Feel like I've made some progress in my cowl vent repair. Floor of plenum and left front corner were both rusted pretty badly. Both are patched and POR15ed on the outside. I'm no welder. Friend has a Lincoln MIG welder which he hasn't learned how to use yet. Loaned it to me and I'm gradually gettting the hang of it. Seams are stronger than the original spot welds for sure. Doing the hidden welds first before I try the rear quarters. Jim
Wow. Quite a task. I'm not a welder, but it looks like you could turn up the amps a little. Good luck.
Appreciate the suggestion but I was burning some holes with higher amps. The weld that's showing was one of my first (after a few days of practice on scrap). Only way I was able to get penetration without burning holes was to do a series of spot or stitch welds with the juice on for a second or two at a time. VERY slow but its working.
You can adjust the speed the wire is fed into the puddle at.Too slow a wire speed can cause you to blow holes in your work as well as too much amperage.Play with the settings a bit till you get it where your comfortable then you should be able to draw a continuous bead.Good fab work so far,the welding will come...practice practice practice.Good luck. PS: A good grinder is a welders best freind.
That makes sense. I'll try speeding up the wire feed a notch. I've become a big fan of Clekos. They are great for temporarily holding the pieces to get a good fit.
Patches Just cut the pieces from 22 gauge sheet steel from Lowes. Made patterns for the pieces from cardboard. Getting the main piece to mate with the edge toward the windshield took a little persuading.
from what ive heard havin the gas hooked up to your mig welder will make the welds more predictable and much cleaner and uniform... someone correct me if im wrong
You used a whole bottle allready??? I usually get a whole year out of one bottle.How much pressure are you useing it at...I run about 20-22 psi...granted practicing will use up alot...
Running 18-20 on the gas. I also used almost a whole roll of wire. I'm no doubt using a lot less with the spot/stitch welding. Do the tanks come in different sizes? One I'm using is about 30" high maybe 6" in diameter.
I use wire up at a pretty good rate...not unusual...You can get bigger bottles but...Unless you are doing alot of production work,you shouldnt really need a bigger bottle.Refill/excahnge the one you have and go from there.Now that you have the hang of it I dont think your going to go through it as fast.Do yourself a favor and buy good wire,the cheap stuff will rust on the spool and give you fits once it starts sticking in the hose.
