did i buy a lemon?

[oldiguana]

And if you own a bay, essential

[HarryMann]

I'd say clarke 100 a bit small for much chassis work, but can't say for sure, haven't got one, have a 155TE, which is good enough.

I'd suggest you do an evening class first and read up here on other MIG welding threads before going out and buying all the gear.

You'll need quite a bit of kit, and plenty of .9 or 1mm and 1.5mm (or 16 swg) steel sheet, 1.2 is useful too, and the means to cut it

[HarryMann]

normal mild steel 0.3 gauge

What sort of gauge is that Kev?

.3, never heard of that

18 swg, 16 swg, 20 swg

.3 gauge?

The T25 uses about .8 ~ .9mm (20 swg) for many body panels, 1.2mm (18 swg)and 1.5~1.6 (16 swg) mm for a lot of structural members and 2mm (14 swg) and 5mm (3/16") in highly stressed areas (e.g. rear cross-member, 5mm jacking points)

[kevtherev]

normal mild steel 0.3 gauge

What sort of gauge is that Kev?

.3, never heard of that

18 swg, 16 swg, 20 swg

.3 gauge?

The T25 uses about .8 ~ .9mm (20 swg) for many body panels, 1.2mm (18 swg)and 1.5~1.6 (16 swg) mm for a lot of structural members and 2mm (14 swg) and 5mm (3/16") in highly stressed areas (e.g. rear cross-member, 5mm jacking points)

I was talking, more or less, out of my ass there Clive.. I was doing something on another window and ..well there you go proof of no ability to multi task

[HarryMann]

hehe, multi-tasking, that's women's work isn't it



That rear cross-member, what a box section About 6" deep in some places, 2" wide and 2mm thick steel!

Now that's strong

But at the outer edges, some of mine was still corroded down to extreme thinness, as untreated, water can sit in there and slowly do its worst! Prob more a Syncro problem though (mud & silt)

[murdoch]

is it as bad as mine ?



still waiting for a few bits before i start it.
stuff like this is new to me too, but love getting stuck in sometimes. if i do ""cock"" it up, i'll just take it to the shop.
good luck

finally made a start tonight, should have seen what was ( or wasn't ) under the side panel !! the C pillar is about 3" short of the sill, amongst other missing metal, "where has it all gone?" i asked myself. got a bit of head scratching to do.
the wife's gone away for a week and taken the camera with her, but i'll get some pics of whats left of my van when she gets back.

[boatbuilder]

I have a simliar repair to do on mine, although mine doesn't look as bad.
I'm thinking that the first thing to do is drill out the spot welds that hold on the slider rail from the inside and then take the slider rail off completely. Its made of heavy metal and is probably ok itself. Then start cutting until all the rot is gone.
Then figure out how to rebuild it all...

[HarryMann]

the C pillar is about 3" short of the sill, amongst other missing metal,

Think that's not uncommon, seems to dissolve or something, though think a shunt repair might be why mine was missing, couldn't be bothered with it - if we're thinking the same bit of structure

Cornish van, Bude, wind-blown salt-air ? Remember visiting a garden up on that North coast near Tintagel? that was mostly salt-loving (or salt-tolerant) plants, trees and shrubs.

[murdoch]

answers on a postcard please...

[boatbuilder]

Looks similar to mine, although I haven't tackled that side of the van yet...
Heres a few pics of the other side...gives you an idea of whats in there.

[Tug]

I think if you own a vw split,bay or t25 then a mig is a tool you need in your workshop. Purchased mine new from Machine mart 10 years ago and its still going strong. Its paid for itself 10 times over now...would never be without it now

Ive done quite a bit of welding on the old girl.....but hey I found another hole the other day oh well the joys of owning a vdub a....

[mark1967]

Body repairs are a given on a van used on the UK`s roads for 20 odd yrs.Lots of good advice given already.Plenty more to be had once you "dive in with the angry grinder" Mig welding forum is brilliant as already mentioned.I learnt to mig weld a few years back more or less self taught,but it wasnt the actual welding that worried me it was the methods of doing it i.e. where to cut,where to clamp,how to make patches etc. I found the most helpful thing was lurking on classic car forums etc following resto threads as you get plenty of step by step photos and you get a feel of what the crack is.There are a few good ones on here but this one I found very helpful,the bloke is a hero:
http://retrorides.proboards.com/index.c ... read=70135
Be warned its quite long and very pic heavy !

[ninja.turtle007]

Body repairs are a given on a van used on the UK`s roads for 20 odd yrs.Lots of good advice given already.Plenty more to be had once you "dive in with the angry grinder" Mig welding forum is brilliant as already mentioned.I learnt to mig weld a few years back more or less self taught,but it wasnt the actual welding that worried me it was the methods of doing it i.e. where to cut,where to clamp,how to make patches etc. I found the most helpful thing was lurking on classic car forums etc following resto threads as you get plenty of step by step photos and you get a feel of what the crack is.There are a few good ones on here but this one I found very helpful,the bloke is a hero:
http://retrorides.proboards.com/index.c ... read=70135
Be warned its quite long and very pic heavy !

That guy's amazing!!

[murdoch]

yeh, had a good read of that a couple of times, great skills

[HarryMann]

Thanks... Great link for more complex metal fabbing alright, learning all the time still...

And tack in, copper block used again to stop the edge burning away when welding, the trick is to start welding on the copper block and work inwards, rather than outwards.

This would be my top tip for any edge welding like this whether using a copper block or not, start at the edge and weld in, if you work out towards the edge, the heat builds up and the edges can easily be burnt away.

Use of hide hammer and cross-pein hammer for curving flanges etc. all good stuff!

Been meaning to make a sheet folder like his for a while, sort of got the bits and use a vice and G-Clamps.. now motivated to put them all together into a permanent folder.

Tip: If you want to emulate proper buttress threads for clamps, be prepared to sacrifice some old (maybe broken) 'G' clamps, Like so...