Tips On How To Mig Weld Thin Metal Auto Body Panels

Рет қаралды 125,287

11 ай бұрын

Here's some tips if you're having trouble mig welding thin sheet metal.
Check out my custom mini parts available:
Urchfab Front Subframe Kit: www.ebay.co.uk/itm/115777190720
Urchfab Mini Shifter Mount: www.ebay.co.uk/itm/115513946589
Spray Gun Holder: www.ebay.co.uk/itm/115508600057
Mini Toe Board Kit: www.ebay.co.uk/itm/115717570943
Mini Toe Board Light Weight: www.ebay.co.uk/itm/115606556338
Wanna buy me a beer? www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted...
Support the channel and get early access to my videos with no ads: / urchfab
Get your paint supplies here: transpares.co.uk/
Email: urchfab@hotmail.com
Thanks to my channel sponsor:
xtremeplasma.ecwid.com/

Instagram: /
Facebook: /
Website: urchfab.com/

Пікірлер: 152

@stephencrossingham6788 11 ай бұрын

Thank you so much. The best advice I have heard on welding car bodies! I put your advice into practice today and, what a difference. Solid, neat welds with good penetration and, never blew a single hole! It has given me so much confidence to press on with my project. Thanks again. 👍

@Urchfab 11 ай бұрын

No problem Buddy, happy to help.

@My911 9 ай бұрын

Hi, this is good to hear. Which Amp setting did you use?

@ernied3123 27 күн бұрын

I’m a beginner and I’ve watched a lot of videos but I just learnt the most from yours in a fraction of the time I wasted on the others. Thanks so much.

@SolarTara 3 ай бұрын

I started welding on my car this year. I had watched a ton of video, and basically it all boiled down to using the lower settings to get my welds, but so many preached tack / stitch welding. Well instinctively as I got on with the car, I started turning up the settings because I noticed it wasn't giving good penetration at all.. Finally, a video that puts it into perspective and confirms what I was doing. Thank you for this! I wish more people mention this

@Sustainavore Ай бұрын

This is incredibly useful. I am brand new to welding and am planning to make my own flares for my sprinter van, and this answered a lot of my questions.

@mikefrost7516 11 ай бұрын

I needed this advice about 3 months ago. Would have stopped me warping the crap out of the side of my van when I repaired. Great tips. Cheers Matt!

@timcoppinger3373 11 ай бұрын

Man that was an interesting demonstration, I especially liked the use of aluminium behind anything with gaps, great video.

@davec200i 11 ай бұрын

Thanks Matt. Been watching your videos for ages, only recently got a welder and this has come at a good time!

@Themrjakecollins 10 ай бұрын

Where was this 2 years ago!! This video sorted out my sheet metal welds. Solid advice.

@Jim-fe2xz 9 ай бұрын

That's some very good tips all around but especially on grinding. I caused more warpage grinding than welding before I figured it out! Thank you for the great tips!

@reverseuniverse2559 7 ай бұрын

This has been the most helpful mig panel vid I’ve watched and I’ve learnt valuable lessons here in 7 minutes over other vids Cheers for the help mate ☕️👍

@888johnmac 11 ай бұрын

good tips .. glad to see Stewart keeping an eye on Matt

@davecoate9995 11 ай бұрын

Thank you Australia here, love your work!

@royster3345 4 ай бұрын

Brilliant tip, I'm fresh out of a welding course and was playing with thin metal a lot to see what the paremeters were. Heat and blow through being the issues, but some great tips on more is better. Thanks.

@philhuggett4776 11 ай бұрын

This was absolutely spot on from what ive found since welding up my mini. The amount of people i see online attacking their welds with an flap disc does my head in. Great little vid

@Urchfab 11 ай бұрын

Cheers mate.

@paulwhiteman3625 11 ай бұрын

Very educational, Matt! Cheers for sharing your knowledge.🙏

@nicnatmat123 2 ай бұрын

Thank you for this absolutely wonderfully concise, informative video.

@christopherastbury-mg2iz 10 ай бұрын

Excellent informative video. Someone finally explaining how and why we weld thin metals. More videos I hope will follow.

