someone to do the work. Better yet ones that are a year or two ago, not last month.
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In Stereo, Where Available!

[vamram]

Local "grub" folks was supposed to be local "Vdub" folks. Stupid spell checker.

Thing about honey-do's is they also become a perception issue. Unless I can justify learning to weld for home projects, it's learning to weld in order to spend *more* time on the car...plus keeping the daily driver running.
_________________
Eventually, "we are what we pretend to be.’”
Give peace a chance - Stop Russian-Soviet Aggression!!

'74 Super 9/16 - present, in refurb process.
'73 Super - 6/18 - Present - Daily Driver!
'75 Super Le Grande...waiting it's turn in line behind '74.
Click to view image
Save the Supers!!

[green1303]

These guys might be able to refer you if they can’t do it themselves. Not many local shops want to work on old cars.

http://www.oldtownautobody.com

Otherwise, Skyline Auto Restoration in Madison can do that metal work with no problem.

http://www.northsiderestorations.com
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1973 green Super Beetle

[vamram]

Green, thanks for the recommendations. I'll give the Alexandria shop a call during their business hours tomorrow. I know Skyline and used to be a member of VW Cruisers, Skyline has done work on many of their cars. But he's way too expensive for me. I got a rough estimate from Grant once where he wanted $7k for the paint alone, not including any prep, repairs and the actual paint and re-assembly. If I had the spare change and wanted a show car trailer queen, I'd go to Skyline. I'm building this as a daily driver, so have to keep the budget in check.

Victor
_________________
Eventually, "we are what we pretend to be.’”
Give peace a chance - Stop Russian-Soviet Aggression!!

'74 Super 9/16 - present, in refurb process.
'73 Super - 6/18 - Present - Daily Driver!
'75 Super Le Grande...waiting it's turn in line behind '74.
Click to view image
Save the Supers!!

[vamram]

Final quick update to this thread -

After the advice here and elsewhere on and off the samba, I found a restoration business that would do auto welding repairs at my house, and tentatively scheduled them for 7/14. $100/hour.

However, after much back and forth in my head, I decided to go w/a different option, recommended by several of you and I've gotten signoff on from the boss as well - is to take the chance and buy my own MIG welder (a 110v one) Take my time, learn to weld on my own. And a couple of things are working in my favor here.

I found a MIG welding 101 class thru a meetup group at a local DIY/STEM lab and signed up for it, $65 for a 2-hour session, only 5 spots so plenty of individual attention. Worth a try. AND - here's the game changer for me - I've convinced my older brother, who's a certified (or was, he doesn't work in that field anymore) airplane frame welder or some such thing, to take a long weekend up in here and do the work w/me while training me to do it.
_________________
Eventually, "we are what we pretend to be.’”
Give peace a chance - Stop Russian-Soviet Aggression!!

'74 Super 9/16 - present, in refurb process.
'73 Super - 6/18 - Present - Daily Driver!
'75 Super Le Grande...waiting it's turn in line behind '74.
Click to view image
Save the Supers!!

[SdAufKla]

That's the way to do it. You won't be sorry.

I did pretty much the same thing a few years back. I signed up for a semester long welding class at the local technical college. I waited until I was about halfway through and had some basic knowledge about what to look for and then bought my welder. Did most of the second half of the semester's classwork using my own equipment, to include my final class project (designed and build a custom welding cart - then sold my cheapo Harbor freight one to a classmate).

Getting some formal training from a qualified instructor will set you on the right path. Welding is also one of those "life skills" that comes in real handy once you're confident enough. You'll find other uses to put your skills towards.

[Eric&Barb]

[vamram]

Well, since you asked, here you go. I took the plunge and bought a Lincoln Handy Man MIG welder, similar to the Eastwood 135.

I also bought gloves, extra tips, spool of .030 MIG wire, although a friend is recommending I use .025 instead, an auto-darkening helmet, the car, welding pliers, magnets, couple of funky vise grips, 12-guage extension chord, rented a 40lb argon/c02 tank, etc etc. Assembled the cart and learned to feed the wire today, so i'm ready to start burning some metal.

I'm watching videos and reading online, and my welding brother files up from bOrlando this Friday to give me some hands-on training and maybe we can knock the bulk of it out in 2 days, if not all of it.

That's the car's engine under the white tarp to the left of the welder, the shroud w/the alternator still mounted is in the background, and the car is to the left as well.
_________________
Eventually, "we are what we pretend to be.’”
Give peace a chance - Stop Russian-Soviet Aggression!!

'74 Super 9/16 - present, in refurb process.
'73 Super - 6/18 - Present - Daily Driver!
'75 Super Le Grande...waiting it's turn in line behind '74.
Click to view image
Save the Supers!!

[Eric&Barb]

Good! Though you should buy a tank when you can afford it.

When are you going to start welding?? At least weld junk stuff like used nails together...
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In Stereo, Where Available!

[vamram]

I plan welding some scrap sheet metal tomorrow after work. Wish me luck!
_________________
Eventually, "we are what we pretend to be.’”
Give peace a chance - Stop Russian-Soviet Aggression!!

'74 Super 9/16 - present, in refurb process.
'73 Super - 6/18 - Present - Daily Driver!
'75 Super Le Grande...waiting it's turn in line behind '74.
Click to view image
Save the Supers!!

[Eric&Barb]

[vamram]

Yeah, I'll clear as much as possible out of the area, and the garden hose is right there. But as you can see I don't have much space to work with.
_________________
Eventually, "we are what we pretend to be.’”
Give peace a chance - Stop Russian-Soviet Aggression!!

'74 Super 9/16 - present, in refurb process.
'73 Super - 6/18 - Present - Daily Driver!
'75 Super Le Grande...waiting it's turn in line behind '74.
Click to view image
Save the Supers!!

[Eric&Barb]

You really do not need much space, just got to be aware....
_________________
In Stereo, Where Available!

[scrivyscriv]

[VW_Jimbo]

You are going to love having the power to stick steel together!

There is a learning curve, so as stated above, practice on old sheet metal, not your project.

Welding sheet metal is all about tiny welds. You heat it up and then let it cool. Move down the seam about two inches and weld another spot. So on and so on. It is called tack welding. After you get your 2 inch spaced tacks in place, go back and do it all over again. one tack in each segment. Keep tacking till complete.

Now, the next big issue that happens. The metal twists and bends due to the heat being generated and permentally warps the sheet metal. Sometimes it cools and sinks. Best thing to do is blow compressed air over each tack for thrity seconds or so. You need to keep the panel temperature down. When you get good, you can lay several tacks and then blow air over it, before it warps.

Good luck! You need a bigger bottle as mentioned. You will blow through a small bottles really quickly! Really quick!

Good luck and have fun!
_________________
Jimbo

There is never enough time to do it right the first time, but all the time necessary the second time!

[green1303]

A couple of observations made a big difference to me when learning to weld on an Eastwood 135. First, the OG sheet metal varies between 0.8 and 1.2 mm thick depending on the panel, and some structural members are thicker yet. For that reason, you are limited to lower power in some places than others to avoid burn-through. I have not tried to butt-weld panels yet, but it is a low-power undertaking on sheet metal, and it takes longer to dissipate the heat. Second, I found that wire welding involves creating and manipulating a small pool of liquid metal in a short time. Once I started thinking of it in those terms, my welds were smooth. It reminded me of learning to land an airplane, which involves descending to just above the runway and then stalling it to eliminate the lift. All of the other lessons in flight school emphasize not stalling the plane, to the point that some instructors don’t describe a landing as a controlled stall. Once I got my head around that point, my landings were smooth.
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1973 green Super Beetle