Suzuki Club UK

Some more progress was made today. Cut out the arches on one side, going for a virtual lift as thought it might be easier than patching in all the rust. Also cut the box section to size for one of the sills.




Then tried to weld up the rear arch, but today was my first day of welding so it didnt come out to well. Kept blowing holes though the metal Also i cut a bit to much off the arch so there is still a bit of a gap that needs patching in.





can any body explain how to weld the box section, that has a 3mm thick wall to the thin as fook SJ metal with out blowing loads of holes in it?????

what your going to try to do is,, keep the heat/weld on the box section and just flow it up the the body panal. you may have to do stich welding,, 1" miss a inch. make sure you grid down the old panals you are welding to,, you cant weld to rust/paint etc.. good luck

like andy said really.

weld a inch. leave a inch. come back to fill in later.

if you tack first in the mid then each end then the mid.

long winded but it works.

you could be bloing holes for lots of different reasons, to hot,to dirty.welder to high.

set the welder on 3 (if its adjustable power).the gas on no more than 10.( up the gas to 15 - 20 if you are in the wind) anymore will just waste gas.

the wire speed on 3-4 ish.

you are looking for a bacon crackling type sound.

lastly dont try to rush it.with thin steel its better to weld cold. as if it gets to hot you will just blow holes.
the cleaner the steel the easier it is to weld. you cant weld paint.
tony

we've all been there matey! you want to use something to hold the new strip in the arch nice and flush to the body all the way along and tack it all in place first like in the pic.



then go along and do an inch at a time, one in the middle, one at the front, one at the back, allowing plenty of time for the body to cool in between.
as the others have also said really keep the welder set nice and low (but not too low) and you want it to have a nice crackling sound.

if you're getting the right amount of penetration you should see the colour of the metal change on the opposite side like its been heat treated, perhaps a slight bulge too. like this.

(if you haven't already) make sure you takethe box section back to the bare metal...that black oily crap can affect the welding...and posibly won't take

other from that dude practice makes perfect

where you doing the welding to...I could pop over for5 mins if it'll help?

Thanks for the advise guys. I had a go at one of the sills at the weekend. It went ok but i ended up just doing loads and loads of spot welds. It seems to be pretty solid though. When i try to do a continuous welds it just blows holes in the body work But as you say probably need alot more practice.





Also removed some of the rust from the footwell and ended up with a big hole


4eye, im doing all the welding at my mothers house in Wick, so if you do get a spare 5mins one weekend feel free to pop roundand share some of your welding wisdom.

no probs....won't take long to pick me brains....not long at all
I'll give you a bell saturday.

you up there tonight???? i might pop over if thats cool as i'm staying at the missus house in doynton this week. PM me your number!

Im not up there in the week Scott. Im usually there every Saturday and Sunday working on it. If you are ever around on the weekend feel free to pop round. Il pm you my number.

I tell you what, from the picture that sill looks like a reallly tidy job.