@Urchfab 10 ай бұрын

They will. Cheers 🍻

@philiptissington2872 11 ай бұрын

Love this toutoring episode very helpful , nice one 👍🏻

@Grumpy-sy7wr 7 ай бұрын

Thank you so much. I've been trying ways to get my welds to run much cooler, because of the mentioned hole blowing, only to end up with big lumpy welds. Never occurred to me to crank it up a bit as you just showed. I shall give it a try tomorrow. Lots of rust patches to weld in.

@hipoman8087 5 ай бұрын

Will give this a try. Sounds like a very good tutorial !

@jonny_s14 3 ай бұрын

Thanks for the vid. Just bought a 160a snap on mig and picked up a rotten s14 shell last week needing alot of repair

@itsalldoable 8 ай бұрын

Great video, great information, great timing. Thank you Matt, I'm working towards a lot of welding next week so this will be really helpful. Cheers matey 👍😎

@13Voodoobilly69 8 ай бұрын

Great tips. This will help me immensely.

@hbrannerudbrannerud6554 8 ай бұрын

Very good presentation! Thank you!

@deopersad2915 11 ай бұрын

Thanks Matt I struggle with sheet metal but this helps cheers 🤙

@dougwernham5209 11 ай бұрын

Thanks for the video, very helpful.

@michaelg492 8 ай бұрын

I really needed this. Today I tried welding up a sill on my car using the recommended settings and all I got was too much buildup and not much penetration. I'll try again with this knowledge and hopefully with better results

@brentonpaterson7047 11 ай бұрын

Perfect, thanks Matt, I'll give that a go.

@captainkirk1745 2 ай бұрын

Excellent info! Thank you kindly.

@floydwilcox2640 5 ай бұрын

Your videos are great, thank you for sharing your skills. 👍

@FrankInAShed 11 ай бұрын

Excellent info, cheers Urchy

@beezo2560 11 ай бұрын

Good stuff Matt. Savin' this one for reference. 👍

@hootinouts 10 ай бұрын

Excellent presentation. Thank you so much for sharing. I have to weld on the underside of my car where it rusted out and I have zero experience welding sheet metal on cars. My experience is welding thick from 3/16" up.

@rsbharley4766 11 ай бұрын

Excellent info Matt, thanks for taking the to share. Cheers

@Urchfab 11 ай бұрын

No worries

@FJOLLEDRENG 3 ай бұрын

Great advices - thank you so much 🙏

@messenger8279 6 ай бұрын

Excellent advice.

@makethingsinteresting496 4 ай бұрын

Great info! Thanks for sharing 👍🏻

@RickRose 11 ай бұрын

Thanks for the tips!

@jtp682 4 ай бұрын

great video. I do have a question that nobody seems to be able to answer. After you weld in the new panels how do you protect the patch backside of the weld from rusting?

@ifixeditmyself1926 6 ай бұрын

This was really helpful.

@groovyboovy 11 ай бұрын

Handy tips, thanks

@timothylockhart2009 5 ай бұрын

Wish I had watched this sooner. Just nearing the end of my first project welding and it was sheet metal. I ran into using too cold of settings. Getting huge mountains and they didn't even penetrate! Grind down and find id have to weld again but I had grinded the parent metal thin removing the welds. So then I got blown through! All that being said this is a great video I wished I watched sooner.

@hespie1 11 ай бұрын

Great, thanks Matt.

@FabCoUK 11 ай бұрын

Good info Matt! How about a video on welding panels with corrosion, eg mot repairs where the steel you’re welding isn’t perfect?

@jamesward5721 11 ай бұрын

Flux core. Use 0.6mm wire. It's very "This is crap steel" tolerant.

@1one3_Racing 11 ай бұрын

Yeah this sounds right up your alley!

@FabCoUK 11 ай бұрын

@@1one3_Racing I was think more as a resource for others, but sure, I can take the hint 😅

@MrRobhadfield 11 ай бұрын

@@FabCoUK 😂 busted!

@Urchfab 11 ай бұрын

That’s a good idea 👍

@TK42138 7 ай бұрын

Brilliant advice.

