my welding pics

[knoxy]

Iv recently got a draper 95 gassless, tbh its pretty crap lol but as im a total novice i guess it will do untill my skill level gets better

The current project i have is a corsa gsi, i got the car with the c20xe engine installed, however over the winter the car is off the road in need of some repairs and upgrades, one of the up grades is the C20let engine with the the turbo'd version of the 16v engine that was currently in the car

Its highly Recommended that alot of strengthening is done to the engine bay and you are able to buy the steal plate that is cut into the shapes that you need for the corsa engine bay off of ebay, however i grudge playing for them as there only normal steel plate cut into the shapes that you need

Anyway with the 16v engine out i started to take of the anti-roll bars, and to my shock the front bottom crossmeber could very easly moved and twisted by hand, so with some more inspection i found that there where some big cracks along the join and in some places it was borken off

the bottom section seemed to be ok, but the bottom wasent, so i tack welded the along the seams

The penertraion looks ok and the cross member was held in place but i wanted some extra support

So i whent down to the local motor factors and got myself some 1mm sheet metal, after cutting out the section i needed to compaired the sheet matal to the thickness of the metal on the car and its only very slight thinner, but when i when't to weld it in the sheet steal just seems to melt a whole lot easyer then the steal on the car, i looked into the other side of the engine bay and the Penetration was minimal in some places and in others the paint was only scortched, iv some thicker steal, 4mm so i might cut out that thin crap and try some better gear, i dont think iv did to badly as iv only read the guides on this site to help me along

 

[Wozzaaah]

Hi knoxy, I won't be too critical as like you said, you're a novice but you really need to run a continuous weld around that plate for it to stand any chance of staying attached. It looks like you've got very little penetration on most of it. My suggestion would be to run a continuous weld around it concentrating most of the heat onto the crossmember and engine bay and just allowing the weld pool to flow into the edge of the plate. Like you said, maybe better to hack the plate off and start again with a more substantial plate, the only drawback is you're limited on power with only 95 amps. If you're at all serious about welding up project cars, treat yourself to a different welder, one that uses gas or that can use gas or gasless (dual purpose) something around 130A would do you fine, 150A even better.

 

[oddball90]

Sorry for being blunt, you need more practice on scrap steel.
As Wozzaaah says cut plates off and run a continuous weld. Even on thin body panels you tack the plate in place then run an inch of weld leave a gap then another inch of weld. Till you have gone around the patch, then fill the gaps.
On the crossmember you have got a series of tacks not weld, with no strengh at all, the weld tacks are just sitting on the surface not penetrated at all. Would get some practice on scrap steel till you are sure you can run a constant seem of weld. Grind the tacks off and start again on the cross member, then use a little more power, again weld for an inch then stop move forward then weld for an inch.
Would suggest you use 1.2mm thick steel for stiffening, so get a sheet and use some to practice with first. Again on your stiffener plate you have just tacked not welded.

 

[FireStorm]

also the bottom cross meber should be soild, dunno why you can bend it? i would check the underneath of it for rust. They are normally solid as the run from chasis to chasis and hold the rad in place!!!!

i've never been able to bend any bottom member by hand and i do banger racing.

 

[knoxy]

Aye, i think i will grind that sheet metal off, iv some 3mm steel plate, that should be more up to the job, and ill give it continuous weld all the way around this time, if they 95amp can weld it that is

Where the crossmemeber was spot welded at one side, it had a very large crack and you could more ot less grab hold of it and move it up and down, the only thing that was holding it steady was the anti-roll bars, i shudder to think what might have happend if the whole crossmeber failed while i was driving

Iv been looking at some of the welder in machine mart as thet seem to have some nice deals on 150 machines, better then that gassless jobie

 

[oddball90]

Pm welequip on here for a price on clarke welders and reactive masks, normally he can beat MM prices.

 

[Wozzaaah]

A 150A machine will be perfect, plenty of power and very versatile. You'll definitely see an improvement in your weld quality if you use gas. Set yourself up with a refillable cylinder rather than disposables though, disposables aren't worth bothering with.

 

[knoxy]

Updated pic

I cut that thing metal out and put in some 3mm steal plate, tell me what you think

 

[Gasman]

Welcome Knoxy,

IMHO better than your previous attempt but frankly I wouldn't want something as potentially dangerous as an uprated car done this way. I would urge you to spend a weekend practicing adjusting your settings and developing your technique prior to attacking this project. There are loads of threads and tutorials on here already.

Make sure your steel is bright and clean, and get into a comfortable position to enable a steady hand. Looks perhaps as if your wire speed is too high or are you attempting to join up a series of tacks? 3mm may well be thicker than your original bodywork so slightly bias the weld-pool towards the new steel to avoid burning through.
Your machine may not be the best but experimenting and research here will certainly improve things. Good Luck

 

[Wozzaaah]

Ok, looking at your welds and calling them 'top, middle and bottom' (I feel like michael barrymore! ....or maybe not, too much bottom ) the bottom one doesn't look too bad, the middle one is not brilliant but the top one looks poor. The left side of it is better than the right side. Like gasman says, it looks like you've tried to join several tacks up. When you tack a plate on you only need just enough tacks to keep it in position. Relax, hold the torch steady with BOTH hands, one holding it and the other steadying it, I tend to rest the neck of the torch on my left hand. The top one is a vertical piece so the weld pool will want to fall downwards which explains the lumpiness on the top edge of the plate. You need to compensate for that by making sure it's actually penetrating the original steel and not running off it and into the edge of the new plate. Do lots of test welds on scrap and make notes of power/wire speed settings so you know what works best and what your machine's capable of.

 

[knoxy]

I think the reason it looks as if its tacked on is because i tryed to do the moon shaped method but it was a constant bead all the way around, i cant put the wire speed down any more because the little wire feed motor is a piece of ****, any slower and i dont get a nice constant speed, it just comes out in burst as i dont think the motor is all that much strong

This might sounds stupid but i had no idea that when u really heat the steel up the is put out so much Radiant heat , i had one some thin gloves on and the hand that was guiding the torch felt like it was on fire, ill need to get some proper gauntlets lol