20 replies to this topic

[mini-reub]

Nice one I'll give that a try too..

[skoughi]

Good idea that, its all about using heat to your advantage.

[tiger99]

ryan22_lgm, interesting method, do you thing that TIG would work? If it is just the heat, not the metal deposited, it would be less messy than MIG, no grinding off afterwards.

 

I have a TIG welder, but right now I don't have a slightly bent car to try it on, or a garage to do it in. I know that it is good for a few things other than welding (my favourite, when I really need a bent spanner for some awkward nut, is to run the arc across the body of the spanner until it is red hot locally, then bend it in the vice with a couple of hammer blows), but I had never made the possible connection between TIG and heating body panels. It may work as well as a gas torch, and is certainly safer and more controllable. Minimum power, 500 watts or so at 20 amps, is less than a typical propane or butane torch, the only snag is that the heat is localised to about the area of a pinhead, so I suppose you would have to keep it in motion to avoid burn-through.

 

I am going to have to try this as soon as I have the facilities. I wanted to improve my metal-shaping skills anyway.

[stoneface]

Another method is to clean a springy area up to bare metal and mig weld a spot. Do not use high power low will do fine this will then tighten the panel up again. Grind weld off jobs a gooden !!!

You can do a similar thing with arc welding.

On large panels with sags you can drag the rod across the sagging panel (as if you were striking a match). It leaves small deposits of metal which contracts to take the sag out.

Welding is also good for taking bearing shells out using the same principle. deposit a couple of spots of weld on the inside of the bearing shell and it contracts and often just falls out. Good for the hard to access bearings.

[ryan22_lgm]

I'm not sure only ever used a mig to do it. I suppose anything that can quickly get the surface hot in a small area will do the same job

[skoughi]

In the worst cases you'll still need to heat up a 50p sized spot and actually move metal towards a center spot but for tensioning up slightly streached dents then a quick zap with a welder then a cold water quench should work ok. Give it a try and see what happens!