Jared11

Hey everyone
Well awhile back I bought a 1989 firebird. Runs mechanically fine and all. However the car is as old as me and of course has gone through wear and tear. I brought the firebird to our welding shop and got to work one on one with it as it was my very first bought car. I got it safety checked to see what I need all in all to have her fixed. Turns out...
-Back left quarter panel rotted
-Big hole in back left and right wheel well
-Small hole in upper section of each wheel well
-Small small holes in the underbody directly under drivers feet
-Rockers were rotted

and thats about it for body work.
I fab'd up a new quarter panel peice, got her welded on and bondo'd flush. The big holes in the both back wheel wells took a bit of hard work as it was a complex piece to match the section I cut out. However I than found out that along with these great vehicles comes the name UNIBODY. All of my pieces were tacked on solid. And were not talking like 2 inch gaps, im talking 0.25inch gaps between tacks. However that wasnt going to cut it for the mechanics doing the safety. They have to be solid bead welds.. which almost seems impossible to do without blowing holes in the body... Can someone recommend a good type of wire to use on these bodies?

Also.. I have made up pieces to cover the cut out rotted parts of my rockers and have tacked them on for now. Do these also need to be fully welded 100% even tho they are part of the rocker? I cant see me putting than much weld on such a formed piece of metal without warping the rocker OR blowing holes left and right. Could just tack it like mad and cover it with a good job of bondo maybe?

Any help would be appreciated friends!

Jared Paterson

Uglybronco

iTrader: (2)

You're supposed to do spot welds a few inches apart then start over and work your way down the seem over & over til you get it welded 100%. I think you can use a wet towel or something to help assorb some heat.. Or you just may have to wait for it to cool if you get it too hot..
& you should use the smallest wire you can get.. like .023 or so..

Mathius

If the piece was spot welded by the factory, a plug weld is sufficient. If not, then you need to weld it solid. Use a weld thru primer behind the panel so you don't rust from the inside out or contaminate your weld.

Use small spaced out tacks until you're completely solid. A rocker panel should be thick enough to run some short beads with 0.025 wire. If you're running anything bigger than that, I'd just take it until you're all the way around, grind it smooth and fill in any other spots, then finish grind.

Don't bother with a wet cloth, just let it air cool in between. The water from the cloth could cause the metal to cool too quickly and you'll have warping.

Mathius

myroc86

Use potaotes to absorb the heat. Most people just tack it a million times. If you're blowing holes through it turn your amps down and adjust your wire speed.