[Kev67]

I'm new to the body work world and trying to learn as I go. I am fabricating some body pieces for my '80 GMC 4X4 and that part is going OK. I have about 1/2 of the outer door skin to weld in but I'm not quite sure how I'm going to straighten out the warpage once I have it in place. Any sugestions?

Kev

[bowtiebabe72]

One way I reduced warping to my quarter panels when I welded those on (I know you are doing skins, but...it is sheet metal) is to weld a strait edge onto the area that you are welding....wow...hard to explain in words.

Ok....it seems like you have the lower half of the skin to weld on, spot weld a strait piece of metal...it will look a little like a wing, onto the piece that is in tact already right above the area where you are going to be welding the new piece on.

I don't know if anybody else has ever done this, I am sure they have. My boyfriend works for a resto shop and they do a lot of welds like this, especially if they are in highly visible areas where warpage is not good...

Hope this helps

-Lindsey

Another thing you may want to consider.....GM has a TON of goodmark parts available....it is a lot easier sometimes to just replace a piece of sheetmetal than it is to make patches for it.
The parts really aren't all that bad as far as price goes either

[Kev67]

Lindsey,

So if I understand what you're saying I'm basically going to create a "backing" along the weld seam on the "original" half of the skin? Correct?

I had heard somewhere along the line about a type of clay (or clay like material) that was used when gas welding sheet metal to reduce the heat affected area and thus limit warpage. It was run along both sides of the weld seam and left until the piece was cool. This also allowed the bead to cool slower producing a stronger weld. Ever heard of it or have any info / details on it?

And yes, I do know that GM could provide all the parts I need but I've been having a lot of fun fabricating them myself. GM parts are my back up plan if I find a piece I can't fabricate to my satisfaction. I'm not in any real big rush to get the whole vehicle done and I'm learning a lot doing these relative simple pieces.

Kev

[unstable]

the "warpage" is shrinkage at the site of the weld. You can work this out by working the area with a hammer and dolly. The big boys use a post dolly on an offset to get inside the door...same thing could be accomplished if you had one of your buddies hold the dolly inside the door and you smack the outside with the hammer.

HTH.

[Kev67]

HTH / Lindsey

I partially used both of your suggestions. I had made some "welders helpers" a little while ago - they were just two pieces of 1/8 flat bar with the center cut out. I placed those in the spots that I wanted to weld and the flat bar soaked up most of the excess heat. I also used large washers for doing my spot welds - worked great.

I didn't have an off set dolly but what I did do is take an old leaf spring (the end with the connection on it), clean it up and extend it with another piece of leaf so that it would reach from the bottom of the door (which has not yet been attached) to well beyond the weld seam. The curve of the spring allows it to touch only in the spot that's it's needed while I can still put pressure on it to support the hammer blows. So far it's working well.

Thanks a bunch

Kev