Welding Holes up

[70GMCer]

I'm wanting to weld up the holes on the sides of my truck where the mouldings went, as I don't want them after painting. Would an old style Lincoln welder do the job, without warping the panels? Or, would it be best, just to take this to a welder, and let them use a mig welder?

[ureckme]

Mig is much better

[70GMCer]

Yes, I realize that mig is the way too also....but since I have an arc welder, I'm asking if I us the type, will that warp the panels badly....

[QKENUF4U]

either use a COPPER backing plate to absorb the heat or do as i did on advice from a bodyman. keep a bucket of water and old rag handy. as you weld, cool the door with the wet rag. worked fine for me on the 12 or so holes i just welded up last weekend. as for warpage i think my door was already all over the place so the heat didnt bother it to much. im in the process of getting it back to straight right now. BODY WORK SUCKS !!!!!

[phantom dually]

I tried welding some 18g today. Wow that is hard to do!!

[Striker169]

what about headliner holes any advice on filling those?

[BigMike]

Originally Posted by QKENUF4U

either use a COPPER backing plate to absorb the heat or do as i did on advice from a bodyman. keep a bucket of water and old rag handy. as you weld, cool the door with the wet rag. worked fine for me on the 12 or so holes i just welded up last weekend. as for warpage i think my door was already all over the place so the heat didnt bother it to much. im in the process of getting it back to straight right now. BODY WORK SUCKS !!!!!

I just welded up all of the upper and lower chrome holes on my truck (aside from the drivers bedside) and used a bowl of cold water and rag to cool it off. I did not try to weld more than a spotweld at a time, cooling after each time. You will hear the sizzling when the watered down rag is applied, keep in on the weld until is stops gurgling. I welded 81 holes and after grinding the top off, several were filled with just high build primer...it turned out that flat. The others will need just a dab of marsons glazing putty. I had ZERO warping. If you do it the way I explained, you won't have any either.

There was a trick I thought of for filling in the larger holes. I took steel nails with large heads, almost clipped the heads off with a pair of wire cutters, and put them in the holes and tacked it in, used it as a filler. I then went around the head one spotweld at a time (cooling after every one). Then I just put pliers on the nail and broke it off at the head where I had scared it with the wire cutters. Those holes are too big to try and fill in with weld, you can, but it will take a lot longer to do. Then you grind off the rest of the nail when you grind down the weld....DONE (except for the bodywork that is )

I hope this is easy to follow, just took my vicodin

Mike

[OJOE]

dont try the stick welder. use the wire ,weld a small amount and cool dont get in a big hurry the metal warps easy. goood luck

[70GMCer]

thanks for all the advise.......