> My second question is, what is the best welding equipment to buy to do my own
> panel replacements (ie, gas, arc, MIG)? Although most people I talk to say
>that
> MIG is the only way to go, the reference books that I have suggest using gas.
MIG also gets my vote. When I restored my B, I took a welding class
at the local community college. For our gas welding exam, we were given
five identical pieces of square sheet steel and told to gas weld a topless
cube. If the instructor could fill your cube with water and it did not
leak, you 'passed'. Virtually everyone 'failed', myself included.
Only after we appreciated how much practice and technique was required to
produce consistent (and strong) gas welds, were we allowed to MIG weld.
I agree with A.B., you could teach a monkey to MIG weld.
> Any opinions? Since this equipment is so expensive, I don't want to buy the
> wrong thing.
>
No question, a MIG welder is one of the handiest restoration tools to
own, but I couldnt justify the expense- the local tool place rents a
$1000 Miller MIG for $34 a day. With some careful planning, I only
needed to rent it 4 times to do the metalwork on my car (sills, floors,
door bottoms/skins, and a rear quarter).
If you decide to buy, portable units are available at Northern and
Harbor Freight (and some price clubs sell a Century model) for about
$400. IMHO, the models that use shielding gas produce cleaner, more
consistent weld beads than the gasless flux-core-wire type. Naturally,
they are also more expensive. Whatever you buy/rent, make sure you
have good gloves and a full face mask. Stray molten weld blobs are
NOT fun.
Just my $0.02...
--Scott
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