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diy mig welding

newport nutter

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3
Hi
I am in the proccess of fixing up my GTL and it has the usual lace curtain inner wings and un mot. able rear seatbelt mounts.
the quote I had from a welder,made me come over all funny, and I thought that if I bought a second hand mig I could do it myself.
the only thing is that I have never done any welding before and I wondered if anyone had tackled this job before and could give me an indication of how difficult a skill it is to pick-up.
many thanks
Newport Nutter.
p.s. my GTL is an "A" reg. can I do away with the rear seatbelt mounts like clementine did?.
 
Hi Newport Nutter,

MIG welders aren't so expensive (unless you buy them second hand. Then you'll have to replace bits and it could end up costing as much as a new one.) It's worth checking out machine mart for a new welder. It'll be 2 or 3 hundred pounds. Go for minimum 130 amps. The bigger the better. You can always turn them down, but the bigger migs tend to be better quality and are easier to work with.

MIG welding is pretty easy to pick up. Buy some sheet steel and practice a lot. You'll get the hang of it. Renault 4 steel is pretty thin. Thin metal is more tricky than thick metal. Make sure you clean up the metal you want to weld to until it's shiny. It's not so bad then.

You don't need rear seatbelt mountings unless you have rear seatbelts, so you can still pass the MOT without them. Doing the Clementine thing should be OK unless you plan to fit rear seat belts.
 
I find welding very satisfying - you get a great feeling when you add new, solid structure where once there was a mass of rust.

bubbly-jock (welcome to the forum) is spot on - it's much easier to weld with a 130 amp plus welder. Mine is 155 amps. It's just a Clarke welder but it works really well. It's worth getting hold of one with a bottle mount and regulator. You can buy little disposable bottles from Halfords but they last no time at all. A full size bottle can be rented for about £30 per year and £30 for each refill. Don't use the gasless MIG wire - I find it impossible to weld with.

To learn MIG welding, buy some new clean sheet steel. Start off by laying a weld on to the middle of a sheet. The weld should penetrate through the metal, and with a really good weld it should be difficult to tell which side you welded from. Generally you can tell a good weld by looking at the other side. For a butt weld (two sheets of metal end on end) there shouldn't be any evidence of the edges of the steel in the join after it's been welded. You'll be best to overlap the edges of metal that you are welding - this makes it much easier. You should be able to find some MIG welding tutorials on the internet, and there are sure to be books to help.

It's best to weld inside a garage or on a very still day - otherwise the shielding gas blows away and the weld ends up weak and splattery.

You'll probably pick it up suficiently after a day or so of practice. Welding the car itself is more tricky. The metal has to be completely clean and rust free for MIG welding to be effective. Buy an angle grinder and use that to cut away rusty metal and to clean up the surface you plan to weld to. The floor pans on the Renault 4 are a real pain to weld - they are very thin and also you'll be welding inverted which is more difficult.

However good your welding it'll almost certainly be better than the welding I've seen from most garages. They don't take the time to clean up the metal beforehand and make a complete mess.

I'd recommend any Renault 4 owner take up welding. You'll save the money spent on the welder on the first set of patches.

:clementi:
 
Mig welding is one of the most theraputic things you can do to relieve stress. Once you've bought a mig, you actually go out and find things to weld!!

If you decide to mig weld your car, don't forget to disconnect the battery and the alternator wires.

Steve
 
Thanks fot the tip. I have a wee problem I've found the battery and disconected it, but where is the alternator I haven't found it yet. I don't think my car has one. Can anyone help please?
Have you tried Gas welding it's great although you do have to watch the heat on the surounding area so not to worp the metal, you can also brasse, cut and even undo those seased nuts and you don't need to find the alternator!(help).

My car's coming along well, I've finished the body welding and now on to the wings, there a wee bit more tricky though. Hopefully have it finished for the summer.

Dose any one know what CB and CD stands for on the cut out?

bubbly-jock (the baker)
 
I think you probably have to disconnect the dynamo control box if you can't find an alternator. They must have a dynamo? Mind you, you're doing well to find a battery in an Austin 7

I've been welding all day today - a set of sills have appeared on the Aston Martin.

I've never managed to get to grips with gas welding, although I'm planning to get hold of a TIG welder at some point. TIG is much neater than MIG (but is a bit tricky like gas welding) - I've heard there is a bloke in Cambridge who can weld kitkat wrappers together using TIG.

