About five years ago I purchased a '61 Bugeye. I looked pretty good at the time
despite the fact that it was sitting out in the open under a tarp, sunk up to
its sills in the mud for a few years.
I had it towed home and started assessing the task. It turned out a *lot* worse
than I thought. The whole underside of the car including the sills and about 6
inches into the A,B posts (including the lower door hinges) were gone. The
floor pans were fashioned out of fiberglass and aluminum (pop riveted) sheet
covered with bondo and black underbody sealer. Only the center section - the
transmission tunnel was spared protected by a oil slick from a leaky engine.
Who said that oil leaks are bad?! I was pretty discouraged, getting a donor
body did not look possible so I decided to take the plunge and rebuild rather
than reshell. I came across of a British magazine - "Practical Classics" which
I started subscribing. It proved very inspirational and instructional - the
best periodical by far in terms of the DIY techniques and examples of cars as
bad as my Bugeye! I ended up buying a MIG welder - the same Italian job ($250
local Price Club) mentioned in previous messages. It is a 110v unit rated
105A/Turbo - which as near as I can determine means that it has an internal
cooling fan which I've yet to see operational. It has four heat settings and
variable wire feed. It welds OK from 20g cold roll up to 3/16" cold/hot roll
stock. Welding 1/4" is a bit pushing - it requires chamfering and multiple
passes. I would not trust my life to that weld. For some reason I have
difficulty welding with the 6mm wire, it works *much* better with 8mm wire.
Contrary to what everybody says, I'm not ashamed to admit it, it takes a *lot*
of skill to produce a consistent, good penetration weld on varying sheet metal
thickness, vertical and horizontal welds, butt, corner, etc. If anybody is
telling you that you will be welding with minimal training they are being
disingenuous. It takes quite a bit of practice and "feel" for the material,
heat, wire feed, and speed of welding. To butt-weld two sheets of thin 20 or
18g steel without burnthrough is very difficult. You need steady hands, I can't
understand these pictures where you see a guy holding a torch in one hand and a
hand-held face mask in another hand. When I try to do it with one hand I get
nothing but cold "pooping".
I use 20/80 mixture of CO2/Argon. I never tried pure CO2 which is a lot cheaper.
Any advice?
I love my MIG welder. It is one of the most indispensable tools in my
possession - I don't know how I got around without it.
Alex Levinson
alevinso@motown.ge.com
PS: Looking for a windshield glass and front suspension spring pans or
rebuild kits to replace their wornout lower fulcrum threaded sleeves.
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