Welding!

"razorbeamteam" (razorbeamteam) 08/06/2017 at 22:43 • Filed to: Rust!, Range Rover

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Buffer image! Horrible welds in this post!

Ahh simpler times...

So I’ve begun the process of welding new metal over the large holes claimed by rust. I’ve started with the right front wheel well. I’m using a 90 amp harbor freight welder. I’ve done flux wire welding before on my Volvo 240, but I was paying someone to do it for me and mostly learning by watching/helping. He had a much nicer Lincoln welder, but I didn’t want to spend a fortune on something that nice.

Last night I decided to start relearning how to glue metal. My first attempt isn’t great, but I’m getting the hang of it and remembering the basics. I think I need some nicer wire, as I’m just using the stuff that came with the welder.

Battery box, passenger side front

I know, not great, but it’s stuck in there pretty good. I still have to fill it in around the gaps.

Passenger footwell seam

These came out a little better, I had a better ground clamp on this piece which helped.

I have approximately one million more patches to do on this rusty beast, so I’m sure I will improve. Better wire may help. I’m also looking into DC conversion, which is popular to do to these welders. I know nothing about electrics, and I don’t even know if it’s with the effort, but it would be easier to control.

sony1492 > razorbeamteam 08/06/2017 at 22:56

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I once got good welds with my harbor freight 90amp but only on metal twice as thick as anything on a car. Props for being able to glue the metal that well, I never got that close.

SilentButNotReallyDeadly...killed by G/O Media > razorbeamteam 08/06/2017 at 23:27

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I suspect you have an issue with the amperage (too low?) and wire speed (too fast?) settings. Plus making sure you have excellent earth connection is both tricky and important.

gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee > razorbeamteam 08/07/2017 at 00:17

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Doesn’t look any worse than my most recent effort.

Although in my own defence I had this as a starting point:

Definitely makes it trickier to fix properly. So I didn’t.

razorbeamteam > gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee 08/07/2017 at 10:10

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Wow! Thats a lot of welds there! It will all grind out fine probably, does your door line up still?

gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee > razorbeamteam 08/07/2017 at 10:39

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It’s not quite perfect but it’s close enough not to be an issue. I tacked it in place ti check for alignment but I may have broken a couple tacks closing the door cause it didn’t fit quite the same after I fully welded it. Really it just holds the door in a little further than it should.

The trouble with grinding is getting the grinder in there without pulling everything apart. Part of the reason I had to do it the way I did is because whoever “fixed” it last time just welded the striker to the sheet metal and threw out the backing plate, and given the quality of their welds and the fact they burnt through the sheet metal in so many places, leaving huge gaps, I had no choice but to stack welds to close some of the gaps. They also welded the striker to the broken piece of sheet metal underneath it, and welded the bolts in place.

Short of cutting a whole section out of one at a wrecking yard (there aren’t any within 200km) this was about the only way I could do it. They also didn’t do anything about the hinge pins meaning the door still sagged witch inevitably lead to it breaking off right away because obviously the solution to a door that won’t close nicely is slamming it. This is how bad the pins were:

sony1492 > SilentButNotReallyDeadly...killed by G/O Media 08/07/2017 at 11:39

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For amperage you get either min or max, min tends to just bead off and Max melts through in seconds

razorbeamteam > gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee 08/07/2017 at 12:43

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OH woof, yeah repairing someone else’s terrible work is always a pain. That’s similar to how my driver’s side door is looking. Luckily corrosion doesn’t seem to be a problem. Just worn out hinge pins

razorbeamteam > sony1492 08/07/2017 at 16:59

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I had most success with Min amperage setting and 2 wire speed. I have some .030 wire in order from Amazon, I think that might help as well.

sony1492 > razorbeamteam 08/07/2017 at 17:48

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I was using some expensive Hobart .35 but the speeds below 3 weren’t consistent enough for me. Then again for me it want important to do anything more than a bead so I just set it to max at 3.

gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee > razorbeamteam 08/07/2017 at 20:56

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I don’t expect corrosion was that big an issue. Just some surface rust on the shitty welds. It’s more the repeated slamming of the misaligned door that fatigued the sheet metal around the striker until it tore out. And whoever boogered it back together the first time didn’t do anything about the hinge pins, despite it being about $20 in parts and maybe an hour’s work.