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Old Problem, New Questions


Kittamaru
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My truck has the typical "cancer" in the rear panels near the tire wells and on the one rear quarterpanel... and it's pretty advanced. One hole is about golf ball sized with corrosion at least three inches around it, the other is at least a fist sized hole with the corrosion not extending as far out.

 

My question - I'm taking an OxyAcetalyn course this semester and plan to take a Tig/Mig welding course next semester. My lab instructor IS WILLING to let me fix the truck in the shop... but I can't bring the whole truck in.

 

What would be the easiest way to go about removing these panels, and what kind of steel should I use to fab with?

 

I have some pictures to take and post, so I'll explain more once I've done that.

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The rear fenders? They aren't removeable (well technically they are, but you would probably do more damage attempting to remove them than you already have as they are welded in place and body filler seams). Maybe see if you can park by the back door and work on it that way?

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will they let you use the tig/mig stuff before you take the class?

Cause just using OXY would be a crazy learning experience.

 

(just removed my gas tank last week to weld up my rear frame and rusted rear wheelwells and under rear seats)

 

that part is thin enough you can use a small rental to do it.

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I'm doing the Oxy first as it's an intro course - lower temps and less of a chance of burning yourself with an oxy than a tig arc.

 

Once I've gotten familiar with those, he's willing to teach me some mig and tig before I take the actual mig and tig welding course.

 

After that, I can take a stick welding course which goes into more advanced methods of welding.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hey Kittamaru,

I used to own a body shop back in the day when the only afordable option was oxifuel, I would recomend that you learn all you can with the oxifuel (specialy puddle control) before you go into Mig or Tig trust me it will be allot easier to produce profecional looking beads and there will be less chance of blowing holes or warping the quarter panels. I will also recomend that (unless you are verry proficient with the oxigass) you wait untill you are comfortable with the MIG. With oxigass it is a pain in the but to keep your puddle on a vertical surface while holding the torch and the filler rod not to mention the posibility of spending too much time in one spot and warping the panel or catching something on fire. Talking about fires, I used to keep a 2 liter botle full of water with a small hole in the cap to put fires out (no mater how well you clear the area, someting allways catches fire ;) )

Good luck and lots of Patience

 

 

PS. Have you cosidered replasing the hole quarte panell skin?

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I'm doing the Oxy first as it's an intro course - lower temps and less of a chance of burning yourself with an oxy than a tig arc.

 

Once I've gotten familiar with those, he's willing to teach me some mig and tig before I take the actual mig and tig welding course.

 

After that, I can take a stick welding course which goes into more advanced methods of welding.

 

Umm..... you really got this ass backwards man.... you usually learn stick welding (smaw) first which is the easiest process, then gmaw (mig), then oxy acetylene, then gtaw (tig). I would say oxy acetelyene welding is the toughest and most dangerous. If you need to use the torch to repair the panels i would suggest to braze new material on... not weld.

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Umm..... you really got this ass backwards man.... you usually learn stick welding (smaw) first which is the easiest process, then gmaw (mig), then oxy acetylene, then gtaw (tig). I would say oxy acetelyene welding is the toughest and most dangerous. If you need to use the torch to repair the panels i would suggest to braze new material on... not weld.

 

Actually, the private welding school i went to started oxy acetylene welding first. Nice slow, cheap way to learn puddle control, heat input, travel speed. I'm with you on the safety thing though. Maybe that's why they started us there first, get the healthy fear thing going, get the good safety habits in our head first. And as a fun debate i've been in often at work, i would vote Stick welding as the most physically/mentally demanding. You can do it in any weather/and position/any location (which adds to the challenge), you've got the smoke, the splatter, arc blow,and heavy safety gear (leathers). You can also weld in much more confined spaces stick welding. Allot of my co-workers have argued tig is the hardest, but I feel that tig is only hard because of the quality standards typically required if your using that process, and the characteristics of the materials you can weld. Not specifically the process itself. I mean, i've tig welded in a t-shirt. Usually the environment is controlled, it dosn't matter what position your in, it runs the same, It's quiet, no splatter, very minimal smoke. Arc blow typically isn't a factor. You've got to be really screwing up to have undercut. It's got great penetration and a small HAZ, oh, and no slag. :shrug: Eh, I think stick welding takes the prize for the hardest to do quality welds with.

 

Sorry, i'm a welding geek :crossedwires:

Edited by PDCCD
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The High-school Votec here in KY teaches gas first, then stick, then mig. Tig is for advanced students... Second year at the earliest.

The schools in CA started w/ stick, from what I remember, but they weren't nearly as structured or well funded. I always found that disappointing. :unsure:

 

You really want to learn to weld. Come to KY.

Edited by crazyhayseed
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You really want to learn to weld. Come to KY.

 

 

I agree with that. I've met more than a few union pipe welders from KY, and those boys were good! Lots of shutdown and power plant experience. I thought i heard too that the union that's responsible for the Alaskan pipeline was from that neck of the woods, but that was second hand info, never did verify it.

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We're still only doing Oxy Cutting yet... the welding part looks... insane.

 

Don't get nervous. It's really not that bad. Just remember that it's like anything else... You get better w/ practice.

 

Pay attention to the stick part (That's the most common) but get to the mig as soon as you can.

Mig is easier, cleaner, more versatile (in my opinion), than the others. Tig is cool, but kind of a PITA... like brazing.

 

Think of it this way, the sooner your figure out what you're doing, the closer you'll be to building all of us new bull-bars. :tongue:

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i could teach a monkey to tig and mig weld, stick can be very difficult depending on position and direction of travel, vertical up is hard. but you want real hard try welding something with a heavy magnetic field in it.

 

Yeah, especially anything using an AC current to weld. Good thing the ones I did didn't need to be pretty, just functional (aluminum roof curbing under a generator).

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How about explosion welding *crazy grin* that looks fskcing AWESOME!

 

Anyway, the area I need to take out is about 4 inches tall by 6 inches wide... thats from the small bit of panel BEHIND my rear drivers side wheel...

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