47-55.1 Interesting You tube video on AD truck sheet metal work

[mr48chev]

I spotted this on FB and it is rather interesting to watch.

Hand made patch panels.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CXcmGAQiRI

[TX3100Guy]

What a craftsman!

[joedoh]

what he started with is better than i have used

[mr48chev]

He worked that fender over with that slap hammer and pick and file lot.

I was really interested in the patch panel on the back of the fender and was amazed that he shaped and welded the lip on it rather than shape the lip on that piece.

You have to wonder how many hours were spent on that fender making that video though.

[8man]

Wow! Great work. Thanks.

[Getter-Done]

Great bodyman

[MARTINSR]

That guys skills are over the top. But the cool thing is such a great video will walk someone who is nowhere near that skill level through doing it. I love being able to pull something off that I couldn't do and love seeing others do that too.

It is mind blowing what we can do because of the stuff on the net. I have fixed my tv and computer, and I know NOTHING about them.

It's cool for sure!

Brian

[mr48chev]

What I liked about his shaping that patch panel and what caused me to share the video was that he didn't use a shop full of equipment that most of us don't have to shape the panel. That and the holes or damage in the bottom part of a Chevy Truck fender below the style line is real to a lot of us.

His hammer welding while the metal is hot when he welds the patch on shows one reason guys tig weld sheet metal rather than mig it. You can hammer weld it just as you can a gas welded seam.

It looks like he has a whole series of videos of working on that truck here is one on the hood. Note the anvil made out of a length of heavy I beam and some square tubing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lC09...C092nNwKPE&t=0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1uV...1mP28g&index=5

[MARTINSR]

Originally Posted by mr48chev

What I liked about his shaping that patch panel and what caused me to share the video was that he didn't use a shop full of equipment that most of us don't have to shape the panel. That and the holes or damage in the bottom part of a Chevy Truck fender below the style line is real to a lot of us.

His hammer welding while the metal is hot when he welds the patch on shows one reason guys tig weld sheet metal rather than mig it. You can hammer weld it just as you can a gas welded seam.

I started in this industry "hammer welding" but honestly didn't know crap. I ruined a number of things including the roof on my truck when I chopped it in 1977. What an estimator at the shop I was working at walked me through on welding across that roof blew my mind! I welded it when I chopped the new cab without much of any warp at all without a single touch of the hammer and dolly, all simply the gas welding technique. Mind blowing!

I will never forget when I told him what I was doing at home on my truck and he looked at me and said "Please tell me you aren't going to mig weld it."

Yep, that is what I was going to do, and I am SO GLAD I listened to him!


Brian

[mr48chev]

Mig welded roof by someone who didn't have much of a clue as to what they were doing.

My buddy ended up with this and I thought about trading him out of it and putting another roof or roof skin on it.

Off topic Sunday 53 Ford sedan


A serious exercise on how not to chop a top right https://app.photobucket.com/u/mr48ch...7-4d3ee75ac4fd

[MARTINSR]

The BIGGEST mistake that we hear all the time is to cool the weld. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Even with the MIG, let it cool naturally! Cooling it SHRINKS the metal. I can't believe how I thought this years ago and how so many still do.


Brian

[mr48chev]

I'm thinking that cooling a weld also hardens it.

The biggest problem with welding most things is getting in too big of a hurry. Laying long beads that heat up the metal and warp or distort it.

[MARTINSR]

Originally Posted by mr48chev

I'm thinking that cooling a weld also hardens it.

The biggest problem with welding most things is getting in too big of a hurry. Laying long beads that heat up the metal and warp or distort it.

This is the thing.............that is wrong. I was blown out of my mind when this estimator in the office of the shop I was working at walked me through welding my roof. Right off the bat, how about do not skip around "spreading the heat." This was a method I had used my whole life doing this (many decades) and he taught me how I was wrong.

Think about this, it makes sense. If you skip around all those spots heat and cool at different times, thus creating high and low spots across the panel. If you do that your "HAZ" (Heat Affected Zone) will show this by having a wobbly line above and below the weld. That is the PROOF that the metal shrank DIFFERNTLY along that HAZ! What is that going to do to your panel? It's going to warp it, plain and simple, that HAZ that looks like a row of golf balls is PROOF!

