Advice, hits, criticisms please

[side-show-bob]

Hi all
Today i made and welded in a patch on my 71 bug, and would like you opinions on the welding. is it ok? should i be doing anything different? I did it using a Clarke 150 mig set.

I was looking for the sort of weld in the lower left corner along the bottom, this bit did not need grinding back. I manage to get one or two runs like that then the rest are like blobs..

I had the welder set to a feed speed of 5 and on power 2 min.

Cheers
Rob

 

[Wozzaaah]

You need to concentrate the weld onto the parent metal a bit more and let it 'lap' onto the new plate. Also, make sure you're welding onto very clean metal, any contamination will have an effect on the quality of the weld. Have you cut the rusted metal away or just patched over a hole? Keep practising though .

 

[side-show-bob]

the rust was removed back to good metal and cleaned with white spirt first to make sure they are clean. The finish in the pic was after i shot blasted the area.

 

[malcolm]

The metal you were welding to doesn't look clean enough to me especially to the far left - needs to be made shiny with an angle grinder or flap wheel. Looks like you've been having arcing trouble.

If you have dirt it will tend to make the arc spluttery and weld builds up in blobs rather than melting nicely into the metal.

Would it weld on slightly lower wire speed? That could help reduce the build up.

Oh - one last thing - do you have one of those nice autodarkening helmets?

 

[side-show-bob]

The metal you were welding to doesn't look clean enough to me especially to the far left - needs to be made shiny with an angle grinder or flap wheel. Looks like you've been having arcing trouble.

If you have dirt it will tend to make the arc spluttery and weld builds up in blobs rather than melting nicely into the metal.

Would it weld on slightly lower wire speed? That could help reduce the build up.

Oh - one last thing - do you have one of those nice autodarkening helmets?

Cheers Malcom

I will try more cleaning, and i do have a nice autodarkening helmets.

 

[Sparkey]

Reduce the wire speed and check the batteries of that nice auto darkening helmet...
Sparkey

ps: keep practising and try to remove as much of the paint as you can before welding it, it's worth the effort...

 

[side-show-bob]

Reduce the wire speed and check the batteries of that nice auto darkening helmet...
Sparkey

ps: keep practising and try to remove as much of the paint as you can before welding it, it's worth the effort...

its a brand new helmet

 

[Sparkey]

its a brand new helmet

I can see why

 

[side-show-bob]

are the helmets good?

 

[Sparkey]

are the helmets good?

if you actually wear them,yes, they are.....(sorry i coulden't help myself saying that, i'm not always that mean,just a bit direct)
I wear an auto darkening helmet all day at work, no problem!

 

[side-show-bob]

Fine i take that as a challange if you saw my car i have loads to practice on..

I will post my next patch and it will be done using the helmet

 

[Sparkey]

I'm convinced it'll look much better!
see ya Sparks

 

[shiftyseamus]

Hi, just a thought but for that repair you will have used 3 seperate plates, imho it would have been better to have cut the rot totally out and only used 1?

Seamus

 

[paul_c]

I'm no expert but the metal underneath the main plate looks lacy with rust too??

 

[Johnny™]

looks like your front clip is tissue paper at the bottom? you cuold be welding on very thin metal near the bottom of the plate you added.

 

[Morrisman]

Fine i take that as a challange if you saw my car i have loads to practice on..

I will post my next patch and it will be done using the helmet

Definitly getting rid of any rust or paint where you need to weld is the most important thing. Even the slightest rust can make your weld spatter all over the place. This was how my Morris looked before I took a grinder to it. There was not a lot left when I'd finished, but with a couple of years of it was back on the road.

 

[side-show-bob]

After delving a little farther i have found nothing but rust. So with that in mind and taking everything i been told on here i have invested in a new front clip

 

[Johnny™]

bob a good place for advice and what/where to buy on all things beetle is Restowagen UK

http://www.restowagenuk.com/forums.html

they been there and done it many times most of them and are a helpful bunch if you need advice. post a few pics of your restoration on there.