Well guys im getting ready to start welding up my enginebay on my 91 coupe. Ive never welded before but got a brand new welder for christmas(not sure what kind my mom bought it for me). I just looking for any tips that you guys can give me im gonna start tomarrow. im welding up all the holes and boxing that fram rails in the front. any advice helps. thanks in advance
welding up engine bay
- Thread starter no_slo_5.0
- Start date
Blown331LX
Member
You need to prep the metal. Sand it down so its bare. Use a thin gauge wire with low heat. Those depend on what type of welder you have. Dont practice or learn how to on your car. Practice on some scrap metal. Sheet metal welding can be very difficult even for the best welders out there. Im a metal fabricator, built lots of roll cages and bumpers, and I did about 1/3 of mine, and it was a SOB. Time and patience, welding well welding properly is alot harder than you think. If someone tells you its easy as cake and takes no time to learn they are wrong and prolly suck at it themselves. Good Luck.
NKau
Founding Member
+1 Try to find some similar gauge material, drill some holes in it, and practice. You don't want to be burning holes through the sheetmetal on your car.
My buddy just took a wire wheel to it to take the paint off. When you go to do it, don't get too crazy with the welding...like don't make huge clumps and thin oh i'll just grind them down and it'll be cool....that's just extra crap that you'll spend time trying to get smooth and flat when it comes time to add body filler. Also the body filler he used i think was called All Metal or something....it was a 2 part mixture like an epoxy and it was silver....supposed to bond to metal and it dried hard as a rock.
One thing I've always done to make welding up small holes very easily is find a good size chunk of aluminum (square stock works great) and hold it on one side of the hole and weld from the other. It will plug the hole nice and won't stick to the aluminum. Also when you go to grind it down if you get the flap sander disks they work great for smoothing things out and are a little easier to work with since they are not as aggressive as just a grinding wheel.
SuperStang83
Founding Member
thanks for the info guys. I said above that i have never welded b4 i have but only tacked a few for friends. i understand how and all just havent done much of it and ive got a roof from another car that some one cut off that i am gonna practice on. i will keep you udated and pics as sonn as i get some progress.
For what it's worth you really don't have to know how to weld very good....since all your work is gonna get ground down smooth and filled over. As long as you can do good enough to fill a hole then you're golden. I've never had any teaching on how to weld but i helped my buddy do his and i did fine.
As ghetto as it sounds i've known some guys who did just that. The only real problem is filling larger holes but it'll do ok for the smaller ones. The problem is if you ever decide to drill holes to mount something and you hit that JB, it has a tendency to chip and be brittle and if you've got nice paint over top then it's gonna crack and look like crap.
5.0Droptop
...all those nights we shared, and you're a dude??
Special Agent Mukity-Muck Whats in Charge Round Here
is it a wire feed welder or a tig welder? Wire feed is easy just zap t and grind it.
Tig is harder for a novice welder.
Stick welder is easy.
No matter what it is start out with as low a setting as posible and work your way up to a comfortable setting for you.
Tig is harder for a novice welder.
Stick welder is easy.
No matter what it is start out with as low a setting as posible and work your way up to a comfortable setting for you.
5.0Droptop
...all those nights we shared, and you're a dude??
Special Agent Mukity-Muck Whats in Charge Round Here
5.0Droptop
...all those nights we shared, and you're a dude??
Special Agent Mukity-Muck Whats in Charge Round Here
hahaa.. My buddy painted his bay bright silver in his drag car. He didnt want to weld up the holes due to the extra weight and time etc etc.
The holes really stood out with the silver.
The holes really stood out with the silver.
Shakerhood
20+ Year Stangneter 
