M151A1 begining of new project

[lpcoating]

I use SEM self etching primer. I wasn't impressed with the adhesion that I was seeing with the weldable primer compared to the self etching.

However, I also wasn't' impressed the last time I bought self etching primer - $18 a can...

Guy

[Hell On Wheels]

Lol, that’s cheap I’m afraid to say what I paid I couldn’t find some SEM locally. I ordered on line for the same price but they cancelled my order. I don’t know why. So I went around the city and could not find any so I bought 3m for a crap load more and the dam can was leaking all over the place as I sprayed ‍

[Hell On Wheels]

few updates and progress.

Finally got around to installing the fender top and side panel. I used a few self-tapping screws to draw in the pieces around the fender well and side panel. Then drilled a few pilot holes to allow some welding spots for the rear panel and inner fender well bracket.


Welded in the side patch. I had some issues with the original metal seemed thinner than the patch. This was tricky. Also added the corner piece to finish out the same curve.


Spotted in the battery tray and front floor pan. I had an issue with getting the floor panel tight enough to spot weld. It didnt bud up as tight as I wanted but I did the best I could do. Today I received the last piece the chair support bracket. Welded in the seat brackets and battery lid bracket.

[Hell On Wheels]

finally got around to grinding down the welds and smoothing them out. Welded in the shovel braket which required some hammer to form it back into shape. Got excided and painted the repairs

[Hell On Wheels]

next I need to weld in the bow bolt holes and stop. Thats what I mean I got excited and actaully forgot about the small details.

While doing that I'm going to go ahead and spot weld some cut outs the previous owners did in the floor panel up underneath the dash area of the floor and engine bay. I think they were going to install a heater judging by the hole locations. Pure madness

[hambone]

From what I see, that looks great, get a piece of copper for a backing when doing plug welds.

[Hell On Wheels]

Copper? Ok I didn’t tell anyone here that I can’t weld worth crap so please explain what you mean with the copper trick?

[hambone]

I have a copper welding spoon like this, your steel welding wire won't stick to it, put it on the backside of the hole you are welding up, you won't end up with a big glob of weld on the backside. I have also just flattened a piece of copper pipe for a homemade version.

[hambone]

I'm also wanting to order on like this, It's magnetic and hands free, can also adjust depth of weld, good for up to 1" plug.

[Rickf]

Those Chinese magnets do not last long at all with welding heat.

[Hell On Wheels]

Yes, a hand held would be hard to use for what I did on those small patches in the engine bay but the magnetic one would be better because of the hard to reach areas. Damm I wish I had one because I had to do allot of grinding to get the patch smooth. I’m going to try to use a copper scrap for repairs on the driver side.

[lpcoating]

I have some miscellaneous aluminum pieces that I use. Also helps control warping.

[Hell On Wheels]

I did have some warping I had to hammer back into shape. Let me ask the group, I had areas where the patch and original metal meet and the original metal would burn through. I turned down voltage and wire speed to only not bond very well. Is it because not backing the welds using this tool?

[Rickf]

Were you trying to weld the seams in continuous welds or short tack welds? Long welds are going to be very hard to do unless you have a lot of experience and a pretty decent welder. Lower price welders just don't have the stability for that. And even with the better welders you need to do step back welding where you weld a short section then move to another area and weld a short section there and move to another area, etc. This keeps the heat down in any one spot. as you move around you "step back" to your original spot and repeat the process. Most people, including pros, will do very short 1-2 second spots, let it cool and repeat. Even then you want to move around and not overheat one area. You also want to find the right heat for the weld, you do not want to get to cold. That is the worse thing you can do. You can get the good bacon fry sound and not burn through doing the short spot method. The copper trick is good for filling holes but not so much for long welds like panel installation. It will work but it is a LOT of work. Peruse You Tube for "sheet metal welding". You will find tons of videos on it. Places like Weld.com and Wedingtipandtricks.com are the best places for real info but there are many, many videos out there. Watch a lot of them and you will start to notice which are the good ones and which are the wannabes.

[Rickf]

And on the warping, Warping is metal that has expanded and hammering on it will just make it worse by stretching it. Heat warped metal needs to be shrunk. Hammer on Dolly also stretches' metal so avoid doing that. In a long thread on the g838 site from many years ago I showed the front fender on my 151 that made you rear fender look like it had a ding in it. It had a belly in it so deep it was filled with plastic literally 3/4" thick. I showed pics over the process of shrinking that fender back into shape to the point that all I used as filler was a skim coat to fill the scratches. Keep in mind that back then Guy was not making replacement panels, I also made my own side panel from scratch! Bodywork can be fun but it is tedious and there is a lot of bad info out there on how to do it.