in my search this week i found these videos of Brian Bass, from BASS KUSTOMS here in dallas Tx. he is working on a 32 ford coupe i believe and his metal working skills are amazing. He has taken the time to talk though his thought process, his technique and his skills and i have found it very informative and quite inspiring. the video itself is broken up into 12 plus segments...
*UNDER CONSTRUCTION* 1953 Chevrolet 3100 1/2 ton-previously abandoned resto.
I hate when people leave their brains at home. Seriously when did critical thinking and customer service go out the window? How about common sense and striving to go the extra mile? Idiots, surrounded by idiots it tell you.
The thing to remember is that your welding and fabrication skills will improve over time. I put the sheet metal in the cab I am working on now about 8 years ago before back operations and stuff made me put it on hold.
Over the past few weeks I have been working on that cab getting it ready for paint. LOTS of things I would do different now! I just shake my head at what I thought at the time was really good work. So now that I am Mr Picky Pickymeister, I am actually cutting parts back out and putting them in proper. So, it takes years to really perfect your technique. There is just no substitute for research, videos, and after that, go to your local welding shop and strike up a conversation with the owner. I have the added benefit of having McPherson College just up the road. They have one of the nations best restoration programs.
WOW! you got that right, I WISH could go there. i had the opportunity to go back out there today after i got home from work, I am off the next two days so i got a jump start. I immersed myself in learning this past week and really felt confident i knew where i went wrong, what i didn't take far enough and what i took too far. I had a really good idea how to get my project back on track and repair/finish this cab corner. Although i did not get but about 4 inches of actual welding in, i did work on properly grinding down my welds and planishing out the area to minimize the valley i had created between the two panels. all and all i made positive progress. here shortly i will upload some pics of my area cleaned up the best i got tonight although i am not finished with it yet, i am happy with the direction and want to see how good i can get it. in one of the pics i will attach you will see the 4 inches i did get to weld tonight, i took pix before i ground them down so guys take a look at them, tell me what you think and by all means if you can see something in the weld from the picture please, speak up! i think the next cab corner will go much smoother.
*UNDER CONSTRUCTION* 1953 Chevrolet 3100 1/2 ton-previously abandoned resto.
I hate when people leave their brains at home. Seriously when did critical thinking and customer service go out the window? How about common sense and striving to go the extra mile? Idiots, surrounded by idiots it tell you.
I hate when people leave their brains at home. Seriously when did critical thinking and customer service go out the window? How about common sense and striving to go the extra mile? Idiots, surrounded by idiots it tell you.
The area on the left you have weld on top of weld. This will make the panel harder to planish, and also won't get you very good weld penetration on some of those weld dots that are on top of others. The welds will be much easier to planish with your hammer and dolly when you can do them individually, as I described in my previous post. Weld dots, planish, grind them out of the way, weld the next set, repeat.
there is a distinct difference between the left and the right side of that, what was happening was the left was very thin on this edge and i was blowing holes- then trying to fill them. once the holes stopped and the confidence grew the dots got better
*UNDER CONSTRUCTION* 1953 Chevrolet 3100 1/2 ton-previously abandoned resto.
I hate when people leave their brains at home. Seriously when did critical thinking and customer service go out the window? How about common sense and striving to go the extra mile? Idiots, surrounded by idiots it tell you.
in my pics you can see the weld joint still, mind you i have a better idea how to attack the next one but just shy of cutting this off and doing it again i wanted to see if i could save it. anyhow getting back to the question, how do i make that joint disappear. planish, sand, planish, sand...repeat?
*UNDER CONSTRUCTION* 1953 Chevrolet 3100 1/2 ton-previously abandoned resto.
I hate when people leave their brains at home. Seriously when did critical thinking and customer service go out the window? How about common sense and striving to go the extra mile? Idiots, surrounded by idiots it tell you.
Any time you weld using a MIG, you'll find that the area of the weld is harder than that of the parent metal. Weld two pieces together, grind the weld perfectly flat, and cut across the weld with a pair of tin snips. You'll be able to tell exactly where the weld is. If you planish each weld dot individually as I mentioned, working them becomes much easier. If you weld multiple weld dots next to and on each other, this tends to harden the welds even more, making any planishing efforts all that much harder and less effective in stretching the panel back out at the weld.
Things that you can do to overcome some of these issues:
Most welders are supplied with ER70S-6 wire. EZ Grind and ER70S-7 will both give a slightly softer weld, and lay slightly flatter, so they help to overcome some of the hardness issue. I'll add to that by saying stacking weld on top of weld with these wire types also seems to make the welds harder. Your best results with planishing Mig welds will be planishing them in the isolated fashion. Next, sometimes we all blow a hole and need to fill it. A trick that may help is to pull the trigger momentarily and then pull away from the panel. You should see a small weld glob or ball at the end of the wire, still glowing. What this will do is give you a wider "filler" to hopefully span the gap or better fill the hole. So while the ball is still glowing, do a real short zap on the gap you need to fill. Hopefully this will help out. The other thing with blowing holes, try bumping up the wire feed speed slightly. Next, if you do blow a hole, go back to your last weld dot, and overlap there. That dot will give you more mass to weld to and bring the weld out from there. Keep in mind, weld, planish, grind, repeat. Even when working like that to build out to fill in a blow hole void. The shrinking tends to pull even more when gap exists, so you'll need to planish in between each weld to stretch it back where it should be. And lastly, a lot of issues will be due to inconsistent gaps in panel fitment. You'll be much less likely to blow holes with a tight fitup than you will with a slight gap. (in addition to the benefits mentioned previously) When people discuss welding methods and setup, panel fitment for tight joints is absolutely part of that equation. You will experience best results by working toward consistency in every part of the process. If you can get to where it is almost OCD consistent, you'll see much better results.
Here is a thread to help show the weld, planish, repeat, and the results afterward. This is also using the -7 wire I mentioned, and you can see how the weld dots lay nice an flat. Where the -7 wire may be more expensive, it works out to less weld proud for easier planishing and for less grinding needed, which means less grinding and sanding consumables used, and less time for you to do so.
For filling drilled holes, I use a technique I call long arcing. Its just like Robert described.. hold the gun about an inch away and hit the trigger really quick. With easy grind wire, I can fix some pretty bad damage, holes, all sorts of imperfections that way.
My biggest problem is I do everything without using welding helmets because shutting my eyes and pulling the trigger is the exact same thing as using my auto darkening (#9 setting is lowest). I simply cant see AT ALL. I even try to use halogen lamps pointing at the work. Still way too dark. Very annoying!
I hate when people leave their brains at home. Seriously when did critical thinking and customer service go out the window? How about common sense and striving to go the extra mile? Idiots, surrounded by idiots it tell you.
I hate when people leave their brains at home. Seriously when did critical thinking and customer service go out the window? How about common sense and striving to go the extra mile? Idiots, surrounded by idiots it tell you.
I hate when people leave their brains at home. Seriously when did critical thinking and customer service go out the window? How about common sense and striving to go the extra mile? Idiots, surrounded by idiots it tell you.
