Cut out the rust


Welded in (poorly, I cannot weld kept burning through even with low heat and wire feed)


Silicond around the seams


And tommorrow when the silicon dries i'm going to prime it and paint it with rust inhibiting paint.

So how horribly did I do? I have three more areas that need to be patched on the driver side, any advice besides telling me i'm a moron and not to do it?

 

grab a scrap peice that you cut out and practice your welds, give you credit i can;t weld either....did you overlay the metal or butt weld it together? them have a cool tool called a flanger. can get it in a air tool or a visegrip brand the bends the meatl to make a couple nice transitions like overlaps that are even at the edge.

forget the silcone why you need that? grind the welds smooth
holes?

get some por 15 and brush that on and you;ll be good for ever or so.....don;t forget the under side.

looks like a good start

oh on the welds are you pusshing the wire or pulling it. if its a mig iwhich it should be with wire (duh) i belive you need to push the weld not pull it to get smooth flows.

jeff

 

I was pushing, I thought you pushed so you were moving onto cool metal and not warming it before you started welding there.

I overlapped because I was having a hard time cutting them out square, and had a very limited supply of metal so if I cut it too small I was screwed.

I did practice on scrap and can get a decent weld but its much differnt working cramped inside a car than in an open room.

I used the silicon because along with my lousy welds come small holes that the silicon takes care of, its under the carpet so noone will see it and my car is by no means a show car. And I don't have a grinder and figured I could get away without it because noone is going to notice the welds under the carpet. I plan on getting one, i'm just lacking the funds right now.

Perhaps I will go try and find some more metal tommorrow so I can make some nice patchs and not have to overlap. I'll look into that flanger tool to.

Por-15 would be great but I don't have any. I plan on using rust inhibiting paint on it inside and out, then ordering some Por-15 and doing the whole bottom of the car so I don't have to do more patching for a long time.

 

Im doing the same basic thing on my rear wheel well and it doesnt matter if you push or pull because unless you weld in like 2 second bursts you just burn holes in the thin metal. I would definately suggest POR-15 for covering up the exposed metal. I bought their metal patch stuff to coat my welds with and its great.

 

the only problem i see with the overlap is water will get in underneath and eat its way in even quicker now that there is a ridge for it to collect. make sure you traet that area too with come sealer or weld....i guess if its flanged it would do the same.

 

One of the reasons I put the silicon there. doesn't look like it but that whole tube is spread around that piece, bottom and top, wedged into any voids created by the overlap. I'm hoping that and the paint will keep water out. But rust always finds a way

I'm not even going to post a pic of the first patch I did that was a nightmare.

Oh and never buy "rubber sealer". It sounded great to seal around the floor but what I got was like slightly pliable rubber, its impossible to apply.

 

Its not bad.But the few things I would have done diff. Is first clean the metal really good,(that will help with the welding)And u should have got some welding primer so there would be something on the metal were u can not get to.Than u should have primed that metal before u put that silicon on there.I think i would take that off. Go get some sealer for cars prime the under and top and than caulk it.

 

I just did another one, I cut the floor out square and cut a piece to fit. Then I primed first this time, and I have some better stuff then blue rtv to use once it dries.

I'm not going to pull off the other silicon becauseI tried and it would take forever. Hopefully it will hold up, if not looks like I will be ripping it out again after next winter.

Thanks for the advice.


One more big hole to go but its pouring and my sawzall blade is useless at this point so I think its going to wait

 

have you seen the thread from my floor, i wish i was in your shoes!!!, you have a nice start though. The sawsall works wonders on this stuff for cutting alot in a short period of time, trust me, i took the whole floor out of mine!!! good luck on the rest

 

dude, you did a much better job then me, I had way bigger holes after i cut out the rust and i just pop riveted thick aluminum sheeting in place and put tons of cocking and rubber sealant all over where the metal meets, then I put about an inch thick layer of rubberized undercoating on the under side... talk about half ***, its ok though, im in the process of learning how to weld and ill weld in new pans next spring.

 

When you weld stuff that thin with a mig welder, you should just make a very quick tack, and another one on the other side. Go back and make another next to the first one, another next to the second. Keep doing that until you've tacked all the way around. It takes time, but it's the only way to keep the metal cool enough not only to prevent melting the hell out of it, but to prevent putting enough heat into the panel to warp it.

