Finally had time to start, pulled out the interior and seen exactly had bad it really was.
Luckily my son already got me new cab mount from DC for Christmas last year. My roof is in alot better shape then my last 65.
My seat is just fine, only needs a thorough cleaning, and if I change the truck color I will dye it to match, I have been thinking of an emerald green two tone with white. I will be changing the front to a 62 grill and valance and possibly put the spears on the hood.
I know it would be a lot easier but I promised the previous owner I would restore this one and not have it crushed. This will be my first experience with body work and I never seem to do anything new the easy way. Thankfully my cousin who lives next door owned a body shop in the 70's and has offered any help I may need.
Well had a few minutes to work on her again so I made a little more progress, it ain't pretty but a little more work, rage extreme, and por 15 she will be good as new.
What kind of welder are you using? Are you using gas with it? I know you are new at welding but it looks like you need to turn the heat up a little bit and the wire speed down. Also, it is amazing how much better your weld will be by taking the time to really clean any debris or paint off of the area before welding. Sometimes I even wipe it down with paint thinner or something similar to get it really clean if its a weld that won't get ground down. Please don't take this as me hating on you or anything, just trying to give you some pointers because I know we all have to start somewhere.
I am guessing thats the 100 amp flux core only HF welder . Best advice I van give you with it is to make a series of tack welds then hit them with a wire brush then make more tacks then wire brish again . Keep repeating this until you have you have all the tacks done all the way around . Then you can smooth it out with a grinder and go back and tack any areas that need more fill again hitting everything with the wire brush before grinding down again . I did alot of sheetmetal repair and customizing with a 100 amp HF flux core welder it just takes time to get it smooth .
Should I be wrong and you have a bigger welder that you can hook up gas to then I highly suggest getting a bottle of C25 it will make a VAST improvement on your welds and make them look better even before grinding down .
One more hint there will be a blue haze to the metal around the weld area if you are getting hot enough welds if you are not seeing this turn the heat up and the wire speed down as Justin suggested .
Thanks for all the advise I will be giving it a try again tomorrow while I wait for another repairman, when it rains it pours, TV this time. I need to tweak the support a little more so I will try turning down the speed a little and do the spot weld technique and see how it goes.
Try to keep your spot welds about 1 inch apart on the first round and let the metal cool inbetween . This will also help keep the metal from warping . The fact that you are using flux core will help here as after you make your first set of spot welds it will take you a monute to wire brush all of them before doing the next set . try to keep a somewhat equal distance between each set . Start an inch apart then do a spot between each of those spots and then between those spots until you run out of space to put spots .
redid some welds today, will post pics Wednesday, tried your suggestions and worked a lot better, only one other item I will need to help is an auto darkening helmet.
I am going to disagree with Justin on this one . Go to Tractor supply they have a Hobart auto dark hood for less than $80.00 out the door . The optics on the Hobart put the Harbor Freight hoods to shame completely ( I have owned both ) . I currently have a Miller Big Window Elite I got a screaming deal on from a friend . The Hobarts optice are dang near as good as the Millers and the only reason I prefer the miller over the Hobart is the larger viewing area on the Miller .You will most likely never make a good looking weld if you cant see the weld .
While we are on the subject of welding make sure you have plenty of light available where you are welding . I don't know about you but I'm not getting any younger and find the more light the better . I have been known to set up a 500 or 1000 watt Halogen light in my welding area in order to be able to see not only the weld but where the weld is going .
Yeah I now have a dedicated welding table with a light over it. I haven't had an issue with the harbor freight helmet but maybe that's just what I am used to lol.
. That almost looks like a good excuse to find a better cab to start with .
