Yeah, that explanation is as good as it gets. weldingweb.com has a forum dedicated to learning how to weld. I spend a lot of time there.. at first it was to learn, now its more to help answer novice questions, but I still learn new things from time to time.
It was hard for me to understand NOT to weld one side then the other side of a long panel until I did the inside lower door panel on the 1950 (AD era) door. No support across about 28 inches using very thin sheet metal. If you weld an inch at a time, no matter how nicely clamped, magnet'd, you go, and you weld an inch on one side, then an inch clear on the other side and meet in the middle, you WILL be cutting it out and doing it again. The best explanation I can site for why you have lots of metal and no place to put it that way, has to do with molecular structure of steel. When you start, all of the molecules are pointed in one direction, but when you disturb the metal with heat, it causes the molecules to point in ANOTHER direction, and depending on how hot you get it, you have NO idea, PER weld! In the military, our drill instructor called this a CLUSTER F&^%!
So, peening, grinding, clamping, planishing, quenching, are all legitimate ways to minimize this problem. Robert, glad you are around to help us all. Thanks!
My 5 window cab not only needed every possible panel that is available, but when I got all that done, I got 53 doors because I wanted push button handles (changing the cab side too) and vent windows. Problem came into play when I discovered the doors were about 1/4" bigger than the door opening. So cutting the cab up the door seam on both sides and making them fit was a real challenge. done AND done. Good way to learn welding.. NOT! Try to have some other experience before attempting that! If you aren't having fun by now, take up another hobby! It has been a wonderful learning experience.