If you try to run a constant bead, you'll just melt the crap out of the metal.

If I were you I'd practice on some scrap tin, and once you figure it out, cut that mess out of your floor and weld in a new piece.

Let's see if I can draw a pic of what I mean.

-----X-------------
|.......................|
|.......................|
------------X------

Tack at each x. Then go back, and put another tack next to each x. Keep doing that until you've tacked all the way around the perimeter of the panel you're welding. It doesn't take much skill to be able to tack a spot without melting/warping, but it's impossible (or at least requires skill far beyond what I posess) to run a good bead without warping the metal.

 

He is just to the floor so he does not really matter if he warps it a little.I have been welding for 8 years now on cars and i still can not weld a long bead without warping the metal.But i can do it without burning holes.The way i do it is run a bead about 1/2 or 1 inch long than move to the other side than go to another spot. He did not to that bad All but that silcon stuff that i would not have used( I would take that off no matter who hard it is to get off.) The first time i welded it looked 100 times worse..........

 

So I should use no silicon at all? Or its ok to use after its primed?

 

if thats all u can get.But i would use a caulk for auto uses.Here this is the first thing u should have used http://www.autobodydepot.net/scripts...sid=0713151305 not so much that brand but anything with zinc init. than for the caulk http://www.autobodydepot.net/scripts...sid=0713151305 all i could find was 3m stuff i like useing sem stuff but they don't see there stuff in part stores.

 

Any ideas where to get that caulk besides online (i'm driving around my car with most of the interior gone and I don't think Napa is going to carry it)? I welded up the other two patchs and did a little better this time, I managed to get all the way around without burning through. Its too late for that primer, but thats good to know for next time. I think the stuff i'm putting on now (after the welding) has zink in it, so its a start.
Thanks for the advice.

 

look in the yellow pages for a auto body suppile shop.I think finsh masters is in new york not sure though.Or stop at a body shop and ask someone there were they get there stuff at.

 

Honestly if you want good welds with no warping you need to be using a tig welder. you can vary the amperage with a foot pedal like one on a sewing machine and it makes kickass welds. With a tig welder its possible to weld an aluminum soda can back together.

 

yeah tigs are great.I'm going to get one soon.2 down sides of a tig is the metal has to be super clean. And they cost alot.The one i'm going to buy is 950.00. But well worth it

 

I agree (although if it was my car I'd take the time to make sure I didn't warp it), but the fact is that his method obviously isn't going to work until he gets a lot more practice. My method will work perfectly, and will still prevent warpage.

 

if nothing else, tacking it around it is good practice and will give him confidence for any bodywork he decides to tackle later.

 

I don't know. If you have a decent 4 power setting mig you should not have much if any problems. I fix allot of crap in my floor and didn't have much trouble. Though while your at it man I would do more. what does the floor look like under the back seats???
If you havnt I would pull the whole carpet and the small piece in the back. better safe then sorry.

Lots of rust can happen and you wont see it easily from the bottom like that spot.


When I had mine gutted I also welded every body seams along the doors and in the back around n near the shock towers. Them cheesy spot weld ever 3-4inches are just lame.

Here is a pic of my back seat. maybe on a lift it would be visible but I never saw anything until the carpet was pulled. The suspension parts hide that area well. Oh and yes thats a license plate. Have you ever noticed how long them things last?

 

I did pull the entire carpet, I had the back carpet and plastics out a few weeks ago and all was good.
Now I took everything but the dash out of the front and found 5 spots that needed to be done and did all of them. I also looked around for any thin metal that was on the virge of rusting through and didn't see any damage.
On the last two patchs I welded about a cm, stopped moved to the other side, welded a cm, and went back and forth all the way around. It seemed to work pretty well without burning through.

You know what really annoys me is I went under the car and ground all the rust down to metal. Then I put some primer on it that is supposed to prevent rust with the intention of undercoating next week. Two days later the rust is back through

 

You really need to get POR-15. It works like no other paint I've ever seen and if you apply it right you will never see rust in that spot again.

 

just do not get that por 15 on u takes forever to get it off

 

I keep meaning to get it but never get around to it. Too bad no stores carry it. It will get on there eventually.