One of the chassis outriggers on my Herald has a rusty hole.
I am thinking of welding a patch onto it to repair the weakness.
What sort of welder should I buy?
I'm thinking of MIG, but what power/price? gasless or bottle?
Will a patch be OK, or should I be replacing the whole outrigger.
Can this be done without having to lift the body?
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when i had a herald years ago, i had rust in the "tails",and a hole in the "strut?" that came out to the sill behind the front wheel, car failed mot, and they would not let me repair by patching or welding as they were classed as main chassis members. not saying you cant repair by fitting new bits, but i decided to scrap mine as it also had tin-worms all over the bodywork as well.
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It is extremely dangerous welding patches into chassis outriggers in situ, as it is so easy for petrol vapours to ignite with a mighty explosion and potentially fatal consequences. Quite frankly if the vehicle is that rusty, unless the upper bodywork is in excellent condition, they are`nt worth repairing, as even in top condition it would only be valued at approx £1000 to £1500.
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If I remember rightly a patch is ok as long as it is seam welded
NOT spot welded.I could be wrong but I do know of cars
that have recently had repairs like that.And passed MOT
Bearing in mind the safety aspect as well as are you good enough at welding.You do need to be pretty good to use a welder
OH and MIG is the one you need bottle gives a better weld
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Clearly you are not awelder and you will need at least 10 hours practive this dissimilair thicknesses of metel before you can weld you can and pass an MOT. Yes buy yourself a semi decent MIG Bottle welder and practice but take you car to a welding shop and get if fixed this time. Then when you have learned the skills then do you own, and others work. But/obtian a large air blower like the ones out of the old style hot air heating systems and use that to ventilate the underside of cars you are woking on. This clears any fuel vapour and makes it a lot safer. Always have a CO2 decent sized extinguisher within arms reach and a bucket of water, use fireproof overalls and be safe. Regards Peter
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I owned a 1967 Vitesse convertible which I extensively restored including a load of welding, your best bet is to:
i) As has been stated above if you are not an experienced welder have plenty of practice before you go for your car ( I did an excellent 20 week welding and paint spraying course at a local college before starting mine)
ii) Outriggers can be replaced in their entirety with pattern ones which may be the best option if the rest of the outrigger is suspect
iii) Mig welding is your best bet, the SiP Migmate 130 Turbo is a MiG welder that universally does well in independent tests, you will have to buy small bottles of Argoshield gas to go with this welder (may be included in the price), B&Q sell them or buy a copy of Practical Classics magazine and trawl throught the ads for the best prices...
Good luck
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What I forgot to say is that gasless welders are a compromise so avoid them, and the outrigger can be replaced with the body in situ...
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I assume that is argon gas.as opposed to carbon dioxide.
Argon being the best gas to use.? I think just wondered as different names given for things
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Argoshield is a mix of Argon and carbon dioxide and is ideal, but using carbon dioxide gas on its own is fine, it just means the arc runs slightly cooler so you can't weld metal that is quite as thick as with Argoshield. If you can get hold of a pub bottle of CO2 (the ones used to pressurise fizzy beers) then this will be fine and will last for many hours welding and will be much cheaper tnan buying tiddly bottles of Argoshield.
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Try and get a copy of the last three issues of Practical Classics magazine (great mag. - the last of these three issues hit the shelves last week) where they are restoring a Herald including welding up the chassis. It might give you some idea of what you are up against.
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I've had a couple of Hearlds and Vitesses in the past all of which had some sort of chassis problem. I've got a vague feeling that there is something about getting to the top of some of the outriggers making it difficult to weld fully? The other thing to check when looking at these things is that the body mounts themselves are in good condition. I've had cars that passed with body mounts being knackered (the result being obvious in ectreme cases). This is often shown up by doors being difficult to close - they look dropped but aren't, the body is!
Takeing all the above into account they're dead easy for the home restorer or skinflint! Having a seperate chassis the rest of the body can be pretty awful before it's a failure - just nake sure there's no sharp bits!
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