Welding Tips and Tricks

I like this forum!

I trained in auto collision and restoration in high school, apprenticed and then worked as a collision tech for 6 years - that was 30 years ago!

I got out of the collision shops and have been in the corporate business world for the past 30 years.

I always missed the collision shops and restoring, messing around with, old cars and bikes - it's in my blood and it never goes away!.

I'm sorta "retired" at the moment and I'm rebuilding a 1967 Mustang Coupe with my son that of course requires floor board replacements.

I really want to learn to TIG and will look to use this site as my teacher and guide.

Anyway, I have a few questions that I'll post up and try to contribute in a meaningful way.

God Bless America!

Tracey Bird aka Sleepyhead

Welcome! Filling out your location helps out a lot, just FYI.

Hi Tracey and welcome to the forum. Posting your location and also the equipment that you are using will help. There is lot of info available in the wtt forum from a lot of different experience levels. You will have to take ALL of that info and use what works for YOU. Also posting in the proper forum will get quicker results to your questions and gives more room in the intro forum for the new folks joining.
gramps

Good luck on your restoration!

I owned a 1967 Mustang GTA convertible when I was younger, it was one of my favorite cars. It had a high performance 390 in it, and mine had the Shelby polished aluminum panels in the interior. The only real problem it had was the radiator on those cars is so frickin' small, I had to have it cored out every year. Mine had the original factory mag wheels. The distinctive traits of the '67 where the hood vents and the vents behind the doors. I have a soft spot in my heart for them.

Yours must be an east coast car if it needs floor boards, or some some area that gets salt on the roads.

TraditionalToolworks wrote:Good luck on your restoration!

I owned a 1967 Mustang GTA convertible when I was younger, it was one of my favorite cars. It had a high performance 390 in it, and mine had the Shelby polished aluminum panels in the interior. The only real problem it had was the radiator on those cars is so frickin' small, I had to have it cored out every year. Mine had the original factory mag wheels. The distinctive traits of the '67 where the hood vents and the vents behind the doors. I have a soft spot in my heart for them.

Yours must be an east coast car if it needs floor boards, or some some area that gets salt on the roads.

Thanks Alan we are having a great time!

These cars have really gone up in value, yours sounds like a beast and it was probably a ton of fun.

Oscar wrote:Welcome! Filling out your location helps out a lot, just FYI.

Location captured! Thanks Oscar

BillE.Dee wrote:Hi Tracey and welcome to the forum. Posting your location and also the equipment that you are using will help. There is lot of info available in the wtt forum from a lot of different experience levels. You will have to take ALL of that info and use what works for YOU. Also posting in the proper forum will get quicker results to your questions and gives more room in the intro forum for the new folks joining.
gramps

Thanks for the info and welcome gramps!...

Sleepyhead wrote:These cars have really gone up in value, yours sounds like a beast and it was probably a ton of fun.

It was such a fun car to drive, mine had pretty wide T/A Radials on it and it just kind of hugged the road...it was such a fun car to put the top down on and crank up the music...a really fun car to drive in SoCal where I owned it. I sold it to pull my house out of foreclosure when my partner failed to make the mortgage payments...I kind of kick myself to this day, that 'stang is probably worth $200k+, would be better had it been a stick, most people want the ultimate muscle cars, but the automatic was nice to drive around town. My house turned out to be the better piece however, I sold it and barely made a profit, but took that and bought the home I have now which went up a LOT. I'll probably never find the cash to re-buy something like that though...

Curious, can you get the floor pans to weld in?

I bought a '46 Chevy Pickup about a year and a half ago, it needs some panels welded, one spot is the bottom of the cab where the rear of the cab and floor meet, it's pretty rotted along that seam. My plan is to fit a piece of angle there and tig it on.

The other spot I need to repair is the door bottoms, one looks like a piece of rusted mesh when I got under there. Those pieces are available, luckily. I imagine Mustang body panel/parts are probably made aftermarket?

Or do you need to fabricate them entirely yourself? I have a lot of respect for guys that can fabricate those pieces with a stretcher and shrinker, kinda out of my league, not that I would let that stop me from trying...

TraditionalToolworks wrote:

Sleepyhead wrote:These cars have really gone up in value, yours sounds like a beast and it was probably a ton of fun.

Curious, can you get the floor pans to weld in?

I imagine Mustang body panel/parts are probably made aftermarket?

Yes, you can get the floor pans aftermarket, partial or full pans.

You could basically build a classic Mustang from aftermarket suppliers, everything seems available, unfortunately it is all made overseas so fit is good but not OEM quality.

Sleepyhead wrote:Yes, you can get the floor pans aftermarket, partial or full pans.

Yeah, I figured if I can get those 'ol Chevy panels, you must be able to get Mustang.

There used to be a place by me in San Jose called The Mustang Ranch, but they closed...I always thought that was a great name... (famous brothel in Nevada, for those that may not be aware)