Desert_buick,
I think most people do bodywork on a hobby basis with MIG. It's fast, easy and the equipment is available anywhere and everywhere.
TIG is much more specialized, and the equipment is much more expensive. While building half doors for my son's Toyota recently, I was working with new 18 gauge steel and wanted to see the differences between these two processes myself.
I used TIG to weld two small pieces together...it was very clean, controllable and warp free, even with filler material.
We built the doors with MIG, and although no longs welds were involved, we successfully welded the 18 gauge to the even lighter Toyota sheetmetal with no burnthrough or warpage.
This was done with shielding gas and .023 wire. We have all seen the TV shows where almost everything is TIG'd. They are fun to use. The clarity of the weld puddle and control of the weld is incredible, but for me, the MIG process was more than adequate for the job on the thin sheetmetal.
Technically, I think the TIG produces much higher temperatures than MIG...but they are much more focused and they are controllable during welding. As they say, my two cents.
Stuart
