Welding Training and Practice Question

[rocksteady_racer]

It is cheaper for me to buy a welder and materials to patch weld all the small damages in my car and seem weld the chassis correct?

As not being officially trained how to weld or do automotive work. I learn pretty fast and have done all the work on all 3 of my 240sx myself, my 96 maxima, and the countless friend's cars that I have fixed learning everything on the internet or by previous experience (since most cars are pretty similiar and you can diagnose almost everything on obd I with a vacuum gauge, compression tester, or multimeter and obd II computers tell you if the car sneezed wrong lol).

I clearly am not going to try and weld a roll cage in the beginning when I don't know anything about welding. But I do want to cut out my battery tray that's all rusted and weld a patch panel in, weld a crack in my fender, and patch up the damage in the back of my car that my battery tray caused so I want to weld the battery tray and tie down in.

How long did you guys practice before you tried repairs like this on your car? What kind of welder should I purchase that will be good for me now and in the future (to weld that roll cage (preferably chrome moly), my intercooler in and maybe intercooler piping in the future)? Has anyone taught themselves how to weld or has everyone had a shop do that stuff for them? Should I be ok doing the little stuff until I go to welding school? I'm a former marine so I'm pretty sure I can go to welding school for free but I need to patch my car up and go back to college in order to pay for my car parts and living expenses so I'd rather do the little repairs myself this summer as practice before I go to welding school so I know I'll have the basics down beforehand. I would get help from a welder friend here in philly, but of all the people, I know I don't know any practicing welders except for plumbers and they've kind of went off the automotive path too far to help me really.

Any advice from experienced welders or diy welders is greatly appreciated.

[s0m3th1ngAZ]

All repairs involving steel can be done with a simple gas-shielded wire-feed (MIG, or GMAW) or Oxyacetalyne setup. MIG's are a lot easier to use and make better welds without much training. One of the drawbacks though is they leave a lot of splash around the weld that you'd need to grind away. For aluminum and really fine work...a TIG welder with a decent amperage, phasing, and click-style settings is needed.

TIG welders make much better welds than MIG's but they require a lot more training in learning how to surface prep, tune the arc, and feed the welding material.With MIG's you just follow a chart that suggests what voltage and feed rate to use.

In either case...surface prep is really the key to good welds and less headache.

Take a class at your local community college. It costs at most $200 plus materials and it pays dividends.

[rocksteady_racer]

That was pretty informative thank you.

The guys at meineke when I asked to weld my intercooler on said they couldn't because (I didn't know the brackets were mild steel at the time) and I said the bracket was aluminum and they said we only have a tig so we can't do it which you just contradicted so I assume they were just stupid lol.

I think I should go with an electric MIG welder with shielding gas for the kind of work I'm planning on right now, right? That should work for stitch welding the chassis and welding plates in to replace the hole in my trunk (caused by the battery tray ripping it apart which I never had happened until this time lol) and welding a plate in place of the battery tray (somebody had a crappy wet cell that leaked and the acid ate a hole through the fender by the tray) so I can run my intercooler piping through and welding the intercooler to the front of the car? Are the Lincoln Electric welders pretty good for the price? If not, could you point me in the right direction for my first mig welder? And could you expand on fine work? Do you mean like intecooler piping or something completely different? Oxyacetalyne would be harder to adjust to the perfect heat for a beginner? I sort of understand surface prep but tuning the arc and feeding probably takes a really steady hand and lot's of practice and experience right? Self feeding would help me out alot I assume in the beginning. Bare with me... lol. I already got a grinder and have had plenty of practice with that and I know how to cut metal and work it with either hammer or heat and hammer I just never actually done any welding.

[s0m3th1ngAZ]

Yeh MIG is the way to go...TIG if you need perfect welds or want to weld alluminum. With MIG you get a lot of spray around the welds and it looks nasty. I don't have any idea on what welders to buy though as I've only used my shop's and school's welders. Both were Lincoln Cabinet welders.For intercooler piping...just buy straight sections and use high-temp silicone bends. Welded mandrel-bends are really just for looks...assuming you aren't running 40psi of boost.By fine work I mean where you need it to look nice. Not saying MIG looks like total crap...it doesn't...but TIG is so much cleaner of a welding medium.