Looking for the welding gurus... Abe?

[nymustang]

Looking over my latest project, it has had a lot of metal work done. But I'm fining i don't like the look of the welds. 90% don't look complete and clean, maybe poor penetration. I think it was likely done with a flux core wire feed. I just received a new mig welder for my birthday so my plan was to clean all these weld up and grind them smooth etc. My question is what is the best way to get into all the little crevasses in the welds to get them clean and properly prepped. Should I just go to town with a wire wheel and grinder to start? What would you folks suggest? Here is a slightly blurry pic so you know what I'm dealing with:

[silverblueBP]

Wow, that looks like Jeremy did the welds.


Try using a flap grinder to clean one of them up and re-weld starting in the center and then using a circular motion work outwards. It should melt it all back together. If you get the temp right, it'll look a lot like a factory dimple weld instead of that shart!


or


If you're really ambitious, drill out that crap, remove the panel and start over.

[cmayna]

Until you can weld your name...phfffft

[mustangstofear]

If your happy with the alignment, grind the welds smooth, and re weld them.

[abrahamfh]

I agree with "mustangstofear". If you like the allignment, grind down a weld, rosette weld it back up and do it again maybe on the opposite end, kind of jumping around to keep the heat down.

A few tools that can come in super handy that I have been enlightened to by the amaizing John "opentracker".

You can use this one to prep the spot where you will be welding and at the 90's where the panels meet.



This one is great to grind down the welds and even them out with the panel if that is what you would like to do, or you can use a sanding disc with a backing pad on your angle grinder.



Well, this one I am sure you are aware of, use it as you please, it is always exciting to use.




One of the coolest things John showed me, other than everything I know, was to put this cool crimped wire brush in a vice and use a cuttoff wheel to narrow it down so you can force it into the hole cutouts where you will be rosette welding and for corners.
 



Hope it helps bro.

[SELLERSRODSHOP]

for grinding down gobs of weld, these are by far the best:

http://www.google.com/products/catalog?q=3m+weld+grinding+disc&rls=com.microsoft:en-US&oe=utf8&rlz=1I7GGLL_en&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=shop&cid=16613198903858329475&sa=X&ei=dP5ZTtX8OpGbtwf47JmpDA&ved=0CHEQ8wIwBA#

i use these wheels to grind down close to flush then finish grind & blend with a green corps roloc 36 grit disc.

[manley]

Well, this one I am sure you are aware of, use it as you please, it is always exciting to use.

That one can be really dangerous if/when the angle grinder catches and kicks back toward you!  Wear some PPE!

[ZFORCE]

If it were me, I would skip all those abrasive grinder wheels and use a spot sand blaster.  I would prefer the HF unit as it would be easy to add a small extension pipe to the nozzle to help get into tight spots.   The Amazon unit recycles the sand so it would be cleaner, however the cost is that the nozzles tips look bulky and you could not get into smaller areas.
http://www.harborfreight.com/gravity-feed-blaster-gun-93221.html



or this one from Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Grade-Spot-Shot-Sand-Blaster/dp/B000I8W7XW

[nymustang]

Thanks for the advise folks, I'm looking forward to digging in and cleaning thic stang up. But first I need to deal with the cleanup from Irene...

[66benchcoupe]

That one can be really dangerous if/when the angle grinder catches and kicks back toward you!  Wear some PPE!

Whats really dangerous on those wire wheels is when those wires break and fly off at 11000 rpms.  I've pulled quite a few out of my arm in the past. 

WEAR A FACE SHIELD!!!

Robert

[70_Fastback]

Whats really dangerous on those wire wheels is when those wires break and fly off at 11000 rpms.  I've pulled quite a few out of my arm in the past. 

WEAR A FACE SHIELD!!!

Robert

+1000!  I have pulled MANY a wire from my skin.

[abrahamfh]

+1000!  I have pulled MANY a wire from my skin.

I had one back in April that scared me. I felt something irritating my forearm, so I see this little maybe 1/8" piece of steel wire sticking out. I figured it was a small piece that broke off and stuck me. As I started pulling on it, it hurt like a mofo, it ended up being 1" long. Yeesh!

[abrahamfh]

Thought I would chime and ask how the progress is going. Hope all is well.