@watsonwatson8051 11 ай бұрын

More like this please, that was 👍

@psv1600 4 ай бұрын

very instructive, many thanks fro the clues 🤩😍

@ronwalker9000 11 ай бұрын

Thank you so much!

@tamidon40 9 ай бұрын

Genius. Love it.

@adsminibuild5791 4 ай бұрын

Great video thanks for sharing 👍

@chewies9456 9 ай бұрын

Thank you! I was getting nice little buttons on some 22 gauge with 023 wire today after watching this. Tried dialing the welder every which way I could for 15 minutes going by the settings chart, then watched this, cranked up the heat and speed a bit and voilà!

@Urchfab 9 ай бұрын

Glad it helped

@markgutter8443 11 ай бұрын

A good help to me. Thanks.

@Urchfab 11 ай бұрын

You're welcome!

@paulbiegun 5 ай бұрын

Thanks!

@dynamicvehicleservices8170 11 ай бұрын

Hate having to grind thin stuff just thins it out even more

@russthebiker 28 күн бұрын

That was really informative, i got taught to use the stick welder as an apprentice But these mig machine are a world apart, need to get sone practise in with mine Andcusing more heat is good sense,remember people with the stick welder using to low a setting and getting stuck

@MartsGarage 11 ай бұрын

Thanks Matt. I'm in the middle of a weldathon on my 100E at the moment. I will try and take your advice on board. Mart.

@fredjones1238 11 ай бұрын

Mart , You're getting better with every panel mate.

@Urchfab 11 ай бұрын

Keep at it Mart 👍

@NZMOPAR 11 ай бұрын

thanks for that video good info there

@Bigbluevwvan 11 ай бұрын

Top tips 👍

@ChunkyC 7 ай бұрын

Great advice. Getting much better results after doing this and switching to .6 wire, but I'm not getting all that great of a penetration. Do you think I should swap back to 0.8 or maybe try some different settings?

@jackrichards1863 11 ай бұрын

I often dont touch settings. Until i got a synergic mig. It's great to see this, which confirmed a notion I had that it doesn't matter much. Now I'm considering it may be an actual improvement. When i first welded all we had was arc. I learned a lot from repairing the ageing exhaustt systems with an arc welder and large rods. Once a mate got a mig i went and got one myself. Of course its a lot more user friendly and old exhaust pipe gets thrown in the scrap now. Japanese car panels are stil a challenge.

@michaelberry3094 9 ай бұрын

I am about to start welding some Japanese car panels myself. If you would share- in what way do you find them to be challenging?

@alankepler3124 4 ай бұрын

Sorry my english is not so good. Do you mean that a Sinergic Mig is a better option to practice this tip?. Or did I misunderstand? . Or it doesn't matter if it is synergic or manual, and only the technique of this tip matters?. Thanks. Greetings.

@malcolmyoung7866 11 ай бұрын

Excellent presentation Matt.. Now heading up the garage after 4 treble whisky’s to unstitch the horrors Inhave bestowed upon my daughters Freelander over the past 3 years… Only kidding.. It’s 4 years!!

@Urchfab 11 ай бұрын

😂

@gorporpio 5 ай бұрын

Excellent

@neilgarrad4931 11 ай бұрын

Thanks

@tobiasbostwick9002 11 ай бұрын

Thanks.

@davehowland5270 11 ай бұрын

I did my first wheel arch last weekend and did everything you said not to do i was amazed at how far you can warp a flat panel next week i will do it your way

@basilwatson1 11 ай бұрын

yes I made a battery box from 0.8 and yes , it warped ( understatement of the year )

@StewSims Ай бұрын

Good video and it seems to have done well. Have you thought about doing a video on a small car rust repair from start to finish? Lots of us have probably fairly poorly slapped a patch on something, but few have learnt how to do it properly from a professional like yourself (e.g. avoiding the need for too much grinding, welding and filling). Would be interesting to see how you'd tackle it and hopefully pick up some basic fabrication and welding tips and tricks.

