Panel advice

[cruiser_beast]

hey all,

I just went for a warrent, and now ive got a fairly long list of things to work on.haha

rear suspension bushes failed, Universal joint at rear of rear drive shaft failed, front parker light, wheels protruding out the side of gaurds, brakes weak, thats a bit of a tuffy, lol, but the one i was hoping a panel beater or ne1 could maybe give me some advice on is some panel beating tips, lol.

It has rust at th bottom of the pillars, is what the mechanic said. its the area just in front of the rear tyre, at the bottom of the door. and i was wandering if there was ne1 here that would be able to give me some advice on how to weld in some new steel, cos its kinda a funny shape, lol.

I havent done much panel beating b4, but i can weld ok.

i can post a pic of the affected area if ne1 is keen for a looksy and advice session, lol.

cheers.
Sam

[DieselBoy]

Go for it man, post a pic, we need more of this sorta stuff on here!!!!!

[mumad]

I'm not a pannel beater but i'm a sheety and have done a bit. First off, if this is a vehicle you want to look nice and tidy then get it done by the pros, they will do everything, tinting, etc, but if its your bush basher and you don't mind a bit of bog and the old grey primer then try this. Go down to your local sheetmetal engineering ferm or a pannel beater (whichever is likely to give you mates rates)and get a bit of 1.2mm zintec sheet, its easyer to weld than mild steel because of the coating on it. Grind out all the rusty stuf untill you find some solid metal and then clean off all the paint about 10mm back from there. Now cut the zintec into patches, you may need to put in several strips if its where i think it is and just tack and hit it till you get what you want, then weld it all up. If its structural then you will have to show your warrant guy before you paint it. Hope this helps and of course always check behind what your welding so that you don't start a fire (seen it done ), oh yeah, and don't hit it too hard or it will look like shit and use a mig if you can.

[cruiser_beast]

Hey all,

Sorry for the slow replies by myself. Ive been on uni holidays, im back at uni today.

I have been talking to my mate, hes a boat builder, and he can weld pretty good, aluminium and steel, and hes talked to the workshop boss hes working at the moment and we can use the mig welder sumtime hopefully if the boss lets us. He said its a new welder and he could weld to rust with it.haha..

ill take some pics tonite and get them on. So zintec u reckon will be good huh.

Its not a bush basher, but its not a real looker, but i cant really afford to get a panel beater on the job. well, i prob could afford it, but being a student i dont wanna spend what money i do have on rust. Id rather buy a snorkel;)

Cheers, pics to come.

Sam.

[mumad]

Yeah, zintec is way easy to weld, and just put a little bog over it once you have shown your warrent guy, paint it up and you should be sweet. I didn't know they made welders that can weld to rust!! Have to tell the boss about that one!!

[tristanp]

before you go and cut your steel, make a template out of cardboard for the shape it needs to be, then trace it out onto the steel,
if it needs to bend a bit to fit, weld one or two good tacks , then hammer into position, weld , hammer, weld, hammer,rince-repeat

[cruiser_beast]

Well, i dont think it could literally weld to rust, lol, but wouldnt that be a good invention!

So im starting to get a beter idea of what im going to do, most of the patch jobs r simple flat ones,, with a bit of beating to suit the few lil curvy bits in the floor, but the tricky bit will be the bottom of the pillar which is just in front of the rear wheel, I went out and had a look at it tonite and did a bit of prep work on the other bits, and it seems like the last owner may have bogged up quite a bit down there, so, i think the best option is to just rip out what seems to be solid bog, and reshape my own corner out of sheet and weld it in with the help of my welder buddy, lol.

sounds like a plan.

Didnt get round to getting the photos up, the thought of uploading th photos using our dial up connection put me off.

will get them up soon using uni jet stream though.

Sam

[mumad]

Deffenitly, go right back to bare metal, and take out that old bog, the heat from welding will stuff it. Its not really that hard to shape up, the 1.2mm sheet bends pretty easy, so just start tapping till you get the shape, then fill the rest up with weld

[Mud_Plugger]

Gday

Like Tristanp said, you want it the patches to be a nice fit.

That sounds like a true cruiser you've got there mate lol. It's not a cruiser unless it fails at least half a dozen things on its wof every time.

Just some warning about welding the patch in, go easy on the heat, if you go and welding the whole thing in one big run you will really munt your panel lol. Heat shrinks things.

If you cut your patch to size, put a reasonable tack every inch around the patch into the hole. grind the tacks back until they are level or just about level with the panel. Hammer and dolly them until the patch sits nicely on the panel. weld up the gaps, spread the heat (eg. do one inch, miss 4 or 5 and done the next one). The less heat you put into the panel the less chance of it warping.

no matter what you do the panel will shrink a bit, so you may need to hammer and dolly around the weld once its cool to stretch it bake to shape. Hammer and dolly only the welds, because this is where the shrinking is.

Just trying to help, you learn by your mistakes (as I did)

Give it a go and see what happens

From Roy

[cruiser_beast]

Hey all,

Thanks for all the advice.

Well i gave panel beating a quick go......but gave up.

I went down the road to a guy that lives a couple of houses away, and asked him if he could help me out with somne panel beating, since he was a panel beater. So we had a chat, and in the end we decided to drop the truck off at his work, and when he had a spare moment or two he would get some done for me.

So it all got done at a very reasonable price.

and the truck got dropped off today for its re-test for the wof on its 28th day!

-New universal joint
-new suspension bushes
-Brakes now satisfactory (to my standards, had a siezed brake cylinder on one of the rear drum brakes)
-front park light now going, haha
and rust all fixed up, by a professional even!

so ill let you know how cruiser wof part 2 goes soon.

Sam