Body man/Welder guy

[NOT A T5]

Hi Guys,

Is there anyone with welding/body work skills close to me who'd be willing to weld on my Mustang at my place in Omaha, Nebraska?   :whistling: My welder guy (he's very talented and paints too) keeps ditching me. He's not very reliable...well a few times he had family business to take care of. Totally understandable! I'm being very patient and at this point my restoration has come to a complete halt! I'm paying him by the hour. I have all the panels and patches that are needed, he tells me he's coming over to my garage (I have everything that's needed for body work and welding) and then he doesn't show...he doesn't even text or call. Then after 4 weeks of waiting then texts me about coming over and then again...NOTHING! He's got his own business and is pretty much by himself. Perhaps he's taking on more work than he can handle. I don't know what else to do. Should I look for someone else to work on my car?  So FRUSTRATING!  What are your opinions? 

I tried to weld and practiced but I suck at it!

 

[Don C]

If you don't know of any others I would go to the services section of Craigslist for your area and search for welding. I'm sure you'll come up with a lot for the Omaha area.

 

[NOT A T5]

Done that, that is how I met my unreliable welder. There are 2 others on Craigslist, one is about about 30 minutes away, the other about an hour. I need someone to come to me and finish what was started! I started this 2nd restoration in December of 2015 and all that is in order now is welding new trunk floor, partial floors, rear quarter panels etc. Should I approach my guy once more and if so, how? Should I offer more money? I was hoping to get the car in primer by October '17. A body shop is probably out of the question! Thanks for all your advice my Mustang brothers!

 

[kcmash]

I was completely thrilled with the guy that did my welding, bodywork, and paint.

1) Meticulous and detailed

2) Quotes the job, not by the hour

3) one car at a time

4) he has a nice trailer, picked it up from my house, and delivered it.

Chris's Garage in Kansas City.   Chris Kuchem is his name.  PM Me if you need any more detail.

kcmash

 

[waterlife]

If your guy is giving you be, do not use him. More then likely he is a flake and will cause you more aggravation in the long run

 

[Fabrice]

If my time machine would be finished, I'd go back in time and buy a weld machine before the Mustang.

Just to say, that welding is not that difficult (read: its f...ing difficult to do it right, requires experience, shit load of mistakes, holes and other burned piece of skin)

but once you are one with your machine, its so rewarding to do your own repairs, make parts etc..

So if you have some space, even if you will not do your floors tomorrow, I'd say, invest in a good welding machine and before you know it

next rust you see, you will fix that yourself with no hesitation!

On my part this was best investment ever done and seriously regret not to have done it sooner...

 

[NOT A T5]

I'm all set up...I have a nice welder, 60 gallon air compressor and everything else needed but no operator LOL. My car is very solid, it's just everything was patched and welded in 1993! It just wasn't done right, less than AMATEUR!!! Let me show you guys a picture what was cut out recently...driver side cowl to give you an idea what was welded in 24 years ago!

 

[NOT A T5]

Here's a pic what looks like a quilt!

 

[Fabrice]

Its easy to critic looking at the pict, but to be fair to the poor guy, some parts of the car, like the cowl, lower quarters, trunk floors are extremely tricky to repair with a MIG...

Even if still heathy, metal went over the years from 0.9 to 0.3 mm thickness, and you just can't weld with the average welding machine and do a smooth "molten bath to bath" wire on this.

You would simply add holes or warp the entire surface, or like here, at lowest settings you kinda "lay" wire till it sticks without really going thru.

The mistake here, and that's where experience plays a big role was to start weld on this while you know you will get a Frankenstein result no matter what,

vs form the entire shape out of a fresh metal sheet (which is an art on itself)... Also, if the guy was on budget, which is often why you get this kind of results, he may have thought,

nobody sees it, I don't get payed to form metal and it's about being water tight, not nice.

[i have a nice welder, 60 gallon air compressor and everything else needed but no operator LOL]

If you want be the operator, at least for non structural welds, making parts etc... you will do same or worse as on the pict. I did much more horrible things really!

But if you bite long enough, have few hundred meters of weld experience and redo till you get what you want, before you know it, you will repair/make stuffs just like that.

To me learning welding is to car restauration as important as learning mechanic or electrics.

Next on my bucket list is to learn to welding aluminum. I will have that front grill full alu before I die!

 

[Don C]

I started welding many years ago, both acetylene and arc. I wasn't always happy with the results, but the more I stuck with it the better I got. I seem to weld less and less, so every time I weld it takes a few minutes to get back in the groove. I get better results when I wear my reading glasses. A good auto-darkening helmet was a good investment. Good gloves and good protective clothing are a must, so you aren't distracted by or worried about stray sparks. I was repairing a chair frame a couple of weeks ago, my jeans had a small hole and that's right where a big spark landed (felt big anyway). For sheet metal weld only short sections at a time. Play around with heat settings and wire feed speeds until you find settings that work for you. Weld a half an inch then skip to another spot and keep skipping around so you don't warp it too much and decrease burn throughs. Still too ugly? Hit it with a grinder. You ever watch these car repair shows on TV? They spend half the time using a grinder.

 

[OzCoupe72]

Like the other guys mentioned learning to weld although scary at first is probably the most important skill to learn when restoring cars. I barely knew how to weld when I got my Mustang and after a lot of cursing, holes,crappy welds combined with many hours on the grinder I've improved a lot. Even the most experienced welders still burn holes and have a crappy weld occasionally. The pic of your cowl although it doesn't look flash in my opinion as long as it's water tight the only criticism is they didn't grind the weld down to make it presentable. They've obviously stitch welded it which is usually the only way with thin metal especially old metal. Hopefully you can find a reliable welder but I reckon the only reliable person when you want something done is yourself, just need to find the motivation.

 

[NOT A T5]

I appreciate all your comments and advice. In the past, when my welder guy did show up he cut out the upper and lower driver side cowl and replaced it with an original piece which I bought from a member of this site. My welder guy did an awesome job, my LH cowl looks original again! There's just so much more that wasn't done right with my car, for example my trunk floor and rear quarter panels. As you guys know the parts situation 25-30 years ago was grim. I bought some 1/4 panels back then and a friend of mine whose parents owned a body shop welded them in for me but he had to cut them in half because they were too long. He also had to re-fabricate the outer wheel houses and it's not pretty! I'm just trying to fix all the things that were done wrong 24 years ago. I know my car isn't going to be worth a lot, but that's not the point. Having it restored a second time is busting my bank account. But I will finish my car, no matter the cost. Here's a picture of my car after I bought it in November of 1987.

 

[Fabrice]

[i know my car isn't going to be worth a lot, but that's not the point.]

Actually that's the whole point, looking at what you want for your car, it is worth a lot to you!

[...is busting my bank account. But I will finish my car, no matter the cost. ]

Yes, you are crazy just like most of us and I bet you talk to her too!

