Hi Jim,
I was fortunate enough to find an 'auto body' course held at a local high
school shop. The course wasn't as much a course as it was free shop time
with a very experienced restorer guiding people along the way. It was quite
enjoyable.
wrt welding, we experimented and worked with gas, mig, and spot welders.
All of them had their proper uses. In particular though, the gas welder was
used the most often, and often not as a welder. It was used to clean/burn
off underseal from an old fender. It was used to help free up rust-frozen
bolts to remove parts. It was used to shrink stretched body panels during
the beating phase. It was used to fill in small pin holes. Oh, and it was
used to weld in new patches or other chunks of iron together.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that the other welders were good when it
came to making things stick together, but a gas welder was used as a real
tool. The only drawback with gas is that there is no substitute for
practice and experience and it will take you longer than a couple of
evenings to make it work well. But, once you have it down - well, the guy
leading the course could weld two pieces of metal just as easily as my
quilt-making wife can sew two pieces of fabric together.
Just my $0.25 (Canadian)
Michael
-----Original Message-----
From: dcvjrv@flashcom.net [mailto:dcvjrv@flashcom.net]
Sent: March 10, 2000 2:51 PM
To: oletrucks; Virtual Vairs; shop-talk@autox.team.net
Subject: Welding
On to my next new adventure. I am going to have a go at learning how to
weld. I plan on doing most of this learning on a trial and error basis and
I intend to read a lot and maybe view videos as a learning
tool. Unfortunately I have not been able to find a local school that
teaches this other than as a full blown class of which I don't want to go
nine months every day to school. Although it probably wouldn't hurt me. :>)
My intent is to use this primarily (at least in the beginning) for truck
and car panel repair, patching, etc. I do have a couple of old donor cars
that are ready for the scrap heap and I thought I would practice on them at
first.
Now for the question. What type of welding should I start with - mig, tig,
arc, ???.
After that is determined, I will work on equipment.
Thanks again for all your help.
Jim V.
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