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Hood Sheet Metal Repairs Mig or Oxy-Actelene Welding

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BIll - BC

03-05-2003 17:00:56




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I need to patch up an 8n hood, rust holes and replace a cut away piece near the rad cap etc.
I am familar with oxy - acy brazing etc and can obtain a set of torches relatively cheaply. Will the sheet metal distort to much for a nice repair Thanks for the help




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David - OR

03-05-2003 18:00:33




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 Re: Hood Sheet Metal Repairs Mig or Oxy-Actelene Welding in reply to BIll - BC, 03-05-2003 17:00:56  
The true artisans of old-car restoration tend to sneer a bit a MIG welding, preferring the (largely lost) art of "hammer welding". With hammer welding you use an Ox-Acetylene torch to weld and a set of body hammers and dollys to correct the distortion. There is a technique to welding "a little at a time", and using the hammer as you go. You can buy video tapes to show you how to do it, or look at various websites. This method has two big advantages -- the needed investment is smaller if you already have the tanks and regulator, and the welded areas retain the same material properties as the surrounding mild steel, better facilitating hammer forming of the correct shape and contour in the finished product. Mig welds are too hard to hammer form.

Interestingly, production body shops sneer at torch welding for two reasons: 1) It is unacceptably slow going for production work.
2) Quite a few automotive "crash parts" these days are built out of heat-treated high-strength steel. The large "heat affected zone" of torch welding will anneal the steel and render it back to soft mild steel, leaving the repaired area weaker than the surrounding metal. The typical ER70 MIG wire has similar material properties to the high-strength steel, making it a compatible repair.

If the areas you need to weld are flat, the MIG welder will be quicker and easier to learn. If the areas have compound curves, like the tops of the fenders, then hammer welding would let you massage the metal into the correct final shape, and use less Bondo.

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bg

03-06-2003 04:41:42




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 Re: Re: Hood Sheet Metal Repairs Mig or Oxy-Actelene Welding in reply to David - OR, 03-05-2003 18:00:33  
My son-in-law does a LOT of mig welding on car and truck bodies. He has welded many things for my 8N using his mig. I think it does a superior job, as does he. It results in a small clean bead with minimal damage to surrounding areas. Successive passes can fill holes rather quickly and larger areas can be patched with similarly-gauged sheet metal.



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DickTN

03-05-2003 20:33:55




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 Re: Re: Hood Sheet Metal Repairs Mig or Oxy-Actelene Welding in reply to David - OR, 03-05-2003 18:00:33  
David, I've got some small holes in an 8N hood. Looks like someone drilled holes, maybe to mount lights or something. They're about 1/4". I was considering oxy-acetylene brazing these rather than welding. What's your opinion on the amount of distortion I will get by brazing, rather than welding? Thanks. DickTN



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David - OR

03-05-2003 22:02:51




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 Re: Re: Re: Hood Sheet Metal Repairs Mig or Oxy-Actelene Welding in reply to DickTN, 03-05-2003 20:33:55  
Brazing will not distort the metal much at all, since it shouldn't bring the temperature up to the melting point of steel. The problem with brazing is that it isn't really intended to fill large gaps. Brazing as a joining process is intended to fill small gaps with a capillary action. It can be quite strong, but only with tightly fitted joints.

You can melt brazing rod and fill up the hole, but it isn't brazing so much as soldering with a high temperature filler. It isn't very strong this way, but may be adequate. The "old fashioned" way to fill dents and dings (and holes) before the days of Bondo was called "leading"; using lead melted with a blowtorch and spread with a wooden paddle.

I had some holes this size in my 9N doglegs, and filled them up with a round plug and a few zaps with the mig welder. You can use a copper quench bar (or even a penny) behind the hole to hold the plug in place and help stop burn through. The copper won't stick to the weld.

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DickTN

03-05-2003 20:33:54




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 Re: Re: Hood Sheet Metal Repairs Mig or Oxy-Actelene Welding in reply to David - OR, 03-05-2003 18:00:33  
David, I've got some small holes in an 8N hood. Looks like someone drilled holes, maybe to mount lights or something. They're about 1/4". I was considering oxy-acetylene brazing these rather than welding. What's your opinion on the amount of distortion I will get by brazing, rather than welding? Thanks. DickTN



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John IA.

03-05-2003 17:33:55




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 Re: Hood Sheet Metal Repairs Mig or Oxy-Actelene Welding in reply to BIll - BC, 03-05-2003 17:00:56  
Bill, I used a 110v mig welder to fix a 2000 hood done a real nice job. After it was painted you couldn't even tell. John



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JimNC

03-05-2003 17:24:17




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 Re: Hood Sheet Metal Repairs Mig or Oxy-Actelene Welding in reply to BIll - BC, 03-05-2003 17:00:56  
Bill,
The heat of the torch will warp the metal real bad. I used a mig welder to fix a fender, it was going along real well until I got in a hurry and it started to warp up on Me. It was a triangle spot at the base of the fender. I spotted it every couple of inches, then in between those and so forth. Let it cool, then went after it again. It did draw some, but after I ground it down I took a torch and heated and beat it around enough it looks good and will even look better when I get some paint on it. Take your time and you can do a good job.

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JMS/MN

03-05-2003 17:15:22




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 Re: Hood Sheet Metal Repairs Mig or Oxy-Actelene Welding in reply to BIll - BC, 03-05-2003 17:00:56  
Oxy-Acet welder is likely to warp the metal. With a wire feed, weld from both sides and grind smooth- you should get no distortion.



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