i was thnking about doing some work on ym car with shaving some parts and how thick of a peice of metal to use, and once i welded it on, how to i make it smooth with the rest of car? thanks


working on sig.... just wait

Use the same thickness as the surrounding metal. Weld slow, do a spot, move to the other side while that side cools. If you weld too fast and hot, the metal will buckle and warp. After you weld, if you got good penetration through the welds, they can be ground down flush with the car. you would then use an EXTREMELY thin coat of quality body filler, smooth that out, then prime and paint.





4cyltuner.com - Information Source For 4 Cylinder Tuners
Buy stuff from CarCustoms Ebay! Won't be disappointed!

thank you very much


working on sig.... just wait

if you had to ask that question, then dont do it.... no offense, but you are going to extremely @!#$ your car up. If you dont know what your doing with body work, and you dont know enough about welding to know what size metal to use, then you dont know enough to go and shave stuff off of your car. its a lot harder than you think. save up the money, and take it to a shop.

Shave whatever with 18g sheetmetal. Like people said do a tack and use a damp rag to cool it,move to the other side and do another tack and so on till it is almost completely tacked all the way around..then use a layer of long strand fiberglass filler over that and then your regualr filler....the reason for using the fiberglass filler is cause it will allow flex without cracking and it is alot stronger so if there is any movement from the weld seams it wont come throuh..hope this helps..phil

you wann give me some money? didnt think so


working on sig.... just wait

if you have no experiance with welding or working with filler and body lines i would not suggest doing this either. As for the metal, i used 22gauge for both handles, door locks, gas tank door, and antenna... 22gauge is fine. As for filler, a coat of reinforced filler is needed for the first coat. I used tiger hair and it works/sands very well. Then after it is almost all sanded off, I used a thin coat of Rage Gold body filler. Heres a few progress pics, hope it helps.

You gotta start somewhere. you can just know how to weld. so i say go for it. you have to learn somehow. im not going to bash you down and tell you not to try something new. So goodluck with it!

thank you, everyone had to start off on thier own stuff to learn. all im going to start off with is my locks. i want to keep my handels and shave just the locks for now. Car is a daily driver and dont want the hassel of doors not poping open. If it turns out good, i will go for anteana, then take off my trunk bezel (03) and fill in those holes. im nto doing any huge projects or anything


working on sig.... just wait

my advice would be not to practice on your own car...

go to the junkyard....or just go buy some scrap metal and start welding them togethor and practice the steps of shaping the metal, welding, filling, sanding, everything

i've never done this myself, but i sure wouldnt be dumb enough to try it for the first time on your new car.

i took a class last semester on welding. we covered the three main types of welding: stick, mig and tig. if i hadn't taken that class, i wouldn't have a clue what i'd be doing with a welder. if nothing else, find someone who knows how to weld really well, and just have a talk with them, have them show you the ropes a bit, and practice for a while before you actually try welding your stuff.

20-22 ga should be fine, just use a low heat so you don't blow through that thin material. you wanna use enough heat though for good penetration. like shifted said, tack weld it first in a few places, spread out over enough area to keep any one side from getting too warm. then, finish weld it, making sure not to heat up any area more than any other. it'll take a while before you're ready to shave your handles, so get some practice first.

back in highschool i had to take a Ag class and we welded a bit in thier but nothing on cars or anything. it was just junk out of scrap metal and we never really tried to make it look good. just welded things together and went on our way. just wondering about it with cars and how to finish it off to make it look good, thank you so far for advice


working on sig.... just wait

Perfect grinding, thats a big ste, grinding it to be smooth, i find that to be the hardest part most of the time making metal look nice. its hard cuz you cant really see what you are grinding, you have to be careful not to grind too deep so you would have to re weld it.

hey if you're using a mig or tig, i say you're good to go... all i got is a stupid low amp arc welder, note to self, don't try to weld exhuast with low amp arc *slaps head* "D'OH"


"I live my life a quarter mile at a time..." "for those ten seconds or less I'm free"