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‘89 K5 Project Negotiating

Did a little price checking this morning when I got in the office. Looks like about $40 per side for the floor patch panels and the 2 floor support/braces. Also going to be in the market for a decent "good" welder, as I want to do this on my own. So I'm all ears as to what is a cost effective route to go...:ears:
 
GWeakland620 said:
Did a little price checking this morning when I got in the office. Looks like about $40 per side for the floor patch panels and the 2 floor support/braces. Also going to be in the market for a decent "good" welder, as I want to do this on my own. So I'm all ears as to what is a cost effective route to go...:ears:
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My only advice on the welder would be to make sure to buy something that will weld mixed gas and at least 1/4". You don't sound like you need it right this minute but you will, trust me. Once you get going welding and fabbing your own parts will become essential. There are a lot of good relatively inexpensive welder so out there, tons actually. I would say look at craigslist first for a good used complete setup. The 140 size 110 welders have come a long way and are capable of 1/4" plate or more on shielding gas. Trust me when I say you do NOT want a flux core welder. My small welder is a 140 Hobart and it does excellent work, new it was 450.00 with the added cost of a good cylinder rental. BE absolutely sure to buy the best welding hood you can afford to buy no matter what welder you get. Auto darkening from a reputable welding shop will make a world of difference in what you are capable of doing.
 
Thanks for the advise @Vombrown. I was looking at some 110 Hobart units from Tractor Supply. If I really need some heavy welding i'll use my brother/dad's Miller down at the shop.
 
Vombrown said:
The 140 size 110 welders have come a long way and are capable of 1/4" plate or more on shielding gas. Trust me when I say you do NOT want a flux core welder. My small welder is a 140 Hobart and it does excellent work.
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I have that same Hobart 140 welder and it is great just like @Vombrown says. The good 110V migs can do just about any welding you are likely to encounter on one of these trucks. I bought mine used with a gas cylinder for $400. I do need to buy a better hood, it does make a big difference.
 
Vombrown said:
My only advice on the welder would be to make sure to buy something that will weld mixed gas and at least 1/4". You don't sound like you need it right this minute but you will, trust me. Once you get going welding and fabbing your own parts will become essential. There are a lot of good relatively inexpensive welder so out there, tons actually. I would say look at craigslist first for a good used complete setup. The 140 size 110 welders have come a long way and are capable of 1/4" plate or more on shielding gas. Trust me when I say you do NOT want a flux core welder. My small welder is a 140 Hobart and it does excellent work, new it was 450.00 with the added cost of a good cylinder rental. BE absolutely sure to buy the best welding hood you can afford to buy no matter what welder you get. Auto darkening from a reputable welding shop will make a world of difference in what you are capable of doing.
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I agree 140 with mixed gas is a good starter kit and would be good for a long time.
I have a 125 mixed gas and I have welded successfully 3/8" took some preheating and multiple passes but I got a good weld
 
GWeakland620 said:
If I really need some heavy welding i'll use my brother/dad's Miller down at the shop.
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So you're not wanting to do everything yourself?

What types of welding experience do you have, and what do you expect to be welding?

I always wind up trying to talk people into buying TIG machines... :whistle: :thumb:
 
So as far as welder I echo everyone else when they say get something you can hook gas too. There is no difference in the gas kit if you wanna run different mixes or certain straight gases. The learning curve for running a gas shielded wire vs a flux core wire on thin stuff is much smaller. Now that said, if you are finding the limits of whatever welder you want to get, you can switch to flux core and run it to weld thicker stuff. Fairly well accepted fact that on the same size welder flux core will penetrate just a bit better. I forget the reasons why. But like was said above even with a 110 welder you can bevel and multipass. I've done 1/2" with a 110 beveled and triple passed it.

As far as welding helmets go. Buy the best you can afford. But more to the point change out the freaking plastic lense cover alot. Doesn't matter how expensive and nice your helmet is if you got all sorts of crap built up on the outer lense. When I'm welding alot I will change my lense cover alot. Happens nearly every day if I'm doing alot of overhead stuff. That said make sure you get a helmet that you either order several covers for or you can get covers locally very easy. When I bought my last helmet thats the reason I got a Jackson instead of a Speedglass. Jackson used the normal get everywhere cover. Speedglass helmet used their own, only available at the welding store.
 
campfire said:
So you're not wanting to do everything yourself?

What types of welding experience do you have, and what do you expect to be welding?

I always wind up trying to talk people into buying TIG machines... :whistle: :thumb:
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Never said they would do the welding. I have to learn at some point. But chances are, if I'm down there to do any work, my brother will knock it out. He does phenomenal fab work.
jekquistk5 said:
Man I want something like that for a driver
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That's the plan too. I already ruined my last K5 body, so I'd like to make up for it and save one.
 
I have a Harbor Freight flux core 90 amp welder--it "works", but it is NOT a "MIG"..it is a wire fed ARC welder!..people think because a welder uses wire feed on a spool ,its a MIG,but nope--not if it is flux core,its simply an arc welder that has flux coated wire instead of using welding rods..a true MIG uses argon & CO2 gas and bare wire..

I haven't tried using mine much,but long enough to see it sucks for doing sheet metal,I can tack weld thin stuff better with my AC buzz box using 6013 rods than the wire feed flux core,even with the flux core on the "low" setting,it still blows holes too easily..(it only has "hi amd lo",no other heat settings..

I tried using it once to weld nuts to bolts I had to chop the heads off on exhaust manifolds and though it appeared to make a nice solid looking bead,the weld was so brittle it snapped like glass when I tried turning the nut with a wrench with hardly any effort..I ended up brazing the nuts on with the torch,and that did work..

I'm glad I only gave $30 for the welder--the cart it came with was worth $50 to me,the welder I figured was not so great,and I considered it a bonus--it still had the original spool of wire in it--the guy I bought it from wasn't highly impressed with it either I assume..looked like it was used for 10 minutes!..he bought a 220V true MIG to finish his '48 Pontiac street rod project.

Maybe if I practiced with it more I'd be able to get better results,but the wire feed on it seems to skip and sounds like the motor is having a hernia,so maybe not..this thing would be good for welding 1/8" to 3/16" steel,but its too hot to do thinner metal,and not hot enough to weld 1/4" well..

I would say get a REAL MIG welder,one that runs on 220V and uses gas..then you'll be able to weld anything on a truck,from sheet metal all the way up to 3/8" thick like axle tubes,trailer hitches and frames..the 110V ones are OK for most jobs but sometimes you'll want the ability to mate two thick pieces in one pass..the 110V ones do have one advantage,no special wiring or outlet is needed,just a 20 to 30 amp circuit..
 
Actually the proper names are Gas Metal Arc Welding (GMAW) with gas obviously, and Sheilded Metal Arc Welding (SMAW) without gas, its arc welding whether your using gas or not, just automated arc welding
 
Just passed a pretty clean 86ish looking K5 on the way home tonight. Made me pretty excited to be doing the same in a few weeks.
 
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