pay a welder or buy a welder?

[markeb01]

Responding to the other half of your original question, hiring a local technician with portable equipment may not provide the best result because of the need to watch the clock to keep the bill under control. Welding sheet metal requires skill, experience, and no small amount of time. Having someone else perform rust repairs can easily bankrupt the entire project budget. And since buying a rust free truck these days is nearly impossible, mastering the skill of welding will both save money and provide bragging rights.

[Captainfab]

I agree with buying a name brand MIG welder with gas, an electronic hood, and a 4-1/2" angle grinder, as well as personal protection equipment. Also do look into welding classes at your local college. They can at least get you started with the basics. You can find some amazingly informative vodeos on Youtube also. A couple words of advise. Start with some thicker metal for practicing, like 1/8" and work your way into 18 ga sheet metal. When welding sheet metal, keep the heat to a minimum with short welds ~ 1/2" or less, and skip around to allow the heat to disappate. Always clean your metal to be welded down to bare steel (both sides on sheet metal) with the angle grinder with either a hard wheel or sanding discs. Take your time and get a good tight fitup between your pieces. Having to fill a gap is frustrating especially on sheet metal.

[Chevy Fleetside]

Originally Posted by djzphotos

Your right rcrhan, the fiance is in charge, so when I told her it would be cheaper to buy the welder and do it myself, she was stoked (I didnt mention with all the patches I screw up it might end up costing more ).

And thanks for the heads up Scot, I will avoid buying a cart and make that one of my first projects.

Measure 14 times and cut once....

[Fastrucken]

I gonna add to everyone else here..

1. Stick with a name brand. Probably will find your best deals for a hobart or licoln. One with shielding gas, It will help you with making pretty welds with ALOT less grinding. I started with a cheap mig that was always on, the trigger only controlled the wire feed. Super hard to do spot welding. When I bought my hobart 140amp 110v it was like night and day if only for this fact alone.

2. You will be totally satisfied with a 130-140 amp 110v unit. If you need to weld something your 110v welder cant, its probably a once and a while and if it comes up then you can turf it to someone else. you will be abled do everything you need to on your truck except weld the frame.

3. The BIGGEST thing needed to support your welder is a good power source. Don’t try this on a near overloaded circuit. The best welder's welds will suffer because of this. I had a friend trying to do some work on his truck and had the welder at the end of a 16gauge 100ft extension cord and was wondering why he wasn’t getting good penetration. Moved his work closer and got rid of the extension cord and was another night and day difference. If you need a extension cord ensure it’s as short as possible and ensure its 12 or 10 gauge.

[tenni126]

I ended up with an Eastwood 175 amp mig welder on recommendation from some welder friends. It's solid if you can't swing a name brand, uses standard fittings, and has a solid warranty. I was able to buy a lot more welder with it over what I could afford with the name brand, so it's worth looking into. But whatever you get, you'll have no regrets having one. Just buy as much welder as you can afford (do the research on capabilities and consumable availability, not just the brand name) and start doing it.
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[bama63]

i already had a miller matic 250 for the past 12 years and wanted a 110v welder for the sheetmetal work i would be doing so after much research i decided on the hobart handler 140 and this little machine does everything up to 1/4 inch and comes ready for use with fluxcore or solid wire and is complete with regulator i shopped around and found this unit at tractor supply company for 399.00 out the door. i have welded for 22 yrs and could not ask for a better welder i highly recommend this unit and have not used my big unit in almost a year now because this little welder does everything i have put it through and more.

[61_FL_Apache]

Buy your own and teach your self. Thats what I did many years ago. Im no pro, but I can stick some metal together

I went with a small 220v mig with gas. I can still to sheet and up to 1/4" stock. Its kinda the best of both. I even bought a book to get some tips from.

Look forward to your progress!!

[leddzepp]

Originally Posted by djzphotos

Im finally starting to get the ball rolling on my 65 c10. I need some advice on how difficult it would be for a first time welder to weld in some floor pans, rocker panel, and two exterior cab corners. I had found a mobile welder on craigslist who said he would come out and charge me $350 for an 8 hour days of work. Is there any way that someone could knock out that kind of a job in one day or would I be looking at a few more trips and a few more bucks. Depending on the cost for someone to do it, I was kind of thinking of just using that money to buy myself a welder and give it a go. If I could get some advice that would be awesome.

Thanks

The first two pictures are of the holes in the floors, the last pic is the passenger floor after I stripped the flooring and sanded out some of the rust.

Let me guess....Dave's Mobile Hot Rod Repair??

He is a nice guy and does good work reasonably....BUT, if you have him come over and do any work, tell him to leave his cell phone in his van, or offer to be his "secretary" and answer calls while he is working. I had him come to my place once to do some work that he told me would take 4 hrs and run me $200. It did NOT get finished in that time frame because every 5 mins his cell phone would ring and he would stop all work and answer it. He is there to work on YOUR ride on YOUR dime....not answer calls from prospective customers. I decided to finish the work myself and have never called him back.

[Mike Bradbury]

X14 on the name brand welder. The HF welder would probably be OK on the floor boards because it is just a series of tacks strung together on 18ga steel, and duty cycle is not much of an issue on the thin stuff.
Your welder is going to be used for more than just the floor if you plan on restoring/customizing the truck. 110v welders are pretty worthless for anything more than sheet metal. A 220v rig will do frame work as well as body panels. I am not suggesting that you dive right into frame work with your new welder but these projects take years to complete and that is more than enough time to learn the basics of GMAW.

Now if that is not in the cards financially right now, you could buy all the panels, cut out all the cancer. Sand back all the paint and rust from the edges. Go to Harbor Freight and get some body panel clips. Pre fit and grind where needed so they all fit in perfectly. Call your welder contact and let him know it is all fit up and only needs to be welded. Maybe you will get a much better rate and he will only be there for a day. Then while he is there watch what he is doing and ask questions.

I have always been an advocate of being self sufficient and learning the trade when rebuilding a project truck is most valuable. but sometimes these welders can get pricey and I would not want you to spend $400 to $600 on a welder that is tired beyond 1/8 inch material. My small 110v Lincoln and Small 110v Hobart handler are great welders for what they are designed to do, but on big jobs I pull out the big 220v Miler. It is all about the duty cycle at full output. These small welders that have a 20% duty can weld 2 minutes out of 10 or about 12 seconds out of a minute if that. Gets very frustrating when the welder just cannot keep up with you.

[1Bad62Pro/Street]

Look here:
welding???
http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...42#post3928842

StaceyDavidsGearZ
http://www.youtube.com/user/StaceyDavidsGearZ

YouTube - ‪Tool Tech - Welding...