I was looking into slowly stitch welding my chassis in my garage especially the front end where the car flexes the most. The car already has a full cage so the interior is mostly tied together.

I took some TIG classes in community college about 5 years ago so I still don't know much about welding. I was figuring I could learn as I go.

First problem I have is that I have no welding equipment at all. Was looking into getting a Miller Maxstar 150 kit which looks adequate for my needs, Made in USA and somewhat affordable. http://store.cyberweld.com/milmax140str....BQyYaAiKg8P8HAQ
Would there be a better setup than this?

Second problem is that the car is fully functioning as I daily drive it.
Would it be safe to weld on by just protecting the fuel lines, electrical wires, removing ECU etc.?

I know that to properly do the job you should disassemble everything and to put the chassis on a rotisserie. Just would rather drive the car as much as possible and not be stuck in "project hell" again.

Thanks!

It doesn't hurt to try, but, welding is an art all of it's own and it takes a long time to get good at it. Honestly, you should practice on something you don't care about instead of your car. For example, find a $100.00 beater from the classifieds and melt some plastic, start a few things on fire, and blow big holes through the panels to get yourself warmed up.

There is quite a few things you will run into but the biggest will be that the weight of a fully dressed unibody car is there and you are going to have some metal distortion problems. And, once you ruin it, it is very difficult to get back. Making a bead is the easy part, doing fit-up, fabricating pieces and accounting for distortion is what makes a good Welder.

Miller has an excellent product and the two that I use have never let me down. Have a look at the Diversion 180 on their site. I tried one out and it's really easy to use. Lincoln just released a new TIG with more adjustability for aluminum so I passed on the Diversion and am expecting the Lincoln this week. Looking forward to see what they are all about. I can let you know how it works if you like.

And, not what you want to hear, but, if was doing it: all the welding needs to be done in the bare metal phase of a car build. Basically, the first step.

Well I know that a guy fried his wiring by putting the ground on the wrong location, but I would get a good wire feed and use it. Tig would be a waste of time in this application unless you just want to do it for fun. I would wire feed it and then you have to clean up the welds to paint over them. Tim

That Diversion 180 looks like a better setup! You have many good points as I agree the car should be fully apart and cleaned before any welding should be done.

I guess I will wait and do it once correctly. A stitch welded chassis isn't a need for me right now as I enjoy driving my car around more than anything

I would think that for what you are after, a MIG unit would be an easier unit to accomplish your task. But if you want to go TIG, at least get one that is AC/DC so you can do aluminum too. I have one of the Eastwood TIG 200 units and for now, its a better machine than I am as a welder. I'm currently taking a TIG specific class at the local JC. Once I get some experience in, I'll probably upscale to a Miller Dynasty similar to what we use in class but a 200 instead of a 350. For my MIG, I'm using a Lincoln 215. Covers me from sheetmetal to 5/8 material. You for sure will need to clean the weld areas to remove paint, seam sealer, under coating, slime etc. Another thing to invest in is a set of Rotabroaches from Blair. With these you can punch some holes to rosette weld overlapping flanges instead of just lap welding them. They are quite useful in other areas to. I used them quite a bit when adding welds to the perimeter of my k-frame. It now has an additional 102 welds on top of the existing 35 or so from the factory. The set I got covers like 5/16" to 3/4". Highly recommended!

TIG has the advantage of being able to weld pretty much any metal, Chromoly, Stainless and Aluminum the big 3. But, a MIG isnt so picky in a car body scenario where rust and paint are always around. You spend more time prepping when TIG welding than actually welding, in this case the MIG has a huge advantage.

A MIG machine is what I consider a basic need for working on these cars. TIG is certainly nice and vital for some applications, but I wouldn't own one without having a MIG available first.

What else has been done to the car for chassis stiffening besides the cage? Radiator support? Firewall-Inner Fender supports? Torque boxes? etc?

Besides the cage I have the US Car Tool inner fender braces and Hotchkis Subframe connectors

Your flex is probably coming from your K member. You need to pull the motor and weld it 360*. Mig is easier and get something with some guts. Something that will weld 3/8" steel. Extra heat can help your skill level. No chance of a cold weld. Grind off all the local factory splatter. Make sure all your connecting bolts are factory spec tight before you weld.

I have been welding for 35 years, get a pro in to weld it for you an yes it's a job for a mig.

I forgot to mention that the K-member is already fully welded. I sent it out to Firm Feel and they did a great job.

I think you guys are right that I need disassemble the car and have it welded up properly. Sending it to a shop might even be more cost effective as I wouldn't be welding much even if I got all that welding equipment.
I would rather be driving rather than welding to be honest!

Thanks!

An hour of practices with a MIG and about an hour to weld with a mig, mark where you want the welds and you should do fine. Its not like you are welding a beam to a specific radius fillet. I did my 68 charger and I have an excellent Lincoln mig. Tim

Gee 35 years ago I wasted my time when I did that 4 year trade course ?? After 1 hour practice I would not let him weld my wheel barrow let alone a car. That's a great MIG you have there but setting wire speed, volts, gas pressure, burn back time, positional welds, right gas, right wire ect ect ect is just part of it. A picture of a great spray gun with a hours practice don't make you a gun car painter, you will change the colour but it will be [censored].

Well, the problem is that everything is Australia is backwards, toilet water swirls the wrong way, furry animals lay eggs, etc, so of course you need 4 years of trade school to lay a bead .

Most of the welders I seen around here couldn't make it thru 4 years of any school, they are dumb as a box of rocks, I figure it's the fumes. A noob with zero experience would probably do just as good a job.

Seriously, I'd get the FSM and make sure the chassis was straight before weld one happened.

How do you load photos up? Would like to show what I did on my k.

Its mostly automatic, just set the metal, gas, and wire size and pull the trigger, fine tune as necessary. I ususally add in some more heat after trying the initial setting. My tig is a lot newer, I traded it for an inspection on an airplane and a CP compression riveter. Tim

Stevie Wonder could MIG weld.

And after 3 hours you can move on to more complicated projects .

http://truestreetcars.com/forums/attachm...ick-welding.jpg

Consider front and rear torque boxes? What about a lower radiator support reinforcement?