menzcar

Save your money, dont buy a bike, I can come around with my sledgehammer and smash you to pieces for free.

Theres a welding business across the road from me, I asked them if I should consider getting a TIG for panel work and they said why would I bother when Ive got a good mig. They said dont bother with a tig unless I start welding a bit of aluminium. As a mig is cheaper I would suggest that for the money you have you will get a much better mig than tig. Theres another business down the road that builds $250k hot rods for people with too much money. That guy uses his mig for panel work, even though he has a tig. Hes a pretty handy guy too, hes shown me how to replace the door mechanism on the 240z so that I wont have to slam the door anymore, and how to build a bonnet latching system that allows you to open the hood forwards, backwards, or to either side. I just wish I had some time to do some more work on the 240, its been sitting all alone in my shed for two months.

PS (Rev), my tongue is always in my cheek. PPS, really a Rev? what denomination? lets talk religion and get a real fiery debate going!!

Hey reverendz, tone down your remarks, your not retreating like a gentleman, your having a swipe. You should have been able to see from my post that I am an experienced welder. That is I have many years of experience brazing copper, brass, stainless and composites, welding thin, thick and heavy duty metals. And people pay me for my work. I wrote my reply to a guy who has little or no experience welding, a gasless mig for him will be a complete waste of time(that is, he will not get good welds, and it will be frustrating for some time). Nobody in the industry uses a gasless mig unless they have to, ie onsite welding in tricky situations. A good gasless mig for onsite welding is approx $4000. I have one which I use for welding reo bars in insitu-concrete walls at height, but always take my gas mig for the lower walls. Why would I recommend a gasless mig or an arc welder when I know that he is going to have a much better success with a good quality gas mig. As for all the remarks on using the minimum amps - think about it. The idea of all welding is to match your amps and feed rate to the situation. If simply going for minimum amps then why not just buy a 1 amp mig. Because it wont do the job. You can call it the maximum or the minimum. Start high and adjust down until you get a good penetration without blowing holes - there you have your minumum. Start low and adjust up until you get good penetration - there you have your maximum. Same thing. Does anyone have something intelligent to add, or does someone else want to test my knowledge of welding. Peter. BSc building technology. BSc Toxicology. Dip Horticulture. Welding courses: Arc welding. Mig welding. Brazing, soldering. 12 years commercial experience. I know all........(just kidding)

Holy crap Johnny, is that list under your message all the cars in your stable? Must cost a fortune to keep them all running!

Hi Mick, using least amps possible is a good option for welding thin sections such as panels, but for good penetration on thicker materials more amps the better. You can tell when you've got it right when the weld becomes part of the two surfaces being joined, instead of sitting on top. I try to aim for the most amps possible without blowing holes, as this gives a stronger weld, that requires a lot less grinding to prep for paint. when I'm in the zone there is often no grinding to be done at all, mind you I spend at least 6 hours welding per week, sometimes a lot more. But as long as the job is getting done and is working for you theres not much point debating the pro's and con's of how to set up your welder. Cheers. Pete.

When I had some lessons the guy told me to always buy one that is 30% bigger than you need, because as you get better you tend to use more amps and use more grunt in your welding. Also have learnt with all tools that I buy that you should buy a grade higher than you need, and put less load on the tool. Except for cordless drills, the best one I've got was the cheapest.

Choosing colour is driving me nuts. I like flame orange with a couple of black stripes down the centre. My wife would hate it. My last car was that colour, she hated it. Porche turbo grey with white stripes looks good, but I dont really like grey cars on the road because a lot of the time they blend in to the background too much and you dont see them until they blast their horn and swear at you. I'll keep looking at cars on the net until I see one that really takes me.

Oxy no good unless you are really clever. If you try it you will destroy your panel.

For welding aluminium you need to buy a kit that incldes different rollers, a different lining, and a bottle of Argon. It will take a bit of practice to get it right. Warm up the ally slightly before welding, I use a heat gun.

Hi guys, I do a lot of welding in my business (although its not my core task). Small cheap gasless welders are useless and a waste of money if you take any sort of pride in your work. Unfortunately the more money you spend the better weld you are going to get. I recommend nothing smaller than a 180 amp, BOC do a good one "magmate Pro 180" which is great for home use without spending too much. The thing to remember is that once you get the hang of welding you will find yourself welding up all sorts of things. Need a rotisserie, weld one up. Need new jack stands, weld some up, the list is endless. Once you have welded with gas you will never weld without it. Once you have a mig you will never use your Arc again. Some will argue that an Arc will do heavier gauges of steel, this is not necessarily so. The Mig welds will be much less likely to have inclusions, and unless you are going to x-ray your Arc welds, you wont be relying on heavier gauge Arc welds. Straight Argon is an expensive way to weld, and you dont need it unless you are going to be welding Aluminium. Argoshield light is much cheaper and perfect for your application. Always get the bigger bottle, as i said, you will find yourself welding up all sorts of things. 0.9 wire is the best all-round size for welding. You dont want to have to buy 4 different spools, and be changing all your linings and rollers all the time. 0.9 will work fine on thin steel as long as you get your settings right and go about it the right way. As for spray on anti spatter, as long as you clean up your steel well before you weld you wont need it. If welding any galv be sure to remove all signs of Galv coating before you start, about 2cm either side of weld, or you will get burnt and make a mess. Also buy a photo sensitive mask. They are about $180 but make the job a whole ton easier, especially when you are learning the ropes. Stainless wire is expensive, and you dont need it unless you are welding stainless, which you arent. Hope that helps. If you buy one I am happy to give any support I can on how to set up for different welding applications. Before you buy it make sure they throw in a free lesson. All BOC outlets have a demo guy.

What does PM mean? I have one but its in Adelaide, by the time I get it to wherever you are it would probably be quicker and easier to buy one.

Hi Gav, read an article that I think was by you on what all the prefix's mean. It was good, cleared up lota confusion. Take a look at my gallery and I think you will agree that my chassis rails are so bent that some extensive reworking is the only option. Cheers. Peter.

Anybody know if I can use these plans for replacing the front chassis rails in my HS30 240z 2 seater? Mine are a tad bent.

Depends entirely on neighbours and suburb. I used to live in Melrose park where I could bang away on my house reno all night - literally, and did so during heatwave, worked all night, slept during day. Now that Ive moved to a beachside suburb - Somerton Park - you could hear a pin drop after 6pm. I cant work on my car here, so have had to rent a shed for $200 per week. If I moved a couple of hundred metres up the road I could have got away with a bit of noise after hours because that end of the street has a lot of tradies living there, but as for working late - not a chance. All it takes is one neighbour to complain and the cops will side with them and all noise must stop. If youve got oldies or those with a plum in the mouth living nearby you can kiss noise pollution goodby. I think when my car is finished Im going to have to push it down the street before starting it, because my neighbours are the complain about anything just because you can type. Hope they die soon. I run a landscaping business and had a neighbour on a job complain because we had a radio going. They called the cops. So we turned off the radio and set up a 9 inch grinder against a large chunk of scrap metal and let it rip. Boy it was loud, but the cops couldnt do anything about it. When we turned it off and put the radio back on there was no more complaining. Hope that helps. Cheers. Menzed