My amateur body work

[Kebo]

So I was tired of looking at the passenger side rocker of my truck:


So I went and picked up some 20 guage steel, and cut the rust out.
I vacuumed all the crap out of there before I continued:


The crap I cut out:


Then, I cut a piece of the 20 ga. that was the size of the piece I cut out, threw it up in a vise and bent it to match the profile of the rocker.
Tacked into place:


Underneath, there's a bit of a gap because I got off course with the angle grinder: :bang:


Another pic of the patch:


And the truck:


Anyways, this is my VERY first attempt at body work, so it's VERY rough. The idea was, it's a rocker panel, so people won't be too inclined to get real close and have a look. It's not meant to be perfect (although I did try and get it as close as I possibly could to the profile of the rocker), this pickup has a considerable amount of rust (holes in floor, rotted away parts under the cab, etc.) and I don't really have the funds for a real fix. The goal was to weld a few pieces of metal in there, grind it smooth and paint it red (I have Duplicolor to match the OE paint). I only had enough time to get the bigger patch tacked in. Anyways, I plan on welding all around the patch and going back with a grinder, flap disc, and maybe a little bondo, if I feel like it needs it. Tomorrow and this weekend, I'll finish it up.

Does anyone have suggestions on paint (prep, primer, and the like)? I would like to do my best to prevent this area from rusting again. So if anybody has any tips, tricks, suggestions, etc. (about the metal work as well) let me know because I'm a NEWB!

[Richie O]

With it being a rough patch I would just do a few more tack welds and then put the waterproof fiber hair filler to it. It will squeeze right in the cracks and never come out. Also try to get some paint or undercoat on the inside of the repair. Go in through a hole or plug.

[ellis93]

Hey that looks good. You should have seen some of my work I'm terrible at body work.

[Kebo]

With it being a rough patch I would just do a few more tack welds and then put the waterproof fiber hair filler to it. It will squeeze right in the cracks and never come out. Also try to get some paint or undercoat on the inside of the repair. Go in through a hole or plug.

Would it be a good idea to go back, cut the tacks out and try and get it recessed more into the body? That way most of the sanding would be done on the filler? What would be a good filler to use?

[Richie O]

Thats not a bad idea. On the filler just get some waterproof short strand fiberglass type filler. I patched my 92 that way just to get me by till I swap cabs.

[fourwheelininajeep]

When you weld it take your time and do a 1/2 an inch at a time, do 4 or 5 short sections then let it cool down. You will warp the crap out of it if you dont take it easy. After you finish pick up some por 15 and paint over it(with a brush this stuff is like tar) that will kill any rust and then you can scuff it up with some 280 sand paper then bondo, prime, and paint.

[PToombs]

I used clear chip guard on my truck from the body line down. I didn't worry about sanding it really good, the chip guard hides the sand marks and stuff, plus it protects it pretty good..

[Kebo]

Ugh, this is why I didn't want to get into this project:


It appeared earlier that the inner fender was just a little rusty, as in a little more than surface rust. Well it turns out that it was solid rust.

I took the patch that I got in last night back out, as I didn't like the fitment. I ground it and mocked it back up a zillion times until I was satisfied:


I think this is where it's going to stay. I'm going to run out and get some fiberglass body filler and make it look nice after I grind the welds smooth. Still not sure what to do about the giant hole. I suppose I can try my hand at patching it as well, but there's this spot weld:


It's pretty much solid rust underneath, certainly nothing I would like to weld to, so I think I'm just going to cut it out and see how it turns out.

[Kebo]

So I worked on it some more today. I went to Napa and talked to a guy who told me I should weld them in all the way so that there's no difference in deflection when the body takes on vibrations and whatnot, which would make the filler crack. Made sense to me, so I started fully welding them in. Tack weld by tack weld. It's a slow process, as I'm still learning how NOT to burn holes in the thin sheet.
Pics are self explanatory.





I also picked up some self etching primer and some body filler. I ended up not going with a fiberglass filler. I didn't get any pics of them fully welded, mostly because I'm embarrased about my welds. :p

[ellis93]

I'd not be worried about other peoples thoughts. The fact your doing your own work speaks for itself. The people that would talk crap are the ones that pay others to do it for them so take the pics. We wanna see

[Kebo]

I'll get some up tomorrow. It was too dark to get my camera to focus on the details of the welds. I started getting the hang of it about the time it started getting dark. More tomorrow. I hope to be very close to finishing tomorrow as there is snow in the forcast for Monday.

[Kebo]

AAAHH-CHOOO!!




Any ideas on how to prevent this? What causes this little ball of slag to sit on the end of my electrode? How do I avoid it?


I cuss my effing head off when I burn holes like that. It just makes more work

[ellis93]

My mig does the same. I just cut it off. As far as the welding, I've seen way worse. If I may, I'd like to ask what machine you have and how the feed speed and heat set. Reason is that if to hot and not enough wire being pushed at it could cause the blow out of material.

[Gots_a_sol]

yea you can turn the heat down to help with the blowing through. It's just sheet metal, it's not like you're welding on suspension parts.

[Kebo]

I have a Lincoln 175HD. The voltage setting is not continuously adjustable, or I would turn down the heat.
The settings the welder is on now are
Wire speed: 3
Voltage: B (no idea how many volts)

I think this is the right setting according to the guide on the inside of the access door. My technique is just a little off (ie: too slow).

Wire is .025".