So, you tack it into place, you plannish the metal to thin out the seam and you weld it across in one shot! If someone would have told me this back when I first started doing this stuff I would have slapped them. But if you think about it, think about that HAZ getting bigger and smaller along your weld, think about it, the metal is being heated and shrinking different every few inches! What is that going to do, create warps, there is the proof.

So, this guy taught me first, cut accurately so you have as little a gap as possible. Plannish the metal along that seam to tighten it up. You can actually make it perfect, so perfect, you don't even need a filler rod! Yep, I did it on the Z cut on the roof of my truck, ZERO filler rod, simply ran a bead down the seam, done deal.

Across the middle of the roof I just didn't have the balls to try that so I used .023 MIG wire for rod. With his advice, I straightened out this rod using a drill and a piece of brake tubing in the vice. Ran 3' long pieces of .023 through it with the drill spinning it and it straightened it out so I could hold it in my left hand and feed it with my index, middle finger and thumb. I practiced this. Putting the rod down over my hand out onto a table pulling the rod through my fingers going back and forth with my fingers pushing it off onto the other side where the weld will be. Running the rod out pretending I was welding with my right hand.

After a while I could do this with a pretty steady feed of the rod.

I prepped my seam across the roof and welded it from one side to the other in one shot! No kidding! I welded one of the seams, then let it cool completely coming back the next day and doing the other seam. There was almost ZERO warpage, one side was a bit low, I plannished the welds on that side and wham, no kidding, it will be finished with a skim coat of bondo!

When I think of the mess I made when I was 16 cooling the welds warping the roof all to hell where I put TWO GALLONS of bondo before I even sanded it! LOLOLOL Yeah, I want to vomit when I think of that.

Honestly, think about it, study it, it's crazy that we didn't think of the science before! By the way I did that with a "Jewelers torch."

Check it out!


Brian

[MARTINSR]

Here are the Z cut welds, zero filler rod.

And check out the test panel, welded the whole length of it in one shot.


Brian

[Getter-Done]

Originally Posted by MARTINSR

Here are the Z cut welds, zero filler rod.

And check out the test panel, welded the whole length of it in one shot.


Brian

Do you have a video of this on your U tube channel?

This makes sense

[MARTINSR]

Originally Posted by Getter-Done

Do you have a video of this on your U tube channel?

This makes sense

No I don't, sorry. I was too concerned when I was learning to video it and I haven't done it since I learned!

Brian

[MARTINSR]

I'll try and get out there tomorrow and see if I can do something.


Brian

[Getter-Done]

Originally Posted by MARTINSR

I'll try and get out there tomorrow and see if I can do something.


Brian

Thanks

I have been Subbed to your channel for a few days

[MARTINSR]

One of the many things that blew my mind about this was that you can have a couple pieces of sheetmetal that don't meet perfectly, you can see through the gap. There is plenty of metal there to thin it along the seam by plannishing it that tiny bit thinner to force the seam to close.

Do some experimenting, simple "on dolly" hammer method where the dolly is firm under the metal and you are hitting right on the dolly that is under the metal at the seam. That was one thing that blew my mind!

Brian

[MARTINSR]

Originally Posted by Getter-Done

Thanks

I have been Subbed to your channel for a few days

My "channel" on youtube only has a few videos, only one is car related, how to draw flames. I have to think you are on someone else's.


Brian

[Getter-Done]

Originally Posted by MARTINSR

My "channel" on youtube only has a few videos, only one is car related, how to draw flames. I have to think you are on someone else's.


Brian

It was me remembering you on another forum with pictures.

[MARTINSR]

Ahhhhhhhh


Brian

[mongocanfly]

Didnt know Brian had a channel...cool
You making that long weld in one pass makes me cringe..I would have thought it would be a warped up mess...I've had good luck with the spot weld here ,spot weld there method

[mr48chev]

If this thread got Martin to get out in the garage to pound on some metal to show us how it's done it was well worth posting the links.

That also means I need to get my keester out and do some work so one of these days I can show up in his driveway on my way to Wendell with my truck.

[MARTINSR]

Originally Posted by mr48chev

If this thread got Martin to get out in the garage to pound on some metal to show us how it's done it was well worth posting the links.

That also means I need to get my keester out and do some work so one of these days I can show up in his driveway on my way to Wendell with my truck.

I REALLY need to get out there! My son has a friggin Miata in my way right now, I can't pull the hood off the truck and finish it. But I can get something done, I'll get out there.

Thanks for the encouragement.

Brian