learning to weld on your own car? good idea or bad idea?

[thorne]

ok opinions needed, due to the price and timeframe of getting the welding done on my car I'm considering literally just buying a decent enough welder, grinder etc, getting shitloads of practice and just doing it myself, I'm a complete novice as far as welding is concerned but I think its do-able if I spend enough time getting it right, what do you guys think? I know it could end up a complete waste of time (and money) if I make a mess of it and have to call in a proffessional to re-do everything, but I think it can be done, opinions? anyone learned it from scratch on your own car?
I need to do both sills, drivers side front floorpan, front panel and rear panel, as well as a few small patches here and there (hidden, o/s footwell etc)

advantages to me seem like it'd cost less than paying a proffessional, time-wise I can run out to the garage and do an hour or so whenever I have time, and obviously building up a skill that would definately come in handy in the future, I'd like to be able to do as much as possible on my car myself, but yeah, what do you guys think?

[Graham]

its certainly quite possible, infact i like most in the motor trade learnt to weld on paying customers cars!

what i would recomend is you practise practise practise and practise again before doing any work on your car, because however good you get, by the time you have finished the car you wont be happy with the standard of work you first did on it!

when you do first start on it start with areas out of sight and that dont need filling over such as floors, because you can easily redo them later if you want

[dobuy]

I pretty well learned on my car and as Graham says, you will not be happy with some of your first welds and will want to, or will redo them. I did one panel 3 times before I was happy. But that should not stop you.

Some very basic rules I have learned.
1: The metal must be clean of all paint and should be shiny
2: Always take time to set up your welder for the job, it is so important, if you set it up, you stand a chance of a good weld, if you don', you don't
3: When welding thin sheet, don't try and do a run of weld, you will just blow holes all over the place. Pulse weld in a stitching fashion until you have the piece joined, then do a run if you need to.
4: Weld edge to edge where possible, it leaves less opportunities for rust to form and is easier than you think if you pulse weld
5: Always have your welding tip at an angle, if it is 90' to the job, it is no good, push the weld along at a 45' angle
6: Remove any black paint from new panels before you use them, scotchbrite and thinners is good.
7: Once a panel is finished, clean it and give it a squirt over with etch primer

The rest is well covered, good earths, Argon CO2 mix etc

[jpblue]

best way to learn is get in there and do it, myself and most of my mates learnt this way, some of us turned out Ok at it. None of us could afford to pay someone and owning the gear alows us to do so much else, otherthan the car. built my first house with my welder...well the steel frame anyway.
Get in there, practice, ask for advice and show us photos....we love photos.

Good luck.

JP

[gorilla1q]

I taught myself on mine and friends cars like said practise with the same thickness of material and the welder settings so you can see for yourself what they do so when it comes to welding your car you'll have a better idea whats wrong when you cant get the weld you want. When welding on cars its very important to make sure its all clean and remember when doing things like stitch welding on car there will be paint/sealer between the skins and this will play havoc with the welds. Your aiming for sizzling bacon sound and a nice clean looking weld. There lots of tutorials on the likes of youtube but there no replacement for having a go. A good point to remember is also is that everyone welds at different speeds so its best to set the welder to you and not a friend whole may of welded before. PRACTISE PRACTISE PRACTISE

Goodluck - dont bother with a gasless welder either and I personally hate the permenatly live torch welders although some like them I found it harder to get to grips with

Almost forgot if your keeping your welder in a cold maybe slightly damp garage check the weld every time before you go straight in on your car my old clarke 170T welder suffered badly from this due to the wire furing up I used to spray the reel with WD40 at the end of a session

[gaz7216]

i was just about to ask the same question.lol. practice practice it will be then! :-) . any suggsetions on a good beginner welding set??and also where to get it from.many thanks.gaz

[Graham]

when it comes to welders buy the best you can afford,

gassless ones are pretty crap, and most of the small mini migs dont have the guts to produce enough amps to weld nicely for more than a few mins at a time

[Ratters]

i did

not turned out too bad either generally as has been said though, once you start progressing you won't be happy with your first welds so start somewhere on the car that is easy to remedy a year down the line

[R-40]

good friendly bunch guys on here .
http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/

[gorilla1q]

I was using a clarke 170T for years I got it from a garage second hand and got decent results but it started showing its age so I bought a sealy 185 super mig (i think) and cant believe the difference between the two its so much more controlable. I lent it to my mate whos go a garage after his snap on (similar spec welder) got nicked and he wont give it back he likes it so much . As Graham has said dont buy gassless and buy the best you can

HTH
Danny

same as this I got
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/SEALEY-MIG-WEL...item45f6ea09d4

[exboyracer]

Like loads of other people I leaned to weld on my own car, there are some top tips on this thread and the mig welding forum is very very good as well.

My only advice is do your first welds on the car in places where they won't be visible when the car is finished

[thorne]

thanks for the replies and the suggestions guys, think I'll give it a go, I can probably get hold of plenty of scrap metal to practice on so I'll get plenty before trying anything on the mk1, and when I do I'll start with the foorpans methinks, they'll be covered up

[Dave]

I have done my fair share of welding now, and I taught myself on my Escort. Start with the floorpans
Clarke welders from Machine Mart are pretty good, and as said, buy the best you can afford.

[northeee]

got my escort in may and 1st mig to just put in the odd patch thinking i would have the car back on the road by july,
today its just a shell in the garage but solid after weeks of work on it but you will learn loads best thing a ever did .
now going to learn to spray and re paint it . should be done by june 2011 get stuck in, and dont get the small clark co2 argon gas bottle get a big mother pub size bottle

[rick deregus]

when ya welding sounds like eggs and bacon sizzling away in a frying pan,you know you have the machine set up to weld,good luck

[Lockie Ford]

If you do practice welding, invest in a couple of fire extinguishers! From personal experience a few months ago, I was welding the floor ofmk3 cortina 2 days before the show I was entering and the underseal caught alight. Long and painful story short, the fire brigade was called and I lost my show condition car because I didnt have any way of putting the fuel out that caught. Not to mention half a carport and a number of tools... Expensive lesson!