[nymustang]

Unfortunately there has been zero progress. I've been working 12 hour days on storm cleanup from hurricane Irene. The one day each weekend that I have not been working I have spent at my parents helping them clean their basement from the flood Irene caused. Currently the mustang is covered with boxes we managed to save from the flood. A bit of a setback, but I'll get there eventually. Supposedly working weekends is done.

[abrahamfh]

Sorry to hear about all the havoc Irene has caused. The Mustang will always be there, which is exactly what I have to remind myself daily. You will get to the Mustang soon enough.

[KTJMcG]

for grinding down gobs of weld, these are by far the best:

http://www.google.com/products/catalog?q=3m+weld+grinding+disc&rls=com.microsoft:en-US&oe=utf8&rlz=1I7GGLL_en&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=shop&cid=16613198903858329475&sa=X&ei=dP5ZTtX8OpGbtwf47JmpDA&ved=0CHEQ8wIwBA#

i use these wheels to grind down close to flush then finish grind & blend with a green corps roloc 36 grit disc.

I used to stea....er ah,borrow these when I worked in an aluminum foundry. Sucks not working there anymore,I have to buy my grinding stuff now instead of borrowing them. They do work great on welds.

[nymustang]

So I just posted a little update in my build thread but I thought I'd add some questions regarding welding here. I've never welded with gas before so I wasn't really sure what to expect with my new mig set up. I think it was an improvement but I wasn't really happy with the results. I need a lot more practice and perhaps a little advice. To start what I'm working with is a Lincoln Handy Mig with a bottle of CO2/Argon mix. Its a low end model so there isn't a lot of fine adjustment but its a big step up from the old flux core welder. I figured out how to set it all up but when I was welding it didn't feel like I was getting any good solid welds. The best explanation I can provide is that it sounded like a rapid pop pop pop and occasionally like a nice solid buzzing which looked like the nicer of the welds. I tried adjusting the wire speed and temp but it didn't seem to change much which leads me to believe operator error. Any thoughts what I might be doing wrong or is this just one of those practice practice practice type of things? Here's my machine if you're curious.

[SELLERSRODSHOP]

IMO, when i get the "pop,pop,pop" i've started with a little too much wire sticking out of the end of the tip. i usually try to keep it at 3/8-1/2" of wire out the tip.

also, if you notice when you end a weld, the end of the wire sticking out will be heat discolored & have a little ball on it. if you pay attention when you start the next weld it will start out with a chatter then smooth out to a "buzz". if you keep a small pair of cutters handy & snip off the ball the next weld will start smooth.

if you are welding sheetmetal & the attachment point is pitted as in rust repair, its gonna pop & chatter, no way around that as far as i have found.

[cmayna]

I strive to have maybe 1/4" of wire sticking out of the gun at max. Prefer less.  Yes, snip off the ball before you start your next weld.  This was something Opentracker taught me. 

[Horseplay]

Not a welding expert by any means but I would suggest you refrain from practicing on your car and get yourself some scrap materials to play with while you learn your new machine and settings. That way when you do get back on the car you will have a better idea of what to expect.

[nymustang]

I've got me some scrap to play around with and I'm going to start cutting the end of the wire before beginning the weld to see if that helps. Thanks guys.

[jgstang]

i have been know to do everything a$$ backwards......so that said i've been doing my 65 shock tower mod and i tryed for the first time gas welding, went by the instructions and it wasn't bad....but then it was not so good and got upset! lowered the gas, increased the gas and now i walked away! talked to harris welding and according to them with gas welding you (should) have nice clean welds...not me!!   i disconnected the gas reversed the wires and installed the .35 flux core wire and presto......pretty nice welds!   on my lincoln 3200 hd welder its a new old machine!  got it years ago and just started really useing it. but i gotta tellya i love welding!  its fun..my biddest hang up is i need to relaxe and slow down while welding....but the flux core works for me.   

[stangg]

i tryed for the first time gas welding, went by the instructions and it wasn't bad....but then it was not so good and got upset! lowered the gas, increased the gas and now i walked away! talked to harris welding and according to them with gas welding you (should) have nice clean welds...not me!!

Once I bought  some no name mig wire and had all sorts of trouble getting a good weld... For the most part I uses Lincoln branded wire (L-56 I think) and have been quite happy with it.