- Thread starter Markyp
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fuff66uk
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I am using 0.9mm from clarke in my clarke 150en turbo tbh i find it pretty good but i want to weld car panels soon and i'm told no gas is no good for such thin metal so i suppose it all depends what you are going to be welding if you will ever be doing thin stuff then i suppose you would be better off converting to gas as i'm going to have to do
You can weld car metal of 0.7mm with Gasless 0.76mm wire (Lincoln Innershield)... BUT... your difficulty will be if that 0.7mm is in fact pitted on the reverse side whilst appearing ok on the surface.
Gasless is hotter, it might be better to flow a little CO2 with it (cheap pub gas to cool the metal, gasless wire to weld in the wind).
There is no getting away from the fact that old auto metal at the extreme is very difficult to weld. On an old inner wheel arch lip which I cleaned up very well, it was blatantly obvious it was "piggin thin" having been 0.7mm to start with and had a fair talc-sized mass of pinholes which are right through at that thickness of metal. The solution to plug welding it was to clamp 2 sheets of 0.55mm copper sheet, use a small 4mm hole, drill partly through the second sheet. You end up with a 7-8mm plug weld which is wide & flat (gasless wire), but has good penetration because the copper prevents blow through. Since it is welded upside down you will have problems with the weld puddle dropping. It can take two "weld, flap disc grind, inspect, re-weld any tiny hole or gap".
Gasless can be made to work with somewhat masochistic perseverance, but I suspect running CO2 with it (those cheap refill 1kg sealey cylinders or a pub gas bottle) might make the really thin stuff easier.
As cars moved to Finite Element Analysis they began using tissue paper steel in many non-structural places so they could up the thickness 0.1mm or 0.2mm or 0.3mm elsewhere. It made a big difference on the crash tests from 1990 through to 2005, but it means welding is going to be more difficult. It needs low amps, stop-start stitch, lots of practice. If you are slightly out on panel alignment (tack - re-align - tack - re-align) the thin sheet can get the penetration with the thicker sheet having nothing visible on the rear. Mirror & torch are quite handy to adjust technique as you go.
If you can go with gas, with 0.6mm wire, it should be somewhat easier. The cooling effect is very beneficial with tissue metal and gets a better "real world front-&-back bead" compared to the easy butt-joint practice on the flat (which is much easier :-)
Gasless is hotter, it might be better to flow a little CO2 with it (cheap pub gas to cool the metal, gasless wire to weld in the wind).
There is no getting away from the fact that old auto metal at the extreme is very difficult to weld. On an old inner wheel arch lip which I cleaned up very well, it was blatantly obvious it was "piggin thin" having been 0.7mm to start with and had a fair talc-sized mass of pinholes which are right through at that thickness of metal. The solution to plug welding it was to clamp 2 sheets of 0.55mm copper sheet, use a small 4mm hole, drill partly through the second sheet. You end up with a 7-8mm plug weld which is wide & flat (gasless wire), but has good penetration because the copper prevents blow through. Since it is welded upside down you will have problems with the weld puddle dropping. It can take two "weld, flap disc grind, inspect, re-weld any tiny hole or gap".
Gasless can be made to work with somewhat masochistic perseverance, but I suspect running CO2 with it (those cheap refill 1kg sealey cylinders or a pub gas bottle) might make the really thin stuff easier.
As cars moved to Finite Element Analysis they began using tissue paper steel in many non-structural places so they could up the thickness 0.1mm or 0.2mm or 0.3mm elsewhere. It made a big difference on the crash tests from 1990 through to 2005, but it means welding is going to be more difficult. It needs low amps, stop-start stitch, lots of practice. If you are slightly out on panel alignment (tack - re-align - tack - re-align) the thin sheet can get the penetration with the thicker sheet having nothing visible on the rear. Mirror & torch are quite handy to adjust technique as you go.
If you can go with gas, with 0.6mm wire, it should be somewhat easier. The cooling effect is very beneficial with tissue metal and gets a better "real world front-&-back bead" compared to the easy butt-joint practice on the flat (which is much easier :-)
