The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop pach panel welding

Everything on my cab is finally sanded,scrapped & blasted. The epoxy primer is on. I was wondering. Is it better to overlap a patch panel or butt weld? Also would like to know if there is info on how to butt weld a patch? I plan to use a Millermatic 140 welder to do the work. Thanks

If at all possible, butt weld. But you can lap weld by forming a flange on the patch piece, inserting the flange under the panel and welding the seam.

You can use welder's magnet to hold the patch even with the panel while you weld it.
Here is some step by step patch repairs....
panel repair by patch welding

I hope this helps

Frank

Thanks countilaw your photos are great and self explanatory. I like the Idea of creating a flange to use as backup for the butt weld. I have access to an air tool that is designed to create a flange. On a straight flat surface it seems to work well. I have just bought 2 rear cab corers and wonder before I try, if this tool will work around the curved contours at the top? Anyone have any experience using this tool?

what do you mean by a flange? do you bend the metal over to give your a rounded corner to weld to? please let me know. thanks alot

Vickraft...I've used a 2 hand held flanger tools(looks like a pair of vise grips) for creating flanges. One of them made a flange approx. 1 1/2" and the other was 1/2". The 1/2" worked very well for the rear cab corners due to the curve and didn't throw the curve out of shape. The 1 1/2' worked good for the straight pieces. Check out my webshots for photos of the rear cab corner flanges I made before I welded them on.

Hope this helped.

Have fun!

I patched the door bottoms,rear and cab corners using all flanged joints. I used a air flanger and punch, about a half inch on width of flanger, which worked well. By flanging it gave me a little more room to adjust :hammering: the patch panels I fabbed up. Take your time, weld in intervals and you will be OK. Pics below. Have fun.
Dan
http://rides.webshots.com/photo/1512695955071274430lWhMwv

There are clips you can get at Harbor Freight that hold the panels in place for butt welding. Either method will work but the butt weld is easier and quicker IMO.

The HF clips are 8 for 5$ which is a great buy, they provide a .040 gap in the butt joint and work with a thumbscrew, very slick and very expensive from other suppliers like Eastwood. I tig all my stuff and the weld in intervals and take your time is great advice no matter what method you use.

I decided to butt weld most of the things I have done so far. I use a piece of copper roof flashing folded over double as a backing and clamp it up very snug to the pieces being welded. In some cases when my weld pool is nice and flowing it fills the gap very nicely and the back side of the weld looks very very smooth. I use a MIG with some very fine wire. I think it may be .022. With the copper it helps with the heat too. I still get in too big of a hurry but it does help. I don't know as much as the others here but that has worked well for me.

This is great information guys. After reading all your Ideas and tips I have decided to try my hand at butt welding. I have a list of things that I will have on hand when I do this. Go slow,patience,welders magnets, HF clips, copper roofing material as a heat shield (neat Idea) Also like Micheal I am using a Mig with a .022 wire.(gas shielding) First I am planning to practice on the same gauge of metal as the cab corners before attempting the actual repairs to my cab. Thanks again to everyone for the encourgememt.