:clementi:
 
OK I disconected the wee 6volt battery and put it in back into my torch, now I can see, dynamo disconected, battery in the torch and the dynamo control box is disconected, what am I now ment to do I don't have a mig welder and my car dosen't work any longer

bubbly-jock (the baker)
 
They don't sell that brand of mig in the UK. You will probably find that it's made in Italy as most DIY migs are. Most of them are made in one factory and then 'badge engineered' for various suppliers. A 150amp mig is more than enough for using on the R4. When buying a mig, buy one that has a really good quality wire feed mechanism.
I have a Ferm 230 amp bought from Screwfix and it is able to weld very thin material due to it's excellent variable wire feed system. Ferm are a Dutch company that sources products from all over the world. If you have a dealer in Sweden it's worth taking a look.

Another useful item to buy is an electronic helmet. How I spent 20 years without one, I'll never know.

Steve
 
I've often thought about buying one of those light sensitive helmets. I'd imagine there are advantages in seeing where you are about to weld. I need to go on a spending spree for a new angle grinder so might have another look at them. Is there anything to look for or avoid with electric helmets?
 
Buy one Malcolm. You've just been doing some fine work on the Aston Martin and I'll bet you have been flicking your visor up and down at least 500 times!!
Buy a good one - look to pay between £125 - £160. I've got a Sealey one and it's great. There are cheaper ones with less features, but the more settings it's got, the better. You can adjust the shade of the lens on the dearer ones to suit your eyesight much better than the cheaper ones which have fewer settings. The lenses themselves all seem to be made in Switzerland. The plain glass at the front can be replaced when they get spattered. If you're buying one at a shop, you could ask if you could try some on for comfort.

As to the angle grinder, you can get 4.5" ones very cheap now. Screwfix have them on offer for around £5. OK, they are probably Chinese but they are not too bad. Personally I prefer the 4" ones, but they are much dearer.

Steve
 
Thanks for the tip, Steve! I can't find any Ferm's in sweden, probably called sometinhg else here. I'm not gonna start on this project until early spring, so there's no rush. I will look around to see what brands are available. I'll get back on that :)

I have tried one electronic helmet, and i wasn't too impressed with it. I found myself swinging it up and down just like a normal one. It was just too hard too see what i was doing. It probably was one of those cheap ones though, and it was bought just after they came on the market... (that was back in the good ol' days when there was a big workshop at my job)
 
I couldn't find a handy MIG welding tutorial on the web so I've written one! If you are starting out in the world of MIG welding could you have a look and let me know what you think. Actually, if you are experienced in MIG welding could you have a look to see if there is anything glaring I've left out or got wrong :roll:

The site is called Learn MIG Welding

Thanks, :clementi:
 
Just what i was looking for. I liked the animations in the Learn MIG welding section, i thought i was doing something wrong when i got better results from rotating the torch. Now i know better... Thanks Clementine!
 
Thanks Cuno. Hey you bought a welder - what kind did you buy?

Are you getting on OK with it so far? Do let me know if you have a moment of inspiration and all the welds suddenly come good. I'm sure there's a trick to MIG welding but I can't remember what is is. Maybe I will have a chance to figure it out again as I forgot how to weld this afternoon and made a real mess of a patch.

By the way I love your Red Renault 4 in the gallery. It looks like the evil Blofeld from the Bond film Diamonds are Forever with those odd sized eyes.

:clementi:
 
Thanks for those kind words about my R4 :) Someone smashed one headlight, so that's why they are different sizes. If someone asks, i'll just just say i made it to look like Blofeld :D

Actually i haven't bought a welder yet, but sometimes i borrow the one at my old job - the energy plant in Angelholm (in southern sweden). The welder is a very big one, i usually end up burning holes from not turning down the ampere setting enough...

I'll buy the welder once i have the yellow one out of the garage, in 2-3 months probably. Then i'll fix the red real nice. Or so the plan goes...we'll see.

Yes, i'll try to remember all my newbie welding mistakes. Should be a nice collection of them :)
 
I just wanted to share -- i just bought a welder, an Esab Miggy 125. Esab is a swedish brand, and they make sturdy reliable welders. This one has got a bit of rust, but it seems healthy, with a good wire feeder (the motor is the size of a volvo starter motor!). I got a gas bottle and some wire too. It cost me ~180 pounds.

Now i just need a garage :)
 
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