Hi, Tom!
Gas welding is not difficult to learn -- it just takes some practice to
become good at it. That's pretty much true for all welding techniques.
You could take a welding course at a local community college, which is what
I did.
However, gas welding or brazing can put too much heat into body panels and
cause them to warp. MIG (metal inert gas) welding is much more user
friendly for operator and panels, and can accommodate all of your bodywork
needs. The unit I bought last year (Craftsman 85-amp) can be used either
with a gas (argon or argon/CO2) or flux-cored wire (no gas required).
I have found it very easy to use, and useful for all kinds of fabricating
and repair jobs. The cost for the unit I bought, with the additional kit
for welding aluminum and stainless, was about $350. It's hard to get any
bodywork done at a shop for less than that.
Steve Byers
Havelock, NC USA
'73 Midget GAN5UD126009G "OO NINE"
"It is better to remain silent, and be thought a fool
than to speak, and remove all doubt" -- Mark Twain
----------
> From: Tom Zuchowski <tzuchow@ibm.net>
> To: Spridgets <spridgets@autox.team.net>
> Subject: welding
> Date: Sunday, March 14, 1999 8:16 AM
>
> Is it really hard and/or expensive to learn to do your own gas-welding?
>
> My Bugeye Sprite has several bubbled spots in the paint below the doors
and
> behind the rear wheels, and I just know that I'm going to find rust
there. I
> would like to fix it all myself, but I've never welded in my life. I
guess
> what I need to figure out is whether I would save enough money by doing
it
> myself to pay a big chunk of the cost of setting up and learning the
welding
> as well as offset the potential loss in quality of my own work.
>
> Or would I be smarter just to pay to have it done in a body shop?
>
> Thank you very much for your input on this. I would like to ask the group
to
> forgive me for asking little other than questions here without
contributing
> much of anything. The truth is, I don't know much of anything. <sigh>
>
> Tom Zuchowski
> '61 Bugeye
> Clemmons, NC
>
>
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