Since my engine is in the hands of the machinist right now, I thought I would turn my attention back to the shortbed bedsides that I have been attempting to resurrect. I've got this idea in my head that, yes, I CAN master the art of MIG welding sheet metal! I brought the worst bedside back into the shop and started fabricating a patch panel for the huge area in front of the wheel well on the drivers side. That area had been badly damaged in the past and previously been repaired with bondo. When I removed the bondo I found the whole area had been riddled with holes - most likely this was done to give something for the bondo to anchor to. Needless to say, with all the dents, waves and holes this seemed to be a perfect place to use a fresh metal patch panel. I'd purchased some steel panels online and now needed to use one to fabricate a patch panel to fit that area. First, to remove the area of the bedside that had all the damage, I was going to use my angle-grinder with a cut-off wheel, but I find that tool a bit too hard to control when doing an intricate cut. It's too powerful and unruly. Instead, I pulled out an air-powered 3-inch cutter I had purchased a few years back and had used only a little because my compressor isn't big enough to power it very well. I had used it to cut some thicker steel and it took forever! The compressor couldn't produce enough pressure to power the tool for more than a few seconds. For my patch-panel steel it was actually pretty good. While I still could really use a bigger compressor to make it work like it should, it did OK and allowed me to cut the steel in multiple slow passes... not all the way through 20 gauge in one pass, but in several. I have no experience with metal fabrication but the process fascinates me enough to want to give it a try. I have only standard hand tools to use for this and no big fancy metalworking machines so I needed to figure out how to shape the steel sheet the way I needed it to fit my application in some other way. The area of the bedside I am replacing has a somewhat sharply rolled profile at the top and then a lesser roll as it goes down the side of the bedside. It also has a thin section that would get tucked into the side where the top section of the side meets the lower section. To get the sharper roll, I laid the sheet over a piece of PVC pipe and massaged it around that shape until I got close to what I needed. Then I clamped the top edge to an old bed frame bracket and made the sharp bend for the thin section. It took quite a bit of effort to get it to be close to the profile I needed, but I think it may turn out OK. I then prepared the bedside by placing the patch panel over the area it will go and further trimming out the old metal around the patch so I had a narrow "lip" to use to attach the patch. This lip I then recessed down with a tool I bought from Eastwood for this purpose. It's an air punch that creates this offset very nicely. The same tool can also punch perfectly round holes for spot welding too. Once I got my patch panel close to what I needed I decided I better do some more practice welding before I attempt to attach it. I didn't want to destroy my nicely prepared panel with my poor welding skills. Good thing I did this because I'm still learning how to weld sheet metal and got quite a few burn-throughs. I showed some photos to my friends on the Facebook group sites and they gave me feedback on what I might be doing wrong. I realized in the end that my problem was that I was trying to weld some areas of old steel that I had ground down too much and had made too thin. The welding burned through it like butter. That was my Saturday. Ran out of time and welding gas. I can't wait to get back to it. I really enjoy the challenge of this whole project. |
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ChevyEddieA guy just having fun fiddlin' in his garage Archives
May 2016
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