Bling

Did not see that coming haha, looks great! You may have mentioned it in the build, I just read the pictures.

Quick update while there is some peace and quiet around here. Went for cert recheck and got the big tick / cert donut. May have already covered it, but spent a bit of time sorting the suspension travel to get it to comply. Just one of the joys of a light chassis, where half the weight in the rear is unsprung. Lots of maths and a bit of trimming here and there and I got it bang on. Pretty sure I could pull the rear suspension out with my eyes closed now. So yeah, cert man said I did a good job and I was on my way. Christmas period means it won't be in the system till next year, hopefully no hiccups in that regard. So i'll hopefully have it WOF'd by end of January. Carb still needs a bit of work, there is a local guy that rebuilds them, but i'm not sure he will be interested in determining what the actual problem is. So I may have to try sort that myself. Just likes to either run on, or stall at lights. So I currently have it fiddled to run a higher idle so that it doesn't stall, the less embarrassing option. So time allowing i'll potentially swap bits between the cars and see if I can isolate the problem, be it the dieseling solenoid or whatever other voodoo controls such things. Have been using my aliexpress claybar on the windows to remove all of the garbage left on them during the build, coming up nice. Have also been looking into sound options as that will make things a bit more pleasant in the cabin. Pretty raw, even with carpet, so looking to get a big ol' roll of deadening and laying that in places to quieten that up a bit. Sound wise, looking to put some components up front and amp them when money allows. I have a sub and amp from many years ago, but really don't know if I can be bothered installing that. So will see how the front speakers go and work from there. As part of cert I had to weld up the rear speaker holes in the parcel shelf. Didn't have to, but to keep the seatbelt anchorages in the rear shelf, they had to be filled, so that was my preferred option. I don't want to cut the rear panels to fit speakers. Box speakers to bolt on the shelf are silly money these days, so for now I have no interest in rear speakers. So yeah, front speakers are around the 4" mark from the factory, which isn't going to work. So I scanned my kick panels the other day and printed up some practice speaker rings. The idea being that i'll cut up a spare pair of panels and mount the printed parts (that won't be orange) to the kick panels and cut out in the inside. Currently has nice black panels installed, so they will be removed and put away for safe keeping. I'll then paint the spares, one of which is half brown half black, to be black. Will have a play with changing the angle of the speakers too, this first run was just to see if my theory was right. I was pretty sure while it was printing, that I had fucked something up as the profile of the ring did NOT look anything like the panel. It was though. So here are some pics, will update when road legal all going to plan. Panel to be scanned: Scan result, which I wasn't worried about accuracy so didn't bother scanning with my more accurate scanner, rough and ready will do the trick. Speaker ring, rough print as it's a concept print, not a final print to be used. Couple of photos of it on the panel, has the potential to make the install pretty neat and should look relatively factory IMO. /spent /fred for abuse advice:

The VIN being painted is probably least of the worries (come WOF time) on that vehicle if masking it was too much work.

I'm going to say if you DIY'd that, you'd be out of luck, doesn't look to be past the rear opening of the door. Maybe it works as it's pointed away from the opening. Full marks for the straight parking though. It's illegal to take photos with an iPad with your dog hanging out the window too.

Just watched this, half as a refresh half because I do enjoy a bit of Edd China. You may find some good tips in here. He includes a demo of using 0.8mm wire with thin sheet (among other scenerios) Worth a look. He was welding patches into a chassis in another video and showed how to cut and fit, then weld the patch panel in, also worth a look.

That's where the thin rope works well, feed it into the gap and it can't close up. Once you've gone right around, pop it out and cup of tea time.

Yeah totally depends on the car / method it's installed with. If glued, a box cutter will do it, rubber seal is a length of thin rope / fat string. Have done both with no friends, with success. Rubber seal is piece of piss, cutting the urethane just takes time.

