By 69chevy
Date 01-28-2008 01:47
Edited 01-28-2008 01:54
i am looking for something to help hold this cab corner in place and maintain the correct gap while i tack it on..while doing some research for the right welder to buy ,i stumbled on to this product...it fits in the palm of your hand...pretty small tool..it sandwiches the panels together while maintaning the correct gap..it has a screw in it and when the tacks are complete you simply untighten it and remove them and complete the weld..(my problem is,) i cant remember where i saw them and i cant remember what they are called..i cant find any other clamps to searve this purpose other than those.. this is my first time replaceing body panels and seem to be doing fine,,(so far)..haha..any advise from you pros would be great,,,also .after i cut out the old cab corner i noticed more rust...so i made a template and so on to replace that peice...well after i cut that peice out,,,low and behold,,,,,a little more rust..i repeated the process untill i was 3 layers deep..well ,i welded in the floorboard support peices and now im ready for the cab corner..but,, i dont want to get in a hurry...im not useing argon with my 175 because im outside and im going to grind most of the bead off any way..
WWW.eastwood.com has all kinds of goodies for auto restoration work. They have little clamp thingies that hold the pannels gapped and in plane while You tack.
Dont make a mountain out of this. You will wind up grinding to get the correct gap anyway. You could screw in the piece, drill a hole then weld the hole to the car, or have someone hold it and look away while you weld. Rarely will you get all of the gaps correct. Part of the art of body work.
crimp the parent metal using an air powered crimp or stepping tool and then weld a lap/groove weld instead of an open gap less pull on the panel and way way easier. the step acts like a spring and as the metal pulls it straightens out the step a little relieving some of the tension on the panel).
if not then the post about screwing it on and tacking it on then fill in the screw holes is your easiest answer.
if it is open gapped then you can screw some gauge metal to the truck as a back stop for the panel and screw the panel to the backstops, kinda like fixing a hole in drywall.
be careful to only use very sharp and new sanding discs because the heat from the grinding of the beads can cause more distortion than the weld if you let too much heat build up.
after each tack use your welding glove and rub the tack as soon as you can to pull out any heat that you can, the more ambient you can keep it the better.
unless your interested in only welding them on, there are epoxies that you can stick them on with that work great, no metal distortion and easy.
just my 2 cents
enjoy your project
darren
use a 24 grit discon an air grinder to gring the weld its less vheat and yes crimping the panel is best but the screw trick works just need more bondo to cover repair yes you will have to use bondo
