Help with Rear Patch Panel Fleetside 66

[MP&C]

Dang, looks like I'm too late to the party. oh well, let me add some food for thought.


5-10 years ago I would have cut the seam just as you did, and you will need to planish as you go, grind the excess out of the way, weld the next sets of dots, planish, grind, repeat. In the interest of consistency, you welder should be set up for a full penetration weld. For discussion, let's assume you are working with 18 ga steel. Now if you were to leave those weld dots alone until the end, as I believe you did with the door, that last weld dot can be anywhere from 3 to 5x the thickness of the parent metal. Left like that, what kind of impact does that have on your welder's heat setting? I'm thinking you will start to have some cold welds as the heat setting is not adequate for all that thickness, and thus you won't have full penetration welds. Grind down the excess before overlapping so you don't run into this issue. The front flange will HELP to hold the shape of the quarter up in the front, but it will still need some planishing effort to keep the shrinking at bay. Just don't get too crazy where you've stretched too much, then you'll have other headaches.

One step up from this would be to perform the weld using TIG or O/A in a non-stop, continuous pass after tacking the panels every couple inches. The continuous weld heats progressively as you go and cools in the same fashion, from one end of the seam to the other. This provides less distortion from welding, where a Mig "dot" shrinks circumferentially, pulling from all directions each and every time.

So looking at this same panel today, I think my preferred method would be to trim the panel and leave enough excess to fold the flange. Then figure out where the bend should be, and use a tipping wheel to partially fold the bend, and a shrinker along the flange, repeat of tipping, etc. until the shape/crown of the panel is correct. Use a hammer and dolly to sharpen up the crease as needed, no weld seam required, no weld planishing, no weld grinding.


Either method will work, but each requires a specific tool and skill set. Do what is most comfortable to you and you will likely have the best results..

[msg]

Originally Posted by MP&C

Dang, looks like I'm too late to the party. oh well, let me add some food for thought.

Your help is much appreciated Robert, Im all over the place right now so glad you caught this thread. That snip video you posted was super helpful, watched the whole thing and I'll use that to help get the other end of the panel trimmed up and ready to weld. I have these snips I got at sears here..I hope these are good ones.

http://www.sears.com/midwest-snips-2...FdgGgQodd7gIpg

Originally Posted by MP&C

One step up from this would be to perform the weld using TIG or O/A in a non-stop, continuous pass after tacking the panels every couple inches. The continuous weld heats progressively as you go and cools in the same fashion, from one end of the seam to the other. This provides less distortion from welding, where a Mig "dot" shrinks circumferentially, pulling from all directions each and every time..

Yeah one day I'll step up to TIG, I bought the MIG hoping to learn to use it right and get this truck repaired. What is O/A?

Originally Posted by MP&C

So looking at this same panel today, I think my preferred method would be to trim the panel and leave enough excess to fold the flange.

You mean leave 1/4 inch on the end left side of the panel where I need to weld it to the existing panel? Or thr right side that bend over the end to the right?

Originally Posted by MP&C

Then figure out where the bend should be, and use a tipping wheel to partially fold the bend, and a shrinker along the flange, repeat of tipping, etc. until the shape/crown of the panel is correct. Use a hammer and dolly to sharpen up the crease as needed, no weld seam required, no weld planishing, no weld grinding.

I do have a shrinking wheel for the grinder I bought but I dont have a tipping wheel. Is that like an English wheel? Without having that is there any way to correct the crown? Or just take it to a shop?