Will depend on budget too, the big units are big money. I would suggest Marquip 16, new or second hand, but new they go for silly money. So it makes it harder to recommend. Have seen them pop up for pretty reasonable prices second hand though, so if not in a hurry, that would be worth watching for. Before I got mine, I was looking at other options such as running two smaller units in tandem with a storage tank they both filled to. Also depends what you have now and how much more air you think you could get away with. That unit you linked might give you twice the air and manage to keep your usage happy. It is the sort of tool you hang on to long term, so if spending a bit more saves you paying someone to paint your ride, a spendy unit can still be a good investment. Bigger is better, but you may well be able to manage your usage with that unit you linked. It will likely smash the direct drive you already have. At that price... you could almost grab another if you find it lacking down the road, which so long as you have the power to run them, for $1200 I can't see anything else offering up 17CFM of FAD for even double that price. Or just grab one and ignore my ramblings.

Smaller the roll the worse the value (probably double the price by weight), that's the only problem. If you plan to weld a lot, 5kg will be decent value. Just remember to swap the roller around to 0.6mm as well as the torch tip. Also, you have the 3rd knob wrong in that photo, the chart you took a photo of shows it in the green zone. The manual also states it adjusts the induction. So it will be a pretty important setting to be using correctly. I had to check the manual as it didn't make sense to me that a fancy looking machine like that seemed to have limited adjustment. So that may not solve a huge amount, but it will certainly play a part in getting good results. If I adjust my inductance on my welder it changes the weld result. Read the manual tonight with a cold beer and see what all the bells and whistles are for, then look to set the machine a bit closer to the settings recommended. With settings not set right, you'll be fighting a losing battle for sure.

0.8mm doesn't make it impossible, as it can be done. But if you're learning, you want things to be as easy as possible, 0.6mm is the best wire for thin material. A new roll of wire isn't the end of the world, sell the 0.8mm to cover a lot of the cost. Worthwhile i'd say, the extra heat needed is just going to be annoying to work with. The only reason (IMO) to run 0.8mm would be if you weld mostly thicker stuff, with the odd bit of panel steel. If you're mostly welding panel steel, then get the 0.6mm which is best suited to that. You can still use the 0.6mm for bigger jobs, if necessary. If no big jobs in the pipeline, sell the 0.8mm to help fun the 0.6mm. Sell it to that mate who said 0.8mm for panel steel

A lot of this looks too cold to me, was there a back photo for that one or did I just miss it? Appears to be a big weld pool on the top, but it hasn't melted into the panel itself in areas, as if it had, it wouldn't have the steep sides on the finished weld, would be more flat like some of the other welds. I've only used 0.6mm on my repairs, so a little out of depth with how to set that up to work better TBH. I would perhaps start by dialing back the wire speed slowly and see how that changes the weld. Is that 3rd knob used for MIG or only the first two? Rough maths says 0.8mm wire is 40% more wire than 0.6mm wire. That's quite a difference when we are working on thin welds.

I'd say middle of road for my welds, plenty of people on here could put them to shame haha. I did take my time with those since they were inspected though. But that all comes down to practice. I've been using my machine for years, haven't done a huge amount of welding compared to some. But I always practice, practice, practice things, before trying it on the real job. So I spent a bit of time with scraps like you have cut, and just played with settings till I could reproduce welds with the right penetration. Plenty of youtube videos showing what to look for. The person recommended above would be worth looking into and taking in all the information.

Post up your planned knob settings, could be some pointers there before you start. That welder makes mine look like a dinosaur lol.

Cheers, working well so far. Only the most stubborn of tiny (sub 0.5mm) epoxy primer dots staying put. So they'll get the blade. The rest is silky smooth.

Wirespeed also affects amperage I think. So it's a fine tune between turning that up and having the voltage about right to match it. I used to have settings written on my workbench. Then I sold it... I just wing it now, most of my knobs are middle of the road and I often use torch distance to work to fine tune things as I go. I feel like low settings on a welder would only be useful if trying to weld a whole length on a join. Which you can't really do on car panels. So higher settings work better for "spot welds". I've never really used the bottom half of the range on my machine much for that reason. Welder is currently setup: Voltage: 22ish Current: 110a Inductance: 5, which is middle on mine. Wirespeed: high That plug welded my ~1mm panel. I was using the torch to hold the panel in place, so distance to work piece was like 2-3mm. Each welder seems to have different knobs and whistles which probably all do the same thing.