@Urchfab Ай бұрын

There's a video in my how too playlist. its old but should help you out. Cheers

@neiljarvis8911 11 ай бұрын

Cheers! Really good video, its a bit counter intuitive really.

@joewahrerMotorcycleMan 10 күн бұрын

Wait for it...I almost clicked off too soon! Thanks for your tips and your car rocks! What is it? Mini?

@My911 9 ай бұрын

Hi, thanks for this. Which Amp settings did you use for welding the 0.8mm steel? My Welder has a digital display for Amps rather than the traditional 1-4 settings. Regards Joël

@fprice212 24 күн бұрын

Great onfo, thanks becaise hell as sure im not paying 20k for a couple of rusted out floor panels in my '73 where i have amasing metal panels at home from "reclaimed" traffic signs.

@AXNJXN1 4 ай бұрын

Well done. Mutually, when Flux Core welding, I also keep the voltage lower and nearly twice the wire speed feed. It provides the correct balance of 'excess' metal to heat ratio, preventing blow through and keeps the base metal cooler. I have found FC welding is just as advantageous for this welding, minus the slag but for the 'budget' welder, you can get this done too! Just need to figure out your particular machine and it's settings. Point being, FC machines can do this job, period, just learn it well. Cheers.

@user-du2nj4tw3y 4 ай бұрын

Great video… what machine is that ?

@JB-NZ 5 күн бұрын

@Urchfab Thanks for sharing this video. Query, do you have anything against 0.6mm wire for 0.8mm steel like on a classic mini? I had been using 0.8mm but changed to 0.6mm, and I am running a slightly higher voltage than recommended, but I think I need to turn it up further. Curious though how 0.6mm will compare to 0.8mm wire though and if it will react differently to higher voltage. Thanks

@mfwwhelan7561 11 ай бұрын

Interesting video. Sometimes I get a vertical tail sitting on the top of my spot welds. It happens periodically and is not present on all welds. All my settings are unchanged.I asked a lot of people but no one has the answer, My welder is an ESAB Caddy 200Amp. I'm using the usual Argon/Co2 mix. Generally I use 18 Volts and 5m wire speed. Wire is 0.8mm. Thanks, Mike

@Urchfab 11 ай бұрын

Try turning the burn back down if you can adjust it. If not try holding the torch a little further away.

@ssnydess6787 2 ай бұрын

Nice, small suggestion would be tomention the sheet metal thicness in "gauge" dimensions, since most of your audience is probably US. Thanks!

@Urchfab Ай бұрын

Noted. Cheers

@ToniR_ 11 ай бұрын

What if you pull a little, it will spread the spotweld and less grinding?

@BrianSmart1959 11 ай бұрын

Nice tip. That's what she said.

@onewheelup1817 7 ай бұрын

What best budgeted MIG welder would you recommend?

@kbtube8125 11 ай бұрын

i cut off the ball on the wire after every weld too.

@snapon1948 2 ай бұрын

Hi what welder are you using looking for new welder

@bfd1918 3 ай бұрын

Where to buy those welding equipment?

@WHM_Engineering 11 ай бұрын

Any tips on welding perforated rusty sh1te to good bits? 😂 Great vid 👍 pull the trigger on what looks like good stuff, boom 12mm hole 😭😂

@DonaldReynoldsII 11 ай бұрын

Lots of gas used but cool new standard

@ryanphotostudio 5 ай бұрын

@urchfab not sure if I missed it, but what gauge wire were you running? Thanks, I really liked the concepts in this video mate

@Urchfab Ай бұрын

0.8mm Cheers

@petar443 11 ай бұрын

Neat !

@djjmsimon 11 ай бұрын

When you can't get to the back of the weld, is there a concern about the heat affected zone corroding quicker? Assuming using weld through primer is helpful if you can get it on to the back of the existing old metal?

@Urchfab 11 ай бұрын

Yes it’s an issue. Cavity wax or similar can be a good option for getting to the inside.

@micabeda 11 ай бұрын

Funny how it’s so natural for you.

