SHogan
Member
- Messages
- 82
- Location
- West Sussex, UK
Just a little reminder from my experience over the last couple of days doing some car-body repairs...
This was a rush job as I was originally going to repair the complete sill on both sides of my van which had failed its MOT because of a couple of rust holes. It turned out that I needed to use it on Sunday so I wanted to do a quick patch repair, get it through the re-test and then repair the sill in the Spring when it's a bit warmer and there's more light!
I fully admit that I rushed the job and didn't spend long enough shaping the repair panel which had a curve in it. I also didn't clean enough of the paint and underseal off the rest of the sill where I was going to weld the patch to and it made the job an absolute pig.
The moral of the story is that the time you spend making sure the panel or section (or whatever it is that you're welding) actually fits correctly, and the time you spend cleaning the crap off whatever you're welding together, will save you ages when it comes to pulling the trigger on the welding torch. For the second patch I spent an extra 5 minutes cleaning and shaping and the actual welding part was a piece of cake as the edges all lined up nicely whereas on the first panel I was trying to push it and bend it as I was welding. Not good....
This was a rush job as I was originally going to repair the complete sill on both sides of my van which had failed its MOT because of a couple of rust holes. It turned out that I needed to use it on Sunday so I wanted to do a quick patch repair, get it through the re-test and then repair the sill in the Spring when it's a bit warmer and there's more light!
I fully admit that I rushed the job and didn't spend long enough shaping the repair panel which had a curve in it. I also didn't clean enough of the paint and underseal off the rest of the sill where I was going to weld the patch to and it made the job an absolute pig.
The moral of the story is that the time you spend making sure the panel or section (or whatever it is that you're welding) actually fits correctly, and the time you spend cleaning the crap off whatever you're welding together, will save you ages when it comes to pulling the trigger on the welding torch. For the second patch I spent an extra 5 minutes cleaning and shaping and the actual welding part was a piece of cake as the edges all lined up nicely whereas on the first panel I was trying to push it and bend it as I was welding. Not good....