welding on a unibody

Date 06-24-2002 01:52

I need to move an engine mount on an 88 honda civic forward about an inch and a half. the mount was only tack welded to the unibody in six places from the factory, and was pretty easy to remove. Both the engine mount and the unibody are pretty dam thin, and i am not sure exactly what their metal compostition is. Can I perform the weld with smaw? if so, what electrode should be used? should I just tack weld it into place like the factory did, or should i run a bead all the way around it to be safe? should it just be a single bead, or like a three layer fillet? I appreciate any advice you can give me...

Oh yeah, don't worry, I do have a scrap unibody and mount to practice on before touching the car.

By Niekie3 (***)

Date 06-24-2002 18:16

How thin is thin?

While I am not a welder, I have personally welded sections about 1mm thick using SMAW. To achieve this however, you need to use the thinnest electrode you can find (2.4mm?) on the lowest amperage that will allow reasonably easy arc starting. In addition, if you want to make a continuous weld you will need to use a "broken arc" technique. This means welding a very short period of time (1 - 2 seconds) and breaking the arc long enough for the material to cool down till the red glow almost dissapears when viewed through your welding visor and then welding the next short section etc.

If the material is thinner than this, then I recommend that you try welding with a very low amperage GMAW in dip transfer.

Regarding the length of the welds, I suggest you put almost the same amount of welding into the component as the factory did. Hopefully they knew what they were doing.

Regards
Niekie Jooste