64 Impala Body Help

[64impala]

Ive posted articles of my build here and thanks for all of your help. Im at the point know that the car is on the floor with the entire underside done, suspension, brakes, wheels/tires, ect done. The car is in bare metal and im gettin ready to start atacking the body work. I need to replace the entire rt quarter panel, lower lt rear panel, and filling in the side molding holes. My question is its so much to do and im new to body repair and i dont know where to start. Im using a flux core lincoln welder and my welds are as good as a flux core can do. ive replaced floor panels, trunck panels, and the tail panel on the car so i feel i can tackel the rough work. I live in vegas so bare metal can sit for months with no surface rust. I would appretiate any ideas/plans to follow that you guys feel would be the best way to get the cars body preped. I dont own any guns nor do i have the capability to paint in my garage since im military and live on base. I will be taking it to a professional body shop to get all the rest of the work done. Thanks for the help!

Nate

[Rick D]

I would say start with small stuff first, get used to sheet metal work. Make small wins in getting things done. I would not use the flux wire to weld up the molding hole you will end up have to grind it done to much and then you will have very thin sheet metal in those areas or worse you will just blow through the metal and make bigger holes. I like to tig weld body holes but a mig with sheilding gas will work just fine with some practise. If flux is all you have then I would let your body shop weld the body holes. As for qtr get it fitted up nice and tack weld it in place and again let the body shop finish welding it. I'm not saying you can't do any any of this with the flux core wire BUT you have some risk factors to think about. Flux core wire uses a higher heat setting so you can blow through the metal much faster the with sheilding gas wire. If you realy want to do this with flux core than I would take some letf over metal you have and practice practice practice. Hope some of my rambling helps. Most important have fun amd walk away when stuffs goes wrong.

[64impala]

I would say start with small stuff first, get used to sheet metal work. Make small wins in getting things done. I would not use the flux wire to weld up the molding hole you will end up have to grind it done to much and then you will have very thin sheet metal in those areas or worse you will just blow through the metal and make bigger holes. I like to tig weld body holes but a mig with sheilding gas will work just fine with some practise. If flux is all you have then I would let your body shop weld the body holes. As for qtr get it fitted up nice and tack weld it in place and again let the body shop finish welding it. I'm not saying you can't do any any of this with the flux core wire BUT you have some risk factors to think about. Flux core wire uses a higher heat setting so you can blow through the metal much faster the with sheilding gas wire. If you realy want to do this with flux core than I would take some letf over metal you have and practice practice practice. Hope some of my rambling helps. Most important have fun amd walk away when stuffs goes wrong.

Thanks for the guidance!!! Much appretiated. How much is a decent tig? Ive always wanted to start learning how to tig weld but i know tig welders are expensive....Thanks again for the heads up and for your help!!!!

Nate

[shep]

Those Molding holes are huge compared to most. I wouldn't try to fill them with weld alone I think you are going to have to cut patches for them. If I remember correctly they are about 3/4 of an inch long and 1/4 to 3/8 wide.

[64impala]

Anyone else? Any help would be greatly appretiated!

Nate

[mrbigblock]

done two 64 impala's ss and reg two door,I found that small patches worked best for me,you can also use the magnetic copper pieces from eastwood to hold on backside and then weld,remember not to get to hot. Tap and move until its filled.