What one welder? (Sorry if it's in the wrong forum)

[trefall]

Gents (and ladies),
I'm considering a restoration on an old car my father-in-law has. The only welder I have is an arc. I need a little more equipment before I begin the project and not a lot of money. My question is, which type of welder would be your choice if you could only buy one welder? And why? I'm thinking about OA but would like to know drawbacks as to why that would not be a good choice, if any exist. Any help is appreciated.

 

[rtbcomp]

Welcome to the forum, I've moved this to the "Buying a Welder" section.

 

[cumbriasteve]

In the dark old days I used to repair cars with OA, I also distorted panels, set underseal on fire, set myself on fire and probably came close to igniting the fuel lines or petrol tank, my advice would be a MIG welder

 

[mirafioriman]

Seconded a MIG is the thing to use for most automotive welded repairs. Out of interest what's the car and what repairs does it need?

 

[trefall]

A '68 Chevelle. I've heard the car originally came from Illinois. I'm assuming that to be correct because most of the lower edges of the panels are rusted away. The engine needs to be rebuilt. It hasn't run in six years that I know of. I was just thinking that most of the old cars were made with OA or arc. I figured for straightening and raising panels (I don't like Bondo), OA might not be bad. It's cheap. Here a mig welder costs more than I make in a month. With OA I can straighten, cut and weld. But, I don't see any major damage so most of the work will probably be sheet metal. There I can see mig being quicker and easier. Since I don't have much experience with OA I don't want to warp panels trying to weld in patches. I assume that the heat of a mig is quicker and more focused so less likelihood of warpage if staggered welds are used. Guess I was just hoping to avoid buying a mig or tig.
Thanks for the replies.

 

[PTvor]

OA in the hands of someone who can really use it is a joy to watch being done on car panels.

However, not many are that good and MIG's easier and cheaper too. There are all sorts of other problems with OA. These days, just about all garages in the UK use MIG although they probably have an OA set, which they use mainly for heating things. Most car restorers use MIG.

I would have thought that by '68 cars would have been put together with spot welding wherever possible.

 

[Ragnarok]

if you could only have one welder it'd have to be something like the lincoln ranger 250 gxt hahaha