My 1st real welding project.

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fredsmedina

fredsmedina

6 Dart 7 MOPAR OR NOCAR
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So i started out with a trunk (spare tire well) that was pretty rusted but i thought i might be able to get away with just cutting out and replacing the rusted through parts of the trunk.

once i started cutting away though, i realized that the whole thing was rotted. so i had to come up with a new plan. decided to cut out the entire floor of the spare tire well. i had some sheetmetal so i decided to weld in strips of sheetmetal and see how it works.

overall in the end i think it turned out okay. i barely started learning to weld about a month ago, so i'm happy with it.
just thought i'd share the experience with FABO.

here's my Novice welding...

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Looks like a great job for being a beginner!A couple notes..disconnect your battery when welding and always,always wear a helmet while welding.Flashburn really sucks and will put you outta commission for a couple days.
 
i know! battery was disconnected.

and i've got a pretty nice auto darkening hobart helmet that has all of the nice features. real great helmet that was on sale for about 120. lol..definitely dont want flashburn. i've heard the stories of people who've gotten that..

thanks
 
Hey Fred, I agree with everything that pettybludart says and I know that you are beaming with pride because you fabed and welded in a needed repair. God bless you. Wayne
 
RM23U0A said:
Hey Fred, I agree with everything that pettybludart says and I know that you are beaming with pride because you fabed and welded in a needed repair. God bless you. Wayne
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yes i am!!:-D

may not be the prettiest thing. but had to be done. so now i can get my new gas tank in and rear end. everything was being held up because of the trunk. and it feels great repairing that by myself!:cheers:
 
One thing to possibly look at, try to fing a gold lens on your hood. I dont think they are available for the auto dark lenses though. Gold lenses will filter out smoke spatter and other obstructions of your view. I'm a firm believer in them and wont weld without one, they improved the quality of my welds tremendously.
 
The same here, I don't have any welding skills:angry7: Just tacking roll bars in and gussets and letting a pro weld it up, Looks like a good fix to me and you will only get better as you go, Congrat's on taking it on your self fredsmedina :cheers: Job well dun :happy10:
 
I did all of htat with an old MIG welder. i was iusng a 4 wirespeed and 2 heat. and the sheetmetal that i welded in was 18 guage i believe..

i started out using a technique thati found on the internet called stitch welding. and seemed to do pretty good. trunk is 100 times stronger now. i might still weld in some type of crossbrace to add strength though
 
Great Job !
Just recently started welding myself .Now I find myself finding all sorts of projects as an excuse to practice welding . :-D
 
lol. same here. i'm going to make a cover for my new shifter, also going to attempt to weld a big rusted through hole in the chargers hood. thats thicker metal though. so i'm going to practice welding some thicker betal before i attemp that one. that one is desperately needed though
 
pettybludart said:
Looks like a great job for being a beginner!A couple notes..disconnect your battery when welding and always,always wear a helmet while welding.Flashburn really sucks and will put you outta commission for a couple days.
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X2 it blows waking up at 3am in tears and blind all cause you were only gonna weld a couple things and the old pull trigger and close eyes method would work, idiot, but it looks pretty good for a first time job, I might suggest using a bigger piece of metal to look even cleaner and if you can find a shop to bead roll it looks great, did it for my lil bro's Dart and now he's cuting it out for a cell lol

:glasses4:{{{{{Why do we have the Pulp Fiction guy??
 
wigsplitter74 said:
X2 it blows waking up at 3am in tears and blind all cause you were only gonna weld a couple things and the old pull trigger and close eyes method would work, idiot, but it looks pretty good for a first time job, I might suggest using a bigger piece of metal to look even cleaner and if you can find a shop to bead roll it looks great, did it for my lil bro's Dart and now he's cuting it out for a cell lol

:glasses4:{{{{{Why do we have the Pulp Fiction guy??
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the main reason tha I was thinking of bead rolling of it would be to add strength to it. I was originally going to use a big piece of sheet metal and then buy a bead roller and bead roll it. but instead I figured that welding a few strips of metal in would add strength because of the welds. I wasn't too concerned about a "stock look" or how it looked at all really. i undercoated the bottom, and doesn't look bad at all

if i could redo the whole thing though, i might have bead rolled it, i don't know. my car is already cut up though. so i was just going for a functional fix
 
Your weld job looks good for not being at it all that long. Try to remember that no matter how much you grind your still welding some pretty old metal
with some rust and crap in it. Try some fresh new metal and you may surprize
yourself.
 
dusterny said:
Your weld job looks good for not being at it all that long. Try to remember that no matter how much you grind your still welding some pretty old metal
with some rust and crap in it. Try some fresh new metal and you may surprize
yourself.
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thanks. I had done a ton of practicing welding fresh sheetmetal together. and once I felt like I was good at it is when I decided to go ahead and try the trunk. I found out about welding that old metal with rust n crap in it the hard way. LOL. got very frustrated at first because the welds were blowing holes right in the old metal. but with some little adjustments I figured out some good settings and it came together nicely
 
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