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AllTorque's 1970 Buick Sportwagon


AllTorque

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Cheers guys. Will definitely be picking some brains. I still have a bit of gear to accumulate and plan on practicing on some junk first. 

Plan is to just chip away, while still keeping it on the road, but things might change depending on what surprises I find. 

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I'm no welder, but if you can get away with it try 0.6mm. I use 0.8mm as I do more fabrication than panel work.

I have all  files, hammers, dollies, shears, rotary burrs, long boards etc, and also a wee hand held pneumatic thing that does stuff that helps with patches (but I can't remember what it's called). Happy to make them all available if it helps. 

 

EDIT: It's an air panel flange punch tool. Yeah baby. You didn't even know Flange needed an air punch in the tool

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I appreciate the offer, UJ. As I am a complete newbie to panel work I have no tools (or skill). I would prefer to accumulate my own stuff, so I'll be buying a few basics as I can. 

I bought a roll of 0.8 wire with the welder, but will get some 0.6 if you think it will make life easier. 

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either 0.8 or 0.6 can work just need to adjust technique. which is most of the battle - finding what settings and gun angles work for your welder in which positions on what thicknesses and shittiness of surfaces etc. a lot of the time for car stuff you are pretty restricted in position and length of bead before overheating the thin stuff or just running into movement obstacles that require you to physically move yourself. so I usually end up running relatively hotter than what "normal" fabrication welding would recommend because you have to do a  series of tacks or very short welds and you need the higher power to get enough penetration at the start of the weld. this then means you have to stop and/or increase your torch distance shortly after starting to reduce the heat input.

other recommendations - tip within 0-5mm of end of nozzle - sometimes you need to cut the nozzle of the welder shorter to achieve this. start welds with the gun real close/ short ~5-10mm wire stickout from tip when starting to give you more initial penetration with less power and wire speed  

 

my 2c anyway

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I like .6mm for panel, I think i do the same as Tom is suggesting with thin jap steel I use more than required tack amps (will cause burn-through if you sit there too long), and modulate with the amount of wire stickout, so start close to material to settle a nice flat tack and draw gun away from material to effectively reduce amps due to extra length of wire, maybe 1/2 second tacks. generally i run a lower wire feed rate for this sort of stuff too. lean the torch over more if you are still getting burn, through and don't be tempted to pull the torch away until the post-flow is complete. if your post flow is adjustable suggest an extra couple of seconds of that can help a bit too.

It kind of just feels natural after a while, you will know as soon as you strike the arc wether is's on the money or tool cold/hot.

 

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  • 2 months later...
5 hours ago, fuel said:

How is it heavier in the rear than it is in the front? or did I read the chart wrong?

Unusual yes, but just check out the overhang on the arse end. All of that glass, american iron/bog not to mention a hefty diff. And it's not like it's got a big block in it. You could imagine the weight difference when it's loaded for wagnats. 

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  • 2 years later...

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