Welding wax cavity sills.

[russ_1380]

Hi everyone

I hope this is the right section....

I am mig welding some patches on the sills of a VW Polo.

My welding skills are average, I can weld nicely on a bench with nice clean steel following a night school course for beginners I completed a couple of years ago.

The trouble I am having is the cavity wax inside the sills and box sections within the floor sections. Every time I weld it melts and dribbles everywhere! Needless to say the wax wont help my novice welding skills.

Does anyone know of any tips or tricks that can help prevent this?

Also the welder I am using is a Clarke 135te as recommended on here; for the money its a fair welder. Admitedly it is not a pro welding machine but it does the job fine for me as a very occasional DIY / hobby user.

The only problem I am having with the machine is the shrouds; they are the screw on type that have what looks like some kind of rubber/plastic that separates the shroud from the threaded brass nut inside. The rubber keeps melting inside and causing gunk to go in the shroud, it cloggs up pretty quickly. What am I doing wrong here? I presume its me and not just a poor design issue.

Any tips appreciated!

Cheers
Russ

 

[droopsnoot]

I had a similar issue when my mate (who runs a bodywork repair / restoration business) did some patching on the sills on my Audi coupe. All he did was weld a bit, wait for it to stop running out, then weld a bit more. I guess if you want to extend the job you could scrape it off in the vicinity of the repair plate.

Makes you wonder what the point of the wax was, if you've still got to plate the sills. Can only assume corrosion from the outside inwards.

 

[nodeward]

yeh just get a bit of heat in it and let the wax run off then keep going. i usual weld a bit at one end then the opposite end and so on, its a bit tideos but quicker that trying to clean it all out

 

[russ_1380]

Cheers guys


I've really struggled with this one, its such an awkward job! As soon as i've cleaned the metal the damn wax comes back spoiling the weld. I'll keep soldiering on and tidy up the welds with filler and shutzch over the lot to 'disguise' them lol.

The earth clamp on my mig is really light weight I'l try bulking it up a bit maybe with some lead sheet i found in the garage.

I've also tried beefing up the lip of the two sills with just some thick weld beads as this always bends when jacking up the car (arm of jack tends to catch on it) or when its in a 'pro' garage they always seem to catch it too and bend it.

I'm seriously considering one of those car rollers that allow the car to sit on its side. It would make cleaning the metal and welding a doddle in comparrison the welidng over head. Does anyone know if these car rollers can be used with all the fluids still in the car?

 

[BillJ]

Does anyone know if these car rollers can be used with all the fluids still in the car?

They shouldn't be. On most cars there is some way for oil or coolant to leak out if the car is rotated significantly from the horizontal position.

 

[russ_1380]

ah i thought that may be the case but was hoping to hear different

If these were drained.....

Coolant (rad etc)
Engine oil

Do you think it would be ok to roll? or would all fluids need be drained e.g steering / brake fluid, gearbox oil

 

[Ducati]

Car roller

Cheers guys


I've really struggled with this one, its such an awkward job! As soon as i've cleaned the metal the damn wax comes back spoiling the weld. I'll keep soldiering on and tidy up the welds with filler and shutzch over the lot to 'disguise' them lol.

The earth clamp on my mig is really light weight I'l try bulking it up a bit maybe with some lead sheet i found in the garage.

I've also tried beefing up the lip of the two sills with just some thick weld beads as this always bends when jacking up the car (arm of jack tends to catch on it) or when its in a 'pro' garage they always seem to catch it too and bend it.

I'm seriously considering one of those car rollers that allow the car to sit on its side. It would make cleaning the metal and welding a doddle in comparrison the welidng over head. Does anyone know if these car rollers can be used with all the fluids still in the car?

My eldest son used to use a car roller when he played with Mk 1-2 Escorts.

He thought it was the dogs being able to sit on a stool and work on the floor pan / chassis rails etc.

Best to remove the battery.

Dif, gearbox, back axle may weep a bit of oil from the breathers depending where they are situated but can be taped up.

No need to empty the cooling system.

Washer bottle can be left full, it's only water if any tips out.

A piece of polythene screwed down under the brake / clutch master cylinders reservoirs and power steering reservoir caps should prevent spillage from the breathers.

The only time you would need to drain the engine oil is if there was the chance of 1) oil seeping past the rings and filling a cylinder causing it to hydraulic when trying to re-start, or 2) oil traveling through the crankcase breathers and entering either the air filter housing or the inlet manifold, in saying that it doesn't take long to drain engine oil.

 

[russ_1380]

Ducati

That sounds ace. It would make welding patches on the floor pan so much easier for me. By the sound of it; as long as all the filler caps and breathers are blanked off ti should be ok to roll the car in a road going state (all fluids in).

Maybe one day if I have the money i might look i to getting one. Out of interest has anyone made one themselves? The look a bit pricey for what looks like rolled tube welded together.

 

[defmeister]

I've got one of the original 'Grumpy's' rollers and just used it on my MK3 XR3i when repairing the floor. I had to remove the battery, put cling film under brake reservoir cap and oil filler cap and that was it. I got a little leakage from gearbox overflow but a set of pipe clamps sorted that. Takes about 30 minutes from getting it out the garage to having it up on it's side, and it makes welding much easier.

 

[russ_1380]

Defmeister

thats what I'm on about, it sounds the business. OUt of interest what it a 'Grumpy's' type roller?

Russ

 

[defmeister]

This link is for a pdf file of the Grumpy's Roller info. You can see a pic of how it works on the front page.

http://agua.nu/ds-files/tony-jackson/red-cd/Chassis%20stuff/Grumpy%20Roller.pdf

Hope it's OK to post links????

 

[Ducati]

Defmeister

thats what I'm on about, it sounds the business. OUt of interest what it a 'Grumpy's' type roller?

Russ

Not a Grumpy roller but if you have a look at this page ( Google Autovip Roller ) it will give you a good indication of how cars are attached to rollers, how they are rolled and how easier it is to do ' underneath ' jobs, see the guy working on the VW camper

 

[russ_1380]

ah cheers guys

I looked at the links, cj autos do one I have used them before and found them a nice bunch.

Looking at the details it seems there's two versions; one which attaches to the hubs on one side of the car only and the other version which attaches to the hubs on both sides of the car.

If I was to get one, i'd go for the one wi both sets of hubs. Surely putting all that strain on just one side of the car would be bad for the suspension, hubs / bearing etc?