So I've had fits getting time to work on my projects. We'd picked up a parts car last year and after much deliberation, the wife decided she wanted to fix it.

Fast forward to Christmas - we picked up an Eastwood 135 MIG welder. After getting some gas Thursday we spent the afternoon warping a small sheet of steel to get a handle on it. I'm able to tack with good penetration and run beads with marginal penetration. Still playing with settings.

We've agreed to have at least a couple of dedicated 914 days a month around the house. Her car needs the usual hell-hole fixes at the very least. It doesn't flex and most of the rest of the long appears to be fine. Haven't scraped the floors yet.

Wow
That's fantastic to here, a little garage time is good for the family LOL
A welder opens up the things you can do in your garage. I as you said
recommend for sure getting a gas setup for the welder. Its just the right way to go.
You will be able to do things in the correct and safe way using a shielding gas.
Lets see you project !
Happy new year !

Excellent!

I have found many uses for my mig setup aside from welding on the teener.

Getting the gas bottle was a smart move - much cleaner welds.

I cut up 2" X 2" squares of 18 GA sheet metal and practiced welding for a few days before touching the car with the mig.

Good luck and keep us posted.

what gage wire you using? 025 or 030?

you'll need, argon gas (80 gal tank?), tubing, fittings, and a regulator.

I got my tank from a local supply company, fittings and tubing from ACE hardware, and regulator from ebay. cart from harbor freight.

and many say that - ESAB SpoolArc & All-State Easy Grind - is great wire - as it grinds much easier. you'll see what grinding regular welds is like and will quickly understand that a softer weld would be real nice. I have not gotten this wire yet but plan to.

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That all depends on what they are welding. For mild steel and prolly 98% of what they will weld on a 914, a 75 Argon/25 Carbon Dioxide mix is what they need.

Straight Argon is typically used when welding Aluminum.

I picked up 25/75 mix for the gas and have a spool of .025 wire. I have to admit getting the wire started was fun. Lost about 15 feet accidentally when I loosened my grip. Picked the bottle up locally, filled, for 201 including tax. It's an 80 cylinder. Fills were quoted around $22. The welder shows I can use straight CO2 as well at a higher setting for a cheaper fill. Prob just spend the extra $10/fill though.

Had thought about trying to build a cart out of some old bed rails I have laying around. Figure if that doesn't work, I'll go get a cheapie. (Grinding the paint / coating off those is a PITA)

Might get a chance to play with it some more this weekend. Life wound up intervening a few hours after the last post, but that's a different story.

Go to harbor freight and pick up their welder cart. For the light duty stuff like we do, it works fine.

this is what I did, best upgrade thus far. I recently built a rotisserie with my Eastwood mig and the free directions/parts list from Blue Sky Motorsports, cost me about $350 in materials (be prepared to modify a bit based on available materials), I hammered it out in a day at the shop - make sure you have lots of wire. Great way to get used to welding on thick metal (which is much easer, but makes you focus a little more on penetration. Holding up the 914 as we speak, it's way over engineered, I wouldn't have a problem putting a fully dressed 914 on it. Going to build a body dolly next.

Don't be afraid to turn up the wire speed a bit, it helped me get the bacon frying sound, I have the 175 model and never had any issue with penetration, although I need to reduce my wire size, I tend to move a bit slow and get some fairly thick welds...