Idiot proof methods to bring car window glass back to new? Lots of grime and some wind-blown dots from painting. Have used razorblade in our of the way places as a test and it comes up good. But could damage glass so wondering what others do? Does a clay bar take all that stuff off?

Yeah mix will be nicer to use, but honestly i've not been limited by pure CO2. You adapt to each gas. I've measured 0.5mm sheet and tack welded that with pure CO2, it had no use, I just wanted to see if it was possible. Old escort panel should be a breeze with it, with practice. I certainly wouldn't change gas and expect it to solve the problem here. Not that there is a problem as such, just need more practice and to know what to look for.

Will try this week. In the meantime, get a few bits of scrap panel and just try welding tacks on them. Literally just try weld in the middle of a bit of scrap. Then turn it over and see how obvious the weld is. Too cold and the surface will look like normal. Penetration which you want, will start to form a molten pool on the underside. The idea behind having a few bits of scrap is so you don't build up the heat too much, which will throw the results out. Maybe post up the settings you are using too. I always do a test weld before working on the actual job too. That photo I posted earlier I had some sheet, same sheet, on the bench and did some test tacks to make sure the settings were ok. Biggest hurdle with your patches were the gaps IMO. They are weldable, but only with practice as they are a bit harder to do. Easier to weld when the panels are butted together. With gaps, you have to get creative. Once you have one tack that bridges the gap, I tend to weld to the tacks which will then melt both panels together at the edges. Trying to weld into the gap by starting on one panel or the other will be blow through city.

So, not a pro welder etc, just showing how i'd do it. On a small patch i'd potentially even have a little break between each set of 4 tacks, to avoid heat build up in the panel. Heat build up will change how it welds, too much heat and apart from the panel potentially warping, the chance of blowing through will increase. So maybe 1,2,3,4, break, 5,6,7,8, break. The smaller you can make the gap between the car and the panel the better too, less chance of blowing through, having the wire go through the gap or even melting the edge away from the panel. If you can have them a tight fit, that will make it easier to weld.

Flap discs for me, and it's only if it's going to be seen really. A lot of my repairs aren't seen so I leave them as they were when welded. Checked your project fred, yeah looking a bit cold. What I do for patches like that, is do a few decent tacks to hold it in place. Then I weld right next to the tack, aiming the torch at the gap right against the tack already there if that makes sense. What it means is the wire won't go through the gap accidently as it hits the tack that's already there. I'll try get the welder out this week and do some photos of what I mean as it might not make sense.

Post some photos up of practice welds done on bench, or even the patches you have done. Here is some I did in my boot, laying upside down. Welder settings are relatively high, for the material thickness, but I do short welds just long enough to fill the 5mm holes I had punch in the bottom sheet. Gave good penetration which showed on the topside with a bit of metal protruding top side too on the plugs. Example included in spoiler.

100mm or so squares of panel steel for practise. The panel will heat up, so have a few you can cycle through to get the most accurate results. Then i'd just set the welder and hit the panel. So a few "spot welds" and see what the result is. Post them if you like, i'm sure plenty on here with more experience than me. But you can tell a lot from a weld as to what you may need to fine tune. I have a BOC welder which has a few settings on it, so I can't give you the settings for yours. But I find it pretty forgiving. For example, I was welding some 4mm plate to a 10mm section the other day for an exhaust bracket. Then this last week I plug welded some just shy of 1mm body panels without even changing the welder settings. A lot comes down to how long you pull the trigger for, distance from work etc. This is with CO2, it's all i've ever used at home, no problems.

Will swap for cosplay photos. /didn't take any sorry

Cracker day for it, some sweet whips too. 10/10 for Wayne's balls.

VIRM should have pretty decent diagrams showing where it's required. I was looking the other day (but too lazy to google it right now) and it showed all sorts of angles and where they were required. Cletus may have actually posted it on a previous page, I have a vague memory of that so could be worth a look. look up virm mudguard, should have all the info