Help Me Choose A Welder For This Project

[oilpsi2high]

I have a truck bed with rusted wheel arches thanks to a drop in bedliner that trapped water for the past 15 years. Bedliner is now gone but the holes in the wheel arches remain.

I acquired some sheet metal and want to weld in a patch.

What's the best welder to go with? Can I do this with a cheap stick welder or do I need TIG/MIG?

It doesn't have to look pretty, I plan to put a roll-on bedliner over it.

Thanks for any help/advice.

 

[spasm3]

Mig it. A stick might burn right through it, and warp it with heat. I you are going to do hobby welding, the licnoln units work well for me. A Lincoln 140 would give you the option of gas, if you did not want to run flux wire. HF has some cheap mig welders, but I don't know if they have a gas option unit.

Tack around the patch before welding in a line.

PLEASE be careful anywhere near the fuel tank!!! Vapors travel and if you are close enough, its easy to blow something up!!!! Also I disconnect the battery cable when I weld, maybe overkill, but I don't' want to cook any electronics.

 

[oilpsi2high]

Can you patch exhausts with a MIG?

Also the metal is quite rusty. Not sure if mig or stick is better for that.

 

[oilpsi2high]

Also the fuel tank is literally right above where I'd be welding.

I thought about holding the patch in place with quicksteel, and then using a sealant around the whole patch. Better than blowing things up.

 

[Donald]

You will need to learn how to weld. That is not done in an afternoon,

 

[Ihatetochangeoil]

You want to mig it. Stick will simply burn it thru, and a tig welder requires a gas (shielding) flow meter, argon tank, use of both hands to weld (one hand hold the tig torch with tungsten and other hand feed filler wire)....higher skill level and cost of setup...

MIG is used by most muffler & body shops for light welding. Regarding your fuel tank being "literally right above" where you intend to weld; obviously the LAST thing you want is a boom! But there are some simple things you can do to protect the (potential) spread of flame....Wrap the gas tank with soaking wet bath towels, place some (scraps of) sheet metal between where you're welding and the tank...BEST safety precaution might be a little harder; disconnect the gas line, drain the gas tank and temporarily fill it with water. No one ever heard of a water tank catching fire; and no one can weld rust. The cleaner the metal, the better. Sanding, power wire brush, light grinding...You MUST have clean sound metal to weld to. Do you actually have metal left to weld to?

I absolutely agree with spasm3 it's a great idea to disconnect the battery.

Edit: Donald is right also.

 

[Rand]

find another bed at a junkyard?

 

[WondrousBread]

Quickest welding option for this application is flux-core MIG.

If you're going to actually get into welding, I'd suggest getting a MIG welder that has the fittings for gas. You won't need it for this project, but you'll want it in the future.

I grabbed the cheapest one available near me (Canadian Tire store-brand, $230 for a 120V MIG welder with gas option) and it is perfectly acceptable for the price. I will probably resell it one day and buy an entry-level Lincoln because I can feel the cheap construction of this welder, but it is completely acceptable for a beginner given the cheapest Lincoln near me was over $600 for a similar setup.

Good luck. Post pictures when you're done

 

[oilpsi2high]

Originally Posted by Rand
find another bed at a junkyard?


Replace the whole bed because a wheel arch has a hole? That's ridiculous. The rest of the bed is near mint.

I'm probably just going to go with epoxy/sealant/bedliner. [censored], I patched an engine block's oil filter casting with the stuff a decade ago, and it still holds oil. Also held exhaust pipe together (also with fiberglass wrap) with it and it's still doing fine years later. I think it'll be up to the task of holding two pieces of metal together....

Thanks for the help.

 

[eljefino]

None-- use mechanical means. I'd get a bunch of 1/8" diameter self tapping screws. Do it every 1.5 to 2 inches. Run them in then back out every other one and replace it with a Pop_Rivet. Then replace the remaining remaining ones with more rivets. Seal with that urethane from ram-man's thread.

Welding sheet metal that's thinned out from rust will discourage you as a newbie.