Hi am currently restoring my second mini and this one requires a lot of new panels and welding. Just wondering if you could give me a few tips on fitting my panels. Have got a little mig welder to so will have to drill lots of holes for the spot welds, are spot weld punches any good? Will also be fitting a few repair panels such as at the back of the boot floor. Am a bit of a newbie to welding so am just wondering how i should weld the panel where it joins the current boot floor? Do i leave a small gap or would one of these edge setting tools be any good? Have got loads more panels to fit and loads more questions but won't bore you with them all now. Any advice on welding or any general bodywork would be much appreciated. Thanks very much!
Welding new panels
Started by
adam c
, Mar 12 2004 08:40 PM
6 replies to this topic
#2
Dom
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Posted 12 March 2004 - 09:40 PM
lol i cant but welcome to the site!
#3
cowboy
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Posted 13 March 2004 - 08:35 PM
welcome to the site......
if you are new to welding the main thign you need to do is to prepare the panels for welding correctlly........ this means removing everything so that the parts are down to bare metal...i would get a lipper if you are intending to do a lot of welding.
when i weld i tend to put the lip on th inside this gives a better platform for welding (in my opinion).
as for the spot welds you can get an extra nose cone for your mig welder which is shaped like a v with 2 points at the end, this is whati use for spot welding, gives a good result, remember to practice on a few small peices of sheet metal first to get the correct speed and settig for your mig welder..
remember you can allways grind a bad weld of and redo it :grin:
hope this helps
if you are new to welding the main thign you need to do is to prepare the panels for welding correctlly........ this means removing everything so that the parts are down to bare metal...i would get a lipper if you are intending to do a lot of welding.
when i weld i tend to put the lip on th inside this gives a better platform for welding (in my opinion).
as for the spot welds you can get an extra nose cone for your mig welder which is shaped like a v with 2 points at the end, this is whati use for spot welding, gives a good result, remember to practice on a few small peices of sheet metal first to get the correct speed and settig for your mig welder..
remember you can allways grind a bad weld of and redo it :grin:
hope this helps
#4
Woody
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Posted 14 March 2004 - 10:06 AM
The corect name for the "lipper" or "edge setter "is a Jodler they are very usefull , I would not be without one , If you are going to get one , I would get one with a hole punch as well , this saves lots of time drilling all those holes for "mig Pluging"or mig spotwelding and is so much easier to punch a hole on a narrow edge than drill .
Jodler46&r=2038&g=105
Jodler46&r=2038&g=105
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#5
adam c
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Speeding Along Now
Posted 14 March 2004 - 02:08 PM
Thanks for the advice guys :grin: . Just wondering how i should grind the welds that will be visible on the outside of the car, i've been told to use a flexible pad and sanding disk in my grinder but i don't want to leave any sanding marks that will be visible through the paint and am not keen on filler. Any suggestions?? Thanks again for all the advice!
#6
Woody
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Posted 14 March 2004 - 04:36 PM
You are just prejudised against filler with no good reason , body filler is used in the manufacturing of your mini so you cant have a mini with no filler ! . Filler has got a bad name because "Cowboys" missuse it to hide holes , when used for its intended use it is perfectly acceptable .
You need a flexable backing disk and a 36 grit pad on your grinder , this will take down the mig welds , if you are carefull and hold the grinder level to the panel there will be very little grinder marks in the panel , the ones you do get will you can sand them back useing 80 grit on a sander , now you apply the filler in a very thin skim just to take out the surface imperfections (or you can get Hi build primer , but this sometimes can "sink"and the scratches will be visable in the top coat )
You need a flexable backing disk and a 36 grit pad on your grinder , this will take down the mig welds , if you are carefull and hold the grinder level to the panel there will be very little grinder marks in the panel , the ones you do get will you can sand them back useing 80 grit on a sander , now you apply the filler in a very thin skim just to take out the surface imperfections (or you can get Hi build primer , but this sometimes can "sink"and the scratches will be visable in the top coat )
#7
adam c
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Posted 15 March 2004 - 07:29 PM
Cheers mate. Sorry don't like filler since i find out how many holes were hidden by it on my new car! Just another quick question, when using the joggler do i weld on both sides of the flange or just the one? Also when welding on sills do i do one continuous weld along where the floor joins the sill as at the moment there is an inch of wled an then an inch gap etc. Thanks - this sites great, I think with all you guys help i might actually finish my car one day!
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