3 replies to this topic

[mk=john]

Hi, During maintenance on my mini, I noticed that a few spotwelds have actually come undone at the front of my mini. I dont know the name of the panel, but it is the one where the spring bonnet catch sits in. It has seperated from the panel just behind the grill surround.

I know that spotwelding should be easy, but I have never done it. What should I watch out for, will I have to clean surfaces, watch out for sparks damaging paint etc??

Thanks

[Total Richie]

Spot welding is easy, but first get two peaces of metal the same thinness and get all the settings right and have a practice. And the surface needs to be bare metal on both sides.

But if it is hard to get two, if you have a MIG welder you could do a plug weld. Which is just as affective?

[dklawson]

Spot welders are specialized tools that most of us don't own because of how rarely we would use them. On most repairs requiring spot welding the approach taken is plug welding as mentioned above. When I do this I'm using a TIG welder so I drill holes about 4mm in diameter through the top panel and start an arc through the hole that develops a melt pool on the bottom panel. Once the pool forms you introduce filler rod and pull it to the edges of the hole in the top panel so it "fills in" making a little button. The process with a MIG welder should be similar but I suspect the hole in the top panel will have to be a little larger and more post welding clean-up will be required.

[Total Richie]

Plug welding with a MIG i use a 7mm hole works fine.