Grungeisdead
New Member
- Messages
- 9
Alright dudes and dudettes,
Been into volkswagens since I was a kid and owned a load of old golfs and polos. I currently own 5 and being old vws they need a bit of welding now and I wanted to go have a go at doing it myself.
I got hold of a SIP migmate 105 off a guy at work ( I work it IT) so naturally it was unused.
I had just finished a turbo conversion in one of my mk2 polos and decided to transplant the engine into a mk1 golf.
The golf was fitted with a 4 speed gearbox and needed a 5 speed mount for the polo gearbox, so I mated them together, hasn't come apart yet after 2.5k miles. Happy days.
Et Voila - One polo/golf hybrid mount!
Welds all look good and penetrated well. Ground them back and started to box off some of the open sections from the joins, and triangluate it at the front, but I ran out of wire
It was thick steel so was very easy to weld it nice it hot, get decent penetration at the root and direct the pool. Learnt a good bit tho
Next was to modify the polos exhaust to fit the golf, needed a straight thru centre section, over the axle section making and a tailpipe welding on the rear of the centre section.
Got some more gas, replaced the centre box with straight through pipe for and used the centre box as the backbox.
Loads more ground clearance
The steel was around 2 or 3 mm so was able to get a nice bead, only getting problem where my cuts weren't perfect on the joining pipes and bends and I kept blowing holes, trying to get a weld pool to bridge a gap in the metals
Decided to get hold of some 1mm sheet metal 1m x 1m to start attempting some bodywork, I'll let the post from my build thread tell the story of the car that previously housed the turbo lump
First job was to remove a previous owners battery tray bodge which involved an unpainted bit of mild steel and seal household screws! As they hadn't cut out the rot, before screwing this it, it had spread out under the underseal. Eeejets!
Wire brushed off all the underseal, revealing the extent of the rot, ultimately entailing in the arch liner and arch coming off as part to get access to the inner wing for repair.
need to get some card, marker pens and a flap wheel after work tomorrow and I can start making up some repair sections.
Holy moly!
Crept into the inner wing!
First attempt at welding car panels!
Inside!
Ground a few of the welds back and coated with weld thru primer, gotta cut out the centre section for the curved piece, and a few bits need grinding back and welding.
Looking back at the pics, would it be better to make a piece repair section, or cut out a section from a donor car without rot?
All well and good practising welding and anything can be better than what I cut out, but I don't want it to be structurally unsound. Opinions, criticism and tips welcome
to add -
Got a co2 rental coming tomorrow , 40 quid depo, 20 per fill of 10l. Comes with a regulator too, spent about 80 quid on disposable bottles!
Is the key for bodywork welding 1mm thin ensuring that your panels are all a perfect fit, as I keep thinking I can fill small gaps with weld but the bigger a pool to fill a gap is more likey to blow thru or drip. As well as doing the pulse technique to avoid too much heat in any one place.
I was reading that the wire should extend the tip by 1/4 of an inch, but where should the wire be in relation to the metal, directly sitting on the metal or away a few mm? Couldn't find that anywhere.
This site and some of the millers videos I found have been really good!
Been into volkswagens since I was a kid and owned a load of old golfs and polos. I currently own 5 and being old vws they need a bit of welding now and I wanted to go have a go at doing it myself.
I got hold of a SIP migmate 105 off a guy at work ( I work it IT) so naturally it was unused.
I had just finished a turbo conversion in one of my mk2 polos and decided to transplant the engine into a mk1 golf.
The golf was fitted with a 4 speed gearbox and needed a 5 speed mount for the polo gearbox, so I mated them together, hasn't come apart yet after 2.5k miles. Happy days.
Et Voila - One polo/golf hybrid mount!
Welds all look good and penetrated well. Ground them back and started to box off some of the open sections from the joins, and triangluate it at the front, but I ran out of wire
It was thick steel so was very easy to weld it nice it hot, get decent penetration at the root and direct the pool. Learnt a good bit tho
Next was to modify the polos exhaust to fit the golf, needed a straight thru centre section, over the axle section making and a tailpipe welding on the rear of the centre section.
Got some more gas, replaced the centre box with straight through pipe for and used the centre box as the backbox.
Loads more ground clearance
The steel was around 2 or 3 mm so was able to get a nice bead, only getting problem where my cuts weren't perfect on the joining pipes and bends and I kept blowing holes, trying to get a weld pool to bridge a gap in the metals
Decided to get hold of some 1mm sheet metal 1m x 1m to start attempting some bodywork, I'll let the post from my build thread tell the story of the car that previously housed the turbo lump
First job was to remove a previous owners battery tray bodge which involved an unpainted bit of mild steel and seal household screws! As they hadn't cut out the rot, before screwing this it, it had spread out under the underseal. Eeejets!
Wire brushed off all the underseal, revealing the extent of the rot, ultimately entailing in the arch liner and arch coming off as part to get access to the inner wing for repair.
need to get some card, marker pens and a flap wheel after work tomorrow and I can start making up some repair sections.
Holy moly!
Crept into the inner wing!
First attempt at welding car panels!
Inside!
Ground a few of the welds back and coated with weld thru primer, gotta cut out the centre section for the curved piece, and a few bits need grinding back and welding.
Looking back at the pics, would it be better to make a piece repair section, or cut out a section from a donor car without rot?
All well and good practising welding and anything can be better than what I cut out, but I don't want it to be structurally unsound. Opinions, criticism and tips welcome
to add -
Got a co2 rental coming tomorrow , 40 quid depo, 20 per fill of 10l. Comes with a regulator too, spent about 80 quid on disposable bottles!
Is the key for bodywork welding 1mm thin ensuring that your panels are all a perfect fit, as I keep thinking I can fill small gaps with weld but the bigger a pool to fill a gap is more likey to blow thru or drip. As well as doing the pulse technique to avoid too much heat in any one place.
I was reading that the wire should extend the tip by 1/4 of an inch, but where should the wire be in relation to the metal, directly sitting on the metal or away a few mm? Couldn't find that anywhere.
This site and some of the millers videos I found have been really good!