That's what I'll be doing on my next restoration - taking it to an industrial place and doing it myself. Is that consolidated compressor here in Calgary? I hated blasting in my driveway, it really sucked...never again

 

yes, that was Consolidated compressor in Calgary. They charged $95. per hr which seems expensive but when you consider wear and tear on your home equipment and all the mess its worth it. Plus with the 200hp and huge sand hopper you can work non stop(if your arms can handle it .
My parts were pretty crusty and when I finished here they were bare steel, made welding up my seams easy.
My total cost was about $250. for the frame, wheels, driveshafts, suspension parts and bumper brackets...cheaper than a restoration shop. They also have smaller blast cabinets etc for smaller parts.

I think most large towns/cities should have a facility like this...probably in the yellow pages

 

If your arc welding use a 6010 or 6011 rod to start, small diameter, thier made for rusty metals but its a hot rod w/ deep penetration so use cautiously and only to lay down some better base metal.
After 5 years in a shipyard I know all about the problems of welding rusty metals I'd finish over these w/ 7018 and run about three passes, first down the center, then overlap that weld about half.
Let all your welds cool awhile before the next one.
Stinger12, do you peen your welds on a frame?, been a long time since welding school here

Yet to try a MIG on rust myself. Don't "practice" on your frame

 

Arc welding rusty metal is a hell of a lot easier than mig welding rusty metal - beleive me. Clean metal is very important with mig - rusty metal makes the welds very porous and weak, which is why it is tough to weld a frame with rust under the seams (that is unless you have a huge compressor like the one at consolidated compressor here in Calgary, then you could sandblast underneath the seams much better). No peening is required on the frame welds with mig...but I did clean them up using a wire wheel on an angle grinder. Its common practice to pull back when you weld with mig. Most people don't angle the gun and push forward with mig, but the welds are much flatter and look alot better than pulling back and holding the trigger. I also beleive you get more penetration when pushing forward, but I could be wrong. Search the net on how to mig weld...there is tons of information

 

You've got it all wrong, pushing gives LESS penetration but a wider flatter bead. Pulling gives more buildup, a narrower bead and more penetration but is't more difficult to see where you're going. You always push, unless you want a little more penetration and your machine doesn't have the oomph to do so. It is NOT common practice to pull when welding MIG. Pushing is by far the preferred method.

if you need hotter welds, you can also increase the CO2 % in your mix and if you're really coming short you need a bigger machine.

Angling the gun is also a big myth, ideally you will not angle at all when doing a butt weld but you angle a little to see where the wire flows into puddle. When doing lap joints you angle into the groove.

 

mig will not be good, rust hiding between the parts will "spatter" everywhere, welds will look "birdy"

back/day, the "chevy power" book recommended making the welds "continuous" as well as showing some gussets to add.

 

Welding on my frame last weekend. Thought I'd share my experience.
I use a mig with .035 wire and straight CO2. Prior to welding I used a 1/32" cutoff wheel and slid it between the overlap about 1/2" in. Followed with knarly 4 1/2" knotted wire wheel on a sidewinder.

Here is an example of how it looks. No, I'm not especially proud of how it looks but it is still better then the poor excuse for welding GM did.

[


Blain

 

Your welds don't look bad overall, I'd say they are 65-85%, w/ some areas higher strength and they don't look contaminated.
Your weaved bead (wide weld) looks like what I used to run years ago. The shipyard I worked at formerly stopped us from using weaves because it was shown that they are weaker than stringer beads but then again this is a frame, not an oil tanker, so it should be fine.

On a weave make sure to burn in good the edge (watch out for undercut) , then slowly move and burn into the other side. I still run these beads on certain things I weld w/ arc. Pulling way from the edge to quick will give a weak weld. If your using MIG you should be able to run a good weave once your used to what your machine will do.

The most important part of any weld is the beginning and the end. These areas generally are going to be stressed the most, a small wrap around the bracket etc... your welding is a good idea if it's stressed heavy during use. There's more chance of burning thru on a wrap though finishing up a weld, so be advised.
Wrapping the other end first, then welding up is a good idea, burn into the wrap on finish.

I've done MIG but not all that much, I know it's not recommended to weld vertical up w/ it. I've tried it but its tough. Vertical down will allways give you a weaker weld than up, but MIG has that limitation, that's why I preffer arc. On vertical down however, MIG is stronger than arc and a cleaner weld usually. If MIG is all you have, practice the vertical methods and any other angels you might encounter on scrap steel before the frame, better a mistake on that and keep the areas from getting to much heat at one time on the frame. Get scrap steel close in thickness to your frame. The cleaner the frame, like stinger12 says, the better. Welding takes time to master but it's sure good to know.

 

delete duplicate, sorry

 

"vertical down" is referred to by pro steel fabricators as "down wash", and is considered to be only slightly better than no weld at all...where manufacturing is done using "qualified procedures", such as for boilers/ pressure vessels etc, it is often forbidden...avoid "down wash' welds, if at all possible, by rotating the intended weldment to "in position", which means horizontal with weld area up.

 

I have to disagree with you here. MIG has no issues with vertical up and it will likely produce a stronger weld than if you weld down with it.
Also pipeline welds are almost always welded vertical down using stick electrodes and I assure you its a much better weld than MIG in any position.
MIG is fine for non-critical things like most people do on their cars, but it isnt even allowed in many petrochemical plants due to poor fusion.

 

back in my welding inspector days (daze?) i developed (with some practice) a demo using two sets of test coupons...both weldments would look the same to the casual eye, but one would survive multiple "bench bends", after which i would drop the other on the floor and the weld would shatter due to lack of "penetration" on one side.

a small "weave" IS helpful to making a good weld.

test your own weld at home by joining two test pieces together with abt a 1'' long weld bead...clamp one side of the test weldment in your bench vise, fit a 12" crescent wrench to the free side, and attempt to "bend" the weld area...a good weldment will bend adjacent to the weld bead but a bad weld will break where the weld bead meets the parent metal.

 

If your intent is to get a good weld....then ditch the wire wheel and get you a quality abrasive grinding disc ...and run the disc down the edge of the overlapped metal. and over the welds already laid down...the intent is to get to virgin metal " bright" on all the surfaces that you wish to join together. Then the only things one has to be concerned with is the welding angle....the arc blow-out of metal (splatter)...and "watch" the the little plasma "tornado"...which is filling in the added welding metal. Then you can take your grinding disc and dress out the weld ...splatter...and polish out the rest of your frame as you desire.... then use your wire brush if you need to, and whatever blast finish that you require. And skip around on the frame when welding to prevent any frame twisting ...unless you have it jig fitted....