New to MIG welding and a couple of Q's :)

[Welding Bear]

Hi there, hope you're all well.

I have had a brief welding lesson and I believe the time has come to get a welder and do some practising.

I have details of the first welder I'm going to get, welding mask, gloves, tin snips etc. so that's all sorted.

I will simply be buying some steel and practising. I feel that's the way to go.

The goal is to repair an area on my car that spans around 5" in width from the sill to just before inside of the rear door:



As you can see from the photo I'll need to remove some plastic trim and the sill cover. And then the plan was to cut out that rot in the pic and where it stretches to the sill.

I'm a little confused as to what to do with the shaping of this part. Presumably I can just bend a piece of metal like in this profile drawing:



.....trying to match pretty much what I cut out?

Also, as this is only a small area of rot and on the sills am I going to have to worry about the door not finishing level? Or is that just if you were to remove the whole sill?

TIA for your thoughts

 

[Robotstar5]

Also, as this is only a small area of rot and on the sills am I going to have to worry about the door not finishing level? Or is that just if you were to remove the whole sill?

That's just the visible part, it generally extends further once you get into it

 

[Rig Pig]

If the repair is as small as you think then you should be able to make replacement with a vice and hammer and a bit of care, however as Robotstar has commented sadly your probably only looking at the tip of the iceberg. If you do need to buy replacement sills make certain that they are not cover sills - horrible bodge panels made to go over the top of rust!

 

[TwoThumbs]

Like others have said i would do more investigation before fixing anything. In these rust battles A can lead to B and take you into deep waters. I would remove trim pieces and plastic sill covers on both sides as they can hide nasty things. Check sills for rust and softness, check inner wheel arches, check under floor lining for rusty floor pan, check model specific places for rust especially in chassis and places that you can't normally see. After complete check you have better understanding what needs to be done and what would be easiest place to start. Sometimes smart thing is to start looking for another car rather than doing large bodywork.

Based on photo there can be damage on sill but it's not visible, arch is rusty so inner arch can be rusty too. If i'm looking correctly, above that rubber trim is rear door? It got rust spot that is beyond saving and needs new metal. Outer door skin needs to be partially unfolded for proper patching.

You can fabricate small patch panels to match the original panel before cutting out rusty parts. You don't need to cut whole sill if it's only partially corroded. Get some thin gauge sheet metal to practice before doing visible car panels and weld slowly tack by tack to avoid any distortion.

 

[J.B. Welding]

It will without doubt be a bigger job than you think once you get into it, if that area is typical for the whole car and not a freak isolated patch. It will be stinky too as there will be all manor of crud in that area including the paint (sealers, underseal etc) so wear a mask when welding and grinding, and keep a fire extinguisher handy! Practice the overlapping tack technique on some thin rusty stuff to get the hang of it, and yes template what you want in card and cut it out. An angle grinder is handy for hacking a car to bits too. Good luck!