all you self taught welders out there
Turbo Mini Forums

how long did it take you to learn to weld well enough to do wings etc??
DAN :)

trial and error mate. The hardest thing about putting mini wings on is that they are a git to get to fit, normally needs alot of pulling and pushing. Always ensure the metal is clean (no paint) Make sure the gas is on and working and start slowly, if the reel speed is too slow, it will spit, if it is too fast you will have massive lumps of molten metal everywhere. Speed increases with experience. Always clamp panels in place with welding clamps (special vice grips) they are cheap at about a tenner for three from machine mart so buy a few packs.

Speedster turbo under construction

I tought my self on my own car - im not very good tho......

I am a self learned man, done it for many years now.
if welding wings and outside material make sure you lose heat.
Heat built up will result in coucouc or twisted metal, its very hard to get this right again.
Try to weld 3cm and then weld 3cm on the other end of the wing, do this a few times and then give the metal the time to cool down to room temp.
Or, use weld paste around your to weld area, this will absorb heat, or use a wet clothe to cool all material down every time.
Ive been there, I had to throw away wings and doors because of this.

self taught too. first job i ever did was a new front end :) easiest way to do it was to drill lots of holes in 1 of the 2 panels you were tryin to join, then fill the hole with weld thus joining the 2 panels and replicatng the origional spot welds :)

turbo 16v k-series 11.9@118.9 :)

Denis O'Brien.

Try deseaming a mini... that soon teaches ya!

alex

AlexF

i am thinking of seam welding all the seams like you have on yours alex, just for extra strength,
it could take a while though.
DAN :)

I'm old school - i used to do gas welding on all my car repairs up till 18 months ago when i eventually bought a MIG!
I did have a 'spot welder' though, for the mini wings, sills, etc!

Either way, Gas teaches you a lot about when and where metal will distort, and when it's about to go through! I like mig for the speed, but prefer gas for the appearance, neatness and as i understand is much less likely to crack (like mig welds can do on body seams) due to the slow 'cooling' after the weld has been laid.. Try Gas welding a mini seam with little experience and you'll know about it!

As regards MIG, you need around 1 hours tuition from someone who is a good teacher, and shows you what happens when you have too little current, too much wire, the right tension to put on the roller, etc...
Oh, best thing you cn do is throw away the little bottles, and take out a contract with BOC / Air Products / whoever, and get a medium sized bottle of proper Mig Welding gas. The difference in weld quality and ease between CO2 and the 'pukka' gas is like the difference in ride between a mini and a Rolls!

Edited by turbodave16v on 5th Aug, 2004.

just got back in from some more practice today, total practice about 4 hours now and i FINALLY got a good looking smooth seam weld between two different sheets of metal, all i did before was blow through or melt the edges of the metal and have sh*tty blobs of weld, i am dead chuffed,
dave, respect for being able to gas weld i read the section in my book about it and it just seems a bit much for an amatuer like me!! and i agree that the welds are probably better, if anything i like the rippled look that they have, looks dead cool compared to a smooth mig weld
DAN :)

Edited by clubman_dan on 5th Aug, 2004.

I am just thinking back a few years (OK quite a few years) to when I taught myself to weld.

One of the things I did whilst practising was practised filling holes up. This (as most people who weld mouldy old cars up!) is quite a useful skill to have when you blow a dirty great hole in something.

I remember spending a happy few hours in the garage filling up all the holes in a length of 'dexion' angle iron stuff. I seem to remember my dad was not as chuffed at the results as I was, as I had used a fair bit of his MIG wire and gas......

yep, welding up holews in one thing i'll definatley be teaching my self to do. i can use the panel i've been practicing on and weld up the holes i have blown in that, learning seams and spots first though.
DAN :)

I taught myself to weld when I was 17 on a rusty Morris Minor with a £25 arc welder. I used that for years and got pretty good. Got my standard up and learned the "Oven your rods before use" is a goodun. Last year, when welding up my Capri rally car, I ran out of rods and experimented with my mates mig (reluctantly). What a surprise? As good as you get from a factory. I reckon good mig welding is not really much of an artform. I want to have a crack at TIG and maybe gas. That's the art of joining 2 bits of metal together. I saw a guy stitching aluminium with a jewlers torch. It looked perfect. Zapping something with a mig is pretty easy. As you are only going to buy 1 welder, fork out and get one which uses big spools. For storing wire if I have to (wet garage), whack your wire spool in a bag and give it a quick squirt with your gas, seal the bag. Sodding a liner up on rusty wire is pricey. (Stupid advice but it works if you don't use the wire for a year or so.)

Bugger off, I'm getting there.

I couldn't agree more Dave!

I got about 3 hours practice on gas, which I was lucky as I instantly got on with it.... It teaches you sooo much about welding and how it works.

As for using it in real life... well if I had the kit I might do, but mig is easier to get hold of and store etc etc.

alex

AlexF