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Welding sheet metal (need help)

Pinsco63

Pinsco63

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Fairview, oregon
Hey guys I'm going through the fun of rust replacement in My 63' chev pickup.
I have been doing good so far working on all of the cowl. right now my big problem is my welds once I grind them down I have little pin holes in them. they don't go through but I can't figure out how to stop it. The metal is clean, no rust, oil or grease. since this is in the cowl I thought about either using por-15 when done or seam sealer on the welded area. I am butt welding the joints and using 75% argon 25%co2 with .030 wire. couldn't get pics yet but will soon. Thanks for any ideas.
 
make sure the metal is clean on BOTH SIDES, the air is still (no breeze) while welding, the wire is new in welder (not old) the metal is dry (run a torch over the metal to make sure there is no moisture in it LIGHTLY, you don't want to heat the metal just get moisture out of it
 
Turn your gas flow up a little to be sure of good shielding, and then play with the wire feed and current.

I'd do the tests with some scrap the same thickness. Sounds like you might not be getting enough filler, or you are in the wrong welding mode.
 
It's probably the butt weld in conjunction with the thinner metal. Some experts would tell you to flood the backside of the weld joint with shield gas. In practical application, it doesn't work so good.
 
sounds like a shielding issue... either breezy or ya forgot to open the bottle.. :whistle: ;)
 
Thanks guys
I'm welding In garage so air is still. New wire and no moisture in metal.
The welder is on lowest setting for heat, metal is 22gauge. Just looked a shield gas bottle and it is below 500 psi in tank and my regulator is a 15psi. Not sure if those settings are correct. Thanks fordum I will try to mess with wire speed some more, I kind of had a hunch that I might need to turn it up some. On and the welder I am using is a hobart 190.
 
resort to the settings that are usually inside the lid, maybe set one setting hotter than what they recommend for your thickness and stitch weld it, too cold isn't good either purosity is caused from sheilding and or dirty metal, sometimes with sheet metal since there is no gas on the back side that can actually cause a contaminated weld, you can bend up a "v' with some scrap sheet metal and make a dam on the back side and purge the dam with gas right before welding.....it is just a patch though
 
try bumping the gas up to 20... i usually run 10, 20 burns the bottles up, but if i feel it's a bit breezy, etc I have bumped it up to 20, 25ish......
 
Try a .023 or .024 wire.The .030 requires too much heat for sheet metal and you may not be getting it hot enough at the same time.
 
another thought, is to just practice on scrap before doing what your trying to do, sheet metal welding is a lot harder that thicker metal, are you able to lap the metal, drill a hole in the top peice and plug weld it?, once I put a part of a firewall on a mg , I used tek screws evenly spaced out to pull the metal together evenly, I then took one screw out at a time and welded the hole up, it looked factory when I was done....sometimes full length welds on thin metal are subject to cracking..reason why cars have spot welds
 
zombie1969 said:
Try a .023 or .024 wire.The .030 requires too much heat for sheet metal and you may not be getting it hot enough at the same time.
Click to expand...

:sign17:

it will be much easier to weld with .023"

also 22ga seems thin. i almost always use 16ga for floor work.
 
most body shop stuff = .023-.024 wire. and dont forget the matching tip's

then have a few scraps and practice to find the exact setup then go for it on the truck.
 
You should turn this into your build thread or at least start one! Here is a pic of the other night,

IMAG0280.jpg



And one of the silver bullet 292,

IMAG0196.jpg
 
I hope your not putting a steel bed in that, I used to have a 64...miss that more than anything I've ever owned..still have all of the trim up in the rafters (for when I get another one someday)
 
yeah I was thinking of trying the .023 wire but wanted to make sure it wasn't something dumb before I went out and bought it. With that said, I think what I did wrong was not prep the metal on the other side well enough. So the plan is to keep at it and learn for all the next panels I look forward to replacing.

The cowl is 22ga and went I get to the floor pans and rockers I will Get 18-16ga

I'm not over laping this section because of how the upper cowl will sit on the cab and be spot welded back in place.

At work now so I will get pics up for more clarification. The wood bed will be replaced with new wood, just removed bed so I can swap the 14bolt that is laying on garage floor in easier, (I'm lazy)

Thanks for all the help and how quick you guys responded. Am thinking of doing a build thread here but to be honest this is a 2wd truck so not sure if it is ck5 worthy!
 
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