@Urchfab 11 ай бұрын

I’ve done it every day for a lot of days bud 👍

@markberry8182 10 ай бұрын

Great tips there matt. When you are butt welding thin metal(0.8) do you leave a gap or butt them right up. Ive got a sill to weld up on a nissan soon.🤣Ive seen people say that leaving a gap gives better penetration? Thanks mark👍

@Urchfab 10 ай бұрын

Hi Mark, I get it tight as I can. If it’s set right you won’t have any issue with penetration on 0.8mm. Cheers 🍻

@rennkafer13 11 ай бұрын

Matt, are you able to planish those welds to account for shrinkage or do you need to TIG for that. I need to fill a sunroof hole in my Mini...

@NZMOPAR 11 ай бұрын

hammer them out as you go with a hammer and dolly

@rennkafer13 11 ай бұрын

@@NZMOPAR I know, my question was more about planishing MIG welds vs TIG welds and which would be Matts choice.

@Urchfab 11 ай бұрын

Mig welds are much harder so it’s more difficult so you need to grind off the excess material. Tig is softer but takes more skill on thin material.

@MuzzahA1 11 ай бұрын

You said copper works best, what type of copper works best, male or female?

@Matt-Maelstrom 11 ай бұрын

What model of welder are you using in this vid?

@Urchfab 11 ай бұрын

Bester 190

@stephenhurrell2773 5 ай бұрын

Great video could you let me know the mig welder you are using & gas Do you do any short courses & where in the U.K. are you Thanks Steve

@Urchfab Ай бұрын

Hi Steve, I'm currently looking at offering some courses. I'm in Dorset. Cheers

@mattsan70 11 ай бұрын

What do you think of them Bester 190C Mig welders?

@Urchfab 11 ай бұрын

Great little machine. Really nice crisp arc 👍

@oikkuoek 11 ай бұрын

Any tips and tricks for welding an actual old, rusty and grimy panel? I tried to think of it, and I have never in my life welded two clean fresh sheets of any thickness onto each other. The panels needed welding have always been rusted through, and the patches have been parts of not yet rusted through panels of whatever sheet the metal skip has had to offer. Also, can you do that with a stick? Doing a rot repair when all you have is a stick and a box of slow fuses, in 4 inches of icy slush, trying not to burn the house down in the process.. Yeah.

@mix1806 11 ай бұрын

im in the same bout and looking to someone hand me an mig welder...

@jamesward5721 11 ай бұрын

@@mix1806 Same answer applies - use flux core wire. It's very "dirty metal" tolerant & blows disproportionately less holes than solid wire. Once you get good at using it, it blows zero holes.

@oikkuoek 11 ай бұрын

@@jamesward5721 I've tried that too, and not only did it not stick/fuse the metals together, the light was so bright it burned my eyes. Never again. The worst of the worst. Butt welding with flux core is next to impossible. Mig is nice when you have gas, but when you don't as in 9 out of ten times I've got my hands on one, it sucks. Not impossible, but sucks. Stick is my tool of choice, if panel glue isn't enough.

@jamesward5721 11 ай бұрын

@@oikkuoek I weld vehicles full time, all week - it's all I do, my full time work. I use flux core for EVERYTHING. It ain't flux cores fault if it isn't penetrating - it's the nut behind the trigger isn't tight enough, flux core penetrates really good. :-) Mask are nice for the "Burned my eyes" issue.

@oikkuoek 11 ай бұрын

@@jamesward5721 Mask didn't fit under the car, and couldn't see anything with it on. Better mask, yeah, but they are difficult to steal. And definitely was the flux core. After swiching back to stick, the welds became solid. even with sheet stuff. The feeder in that crappy machine couldn't feed the wire in constant speed, so it just sputtered hot slag with no useful result.

@dans5595 7 ай бұрын

for grinding, you said "stone grinding disc". i'm not sure what that means. does that term have an american translation?

@doctorsatansrobot 11 ай бұрын

What sort of gap do you set up when butt welding panels? I've seen people weld with no gap at all, and some people who religiously open the gap up with a 1mm grinder disc as they go. I guess you don't need the gap if you're getting good penetration and no warping? I'm off to ebay now to find a block of copper. :)

@Urchfab 11 ай бұрын

Best to have no gap in my opinion.