Tig welding car body panels

[Dubdecks]

is it possible to tig weld car body panels ?

If so what would we need as in machine output etc

 

[cumbriasteve]

Yes it is but it's not the usual method people use for various reasons, any specific reason why you want to go down the TIG route?

 

[Ali]

Depends entirely on your working environment and the nature of the job. A lot of hot rodders who make serious modifications to bodywork (particularly at the professional end) use tig as it's so much neater amd you dont tend to get the distortion you get with mig welds. But if you're welding on your driveway or its MOT work etc., it's probably going to be mig. If you're thinking of buying a machine and wondering what you need there's another board on here which may be helpful to you.

 

[Ali]

http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/threads/working-on-cars.64023/#post-819170

See this thread.

 

[Kent]

Tig being a slower process and so will distort more! It's advantage is a small and neat bead in skilled hands with good fusion you can see occuring.
Tig is the most fussy about clean and shiney material - not great at all with most car work which often means contaminates you can't quite fully remove
Just about any tig will have the power for car work 30 amp per mm thick approx.
It's not alloy is it?

 

[Dubdecks]

thanks guys, its for some restorations, not alloy... we have a mig but we are looking for a bit more neater etc, i know alot of this is down to how you use a mig/tig

 

[Chris Stevens]

is it possible to tig weld car body panels ?

If so what would we need as in machine output etc

Not a great idea to use TIG for car restoration. Get a gas welding/brazing set up, which you will find much more use for car resto work, in combination with a MIG that has wire feed pulse feature.

 

[Kent]

thanks guys, its for some restorations, not alloy... we have a mig but we are looking for a bit more neater etc, i know alot of this is down to how you use a mig/tig

Are you leaving the bead exposed though or putting the grinder to it?
Yes it is and how much practice you have had - remember few car welding jobs are done on the flat from a perfectly comfortable position this complicates things if you haven't the Experiance required

 

[norlander]

You can get some neat welds with MIG, I suprise meself sometimes. Tacking easier with MIG, spotting in easier with MIG, pulsing on the trigger easier with MIG when joining up tacks.
Spot abit, apply air or cold rag to the panel easier with MIG.
There was some stuff some time back about a bloke who does "MIG like TIG" welds, and people trying imitate them, and various opinions on integrity etc.
Try dropping a spot on with circular motion and immediately following on with tad of overlap.You may need to run your settings a tad hotter or penetration and fusion might be poor, but have a play on some test pieces and see what you think.
But if you are grinding off flush, MIG all the way for me personally.But if you have to TIG it, where there is a will there is a way, each to his own.
Presume you have the luxury of working inside out of the breeze.

 

[backpurge]

As has already been said the main drawback with TIG is it is a lot slower which leads to high heat induced distortion

 

[Richard.]

I've done it, it does work but devotes more skill.
The appearance is nicer than Mig granted but if your flashing it over with a grinder anyway to blend in the replacement panel so that it looks "as one" then there is no real advantage (unless you don't have a Mig). The distortion is far more likely with a tig but in useful hands, good technique and with the aid of a fast pulse this can be controlled.
A Mig is more tolerant to poor fit up on thin gage due to fact fill is always there but again a skilled tig welder can overcome this too. The main advantage with using a Mig for slapping body panels together is its a hard job for a beginner at the best of times and throwing a higher skilled process at that job can make things even more so. I've done a few bits on crappy body work with my tig and while I loathe that sort of work and tend to avoid it nowadays the results have been very nice when done.
Remember though if you plan on doing a lot of it then it's worth chucking £100 at a second hand Clarke as you'll soon see it gets expensive using pure argon on a rusty car.

 

[zeppelin builder]

i tig welded front panels in to a mk2 jaguar once ,carefully air sawed the old and new to get an exact fit up ,spent ages cleaning up the weld preps with emery bands, tacked it all up then pulse tigged it lovely job ,only to be told by the paint shop guy thats no use mate.you see we need somewhere for the filler to sit in
then duly started bashing in a hollow all along the seams, most of the guys roll or fold in a joggle to give a lap joint which helps to control the distortion and backs up the sparrow **** mig weld .usualy paint the parts with weldable zinc primer before fit up then weld /aircool /weld in short stitches, fit for purpose im told

 

[langy]

i tig welded front panels in to a mk2 jaguar once ,carefully air sawed the old and new to get an exact fit up ,spent ages cleaning up the weld preps with emery bands, tacked it all up then pulse tigged it lovely job ,only to be told by the paint shop guy thats no use mate.you see we need somewhere for the filler to sit in
then duly started bashing in a hollow all along the seams, most of the guys roll or fold in a joggle to give a lap joint which helps to control the distortion and backs up the sparrow **** mig weld .usualy paint the parts with weldable zinc primer before fit up then weld /aircool /weld in short stitches, fit for purpose im told

That sounds like a great body shop !!!

 

[arther dailey]

my thought exactly, not the sort of bodyshop I would put my old van in let alone a pride and joy resto.

 

[squazy84]

If I was fitting in a panel edge to edge and had great access to both sides,perfect fit up and loads of time and needed a top strength joint then maybe id use tig,but for me id have to spend a good few hours hammer and dolly ect to remove all the distortion,but it could be almost metal finished with almost no filler, welding cars where your coming up against previously sealed spot welded joints that you cant thoroughly clean to clean room standards will really upset a tig weld(maybe im lacking skill here) a bit of stainless filler seems to help this for some reason,found that out by accident but dissimilar metal corrosion and all that make me sleep uneasy,im sorry to say that mig really is a sensible option for a normal standard good quality restoration and if your careful and pulse the trigger and get your timing right the welds can be very small and neat with very little distortion

 

[WorkshopChris]

All depends on what you are welding and the following process, if you still have forming and planishing to do to the part still don't think you can get better that oxy acetylene. Mig leaves a weld bead so hard you can't do anything with it, tig is better but OA seems to leave a weld that will behave just like the parent metal you can bend it, shrink or stretch it without any effort.

 

[langy]

All depends on what you are welding and the following process, if you still have forming and planishing to do to the part still don't think you can get better that oxy acetylene. Mig leaves a weld bead so hard you can't do anything with it, tig is better but OA seems to leave a weld that will behave just like the parent metal you can bend it, shrink or stretch it without any effort.

As you said the mig leaves a hard bead that when people grind it 99 times out of a 100 they end up thinning the metal either side of the weld. A lot has to do with standards of work and I guess some cars don't warrant it