Newbie

[3spride]

Hey everyone. My name is Colin, and I am a car enthusiast. I have been into cars forever and I am starting to get more and more hardcore. I have a 92 Stealth RT/TT and I love to work on it. One of the things holding me back is a semi-lack of aftermarket for my car. I have been interested in getting into welding for awhile. Mostly for my own stuff, and the occasional 'special order' if anyone likes my stuff.

You guys have any suggestions???

Thanks!

Colin

[3spride]

Hey everyone. My name is Colin, and I am a car enthusiast. I have been into cars forever and I am starting to get more and more hardcore. I have a 92 Stealth RT/TT and I love to work on it. One of the things holding me back is a semi-lack of aftermarket for my car. I have been interested in getting into welding for awhile. Mostly for my own stuff, and the occasional 'special order' if anyone likes my stuff.
You guys have any suggestions???
Thanks!
Colin


Resources? How to's? Which welder to get for automotive stuff?

I am looking into making headers, exhaust, random body parts...anything I can think of.

[halbritt]

You guys have any suggestions???


Sure. The first suggestion I'd make is to lose the .sig. This a welding forum, not a car forum and I'd wager that most folks on this forum don't really care what kind of car you drive or what you've done to it. I doubt the acronyms even make sense to most folks. I know that's a bit snarky, but it's a suggestion, not a request or a demand.

The second thing that you should consider is trying to find a local community college that offers welding classes. That's a good way to get experience with many different processes as well as learn the basics without having to invest a bunch of money in equipment. For car stuff, you'll mostly want to be doing MIG and TIG (GMAW and GTAW). If there aren't any local classes available, then there are folks here that can give more suggestions about what and how to learn what you need to know.

[3spride]

Sure. The first suggestion I'd make is to lose the .sig.
Fair enough. I'm keeping the pic though, I am very happy with my car and all the work I have done (myself) to it. It is my pride and joy. :cool:
The second thing that you should consider is trying to find a local community college that offers welding classes.
Yeah, the local community college here (Pima Community College) offers 1 welding class that is on Saturdays. It somehow is always completely filled up before registration is even open, so I have yet to be able to get into it.


Are there any website recommended by you guys that have how-to's, plenty of pic's, etc. And yes, MIG and TIG is what I am looking at. I figured I would start with what is a little less expensive and grab a decent MIG setup. What would you guys suggest? This setup will be mostly auto related, so probably a lot of semi-precision welds.

[smithboy]

Miller has lots of literature on all types of processes. So, does lincoln. Many are in downloadable format (PDF).

[halbritt]

If you're going to skip the class route, then ideally you would be able to find someone or some place locally where you could use their equipment for practice. If you just want to dive right in and get a welder and figure it out for yourself, then skip all the cheap crap and get a Lincoln, Miller, or Hobart MIG unit and give it a whirl. The unit you get will depend on whether you have 120VAC or 240VAC available where you intend to weld. You'll want one of the 135-140A class machines for 120VAC or 180A class machines for 240VAC. The 120VAC machines will be around $600 and the 240VAC machines will run around $800. If you do a lot of welding, you'll likely end up getting something else in the future.

For a lot of free information, head on down to your local Pima Welding Supply (IWDC distributor in Tucson) and get yourself one of their catalogs. Flip open to the technical section and enjoy.

[shadetree]

You go fer it Dude practice,practice,practice,don't be afraid to ask some old dudes for advise.The only stupid ? is one that is not asked