I need work on this area....found it recently. I assume its not TOO bad, but I will put the 914 on jackstands durng my spring break to check it out. my Question is.....how hard is it (never touching a welder...but have access to old arc welder) to replace my battery tray and fix the hell hole.

First thing ,, forget about using and ols arc welder, you will melt the car before you have too piece stuck together,, you will need a flux core ( cheap) or a mig ( pricier, but it it usually easy to fix the hell hole ,, it just takes time , some sheet metal and a good hammer ( to shape the piece, it will be cheaper to buy a welder and everything needed than to have some other guy do it for you, lots of help around

yupp, don't even think about the arc welder. won't work with sheet-metal (can you say "holes" ?) ...

if you never welded before, go have someone who knows teach you (or take classes) before you start burning your car to the ground.
welding is a artform and even more important then talent is *practice* !!!

also, if you have a rusted through top of your framerail (hellhole), you will need to make sure you take care of the INSIDE of the framerail before you patch up the holes, otherwise, it'll simply rust from the inside out.
you need to know how to use things like MetalReady, weld through primer as well as all sorts of cut-off and grinding tools.
air-tools rule for that kind of work!

Andy

If you only have a week I think it could be done. First you have to figure out where your patches are going to go. Cut out as much rust as possible and then assess the situation and then make the holes a little easier to fit a patch around (ie square corners).

Next, get some bristol board and make some templates for the patches you will need. This is a simple cut and paste (tape) operation. Use masking tape to make the bristol board hold the shape (ie 90 deg. bends and such). When the bristol board fits, you can then flatten it out to make the template of the metal you need to cut. It's easier to make the patches larger and do a lap weld, but sometimes you have make the patches fit exactly and do butt weld.

Cut the patches out of 21 guage steel for the frame (18 for any body panels) using some tin snips.

Using a hammer, vise grips, a big vise, plumbers pliers, and whatever else you have lying around bend the patches and make them fit the spot where they are going to go. If you are doing lap welds, drill 1/4 inch holes about two inches apart around the outside so that you can do some plug welds first before you do your lap welds. Coat all your patches in weld thru primer.

Rent a 110v gas mig welder with .023 wire, 75/25 argon/CO2 gas, AN AUTO DARKENING HELMET, and whatever other supplies you need. Buy or borrow a welders handbook. Spend one day practicing all the different welds on thin scrap sheet metal. Work mostly on the low settings and learn how to control your weld puddle, penetration, and not get burn thru.

Weld your patches in.

Spend a day or so grinding down your welds because you'll probably do a pretty shitty job starting out. Welding takes alot of practice to get good at.

Oh yeah, read what Sir Andy said as well. No point in doing a repair if it's only going to rust from the iside again.

with them.

Now that I have more experience with my mig, and after seeing some of the results of folks do that repair themselves, I would definitely give it a go next time around. If there is a next time around. And if the tub is in better shape than mine was. Oh well, you get the idea.

You can do it.

QUOTE (riverman @ Mar 15 2005, 04:15 PM)

Cut the patches out of 21 guage steel for the frame (18 for any body panels) using some tin snips.

shouldn't those numbers be the other way around.

QUOTE (sj914 @ Mar 15 2005, 08:33 PM)

QUOTE (riverman @ Mar 15 2005, 04:15 PM) Cut the patches out of 21 guage steel for the frame (18 for any body panels) using some tin snips. shouldn't those numbers be the other way around.

Yep. I was wrong. 18 guage for the frame, 21 for the body. Thanks for pointing that out.