It has always been a pet peeve of mine that cheap flux core welders are aimed at inexperienced welders with insinuations that they are easy to operate. I have a 110v welder that we keep flux wire in to carry outside when some little thing needs to be welded and its easier than bringing it in the shop. I also have a big wire feed attachment on my Trailblazer 440 that also uses flux core. The guys at the shop can do a half way decent job on thinner stuff, with flux core, but they are experienced welders. We use mig for almost everything we can get in the shop. I recently bought a Hobart 140 strictly to keep at home to weld patch panels. I found the best deal on Amazon.com I run .023 wire with CO2 and it is again difference difference like day and night with the bigger machines with .035 or even .030 wire. There is no one machine that will do everything. For someone working strictly on old vehicles I would recommend your favorite brand (Hobart, Miller or Lincoln) in about 140 range and use mixed gas rather than the CO2 like I do. I use CO2 because we keep bottles of it on hand for our fountain drink machines. If you have the wrong machine, you will soon get so frustrated that you will never learn to weld.
