Welding Tips and Tricks

Hi,

New to the forum here, hope I'm in the right place. I'm not a welder but I'm looking for what seems to be a complicated job, and looking for advice to have this professionally and properly done.

I have this old car top that has one corner torn apart. It's in aluminium alloy and is not a structural part.

I'm wondering on the feasibility of welding such a part, and what kind of shop would be able to do such a weld (if any).

Regards,

Fred

Looks pretty oxidized. I’d recommend cutting out a section and getting back to better metal, then welding in a patch.

Poland308 wrote:Looks pretty oxidized. I’d recommend cutting out a section and getting back to better metal, then welding in a patch.

Definitely.

That whole top will need some form of media blasting first to get rid of the paint and a lot of the white powdery oxidation. Perhaps even some chemical/acid treatment to get more corrosion off.

That should reveal how bad/thin/perforated areas are. Some glass-pearl blasting can smooth out the surfaces a little.

Then it's just like steel bodywork repair by finding areas that are good, marking out/tracing the bad areas, making new replacement panel sections and then cutting out and welding in these replacements.

Get a good set of sheet metal work tools (shrinking hammers, ball peen, hand-anvils, etc. etc.) and perhaps even access to things like an english wheel to make the various shapes.

Then during and after welding working (expanding or shrinking) the metal and welds to keep it all from warping/buckling.

Like most sheet-metal bodywork job I suspect the actual welding bit will be by far the smallest part of the whole operation

Bye, Arno.

There are TIG weldors able to weld metal (aluminum) very thin, but then what will you have? You have to pull back to a place the metal is sound. It'll take some big skill to form a replacement panel. I know two people, both in VT able to form what you need. Then you need a competent TIG welder to install it.

Eastwood has a lot of restoration parts. Any chance they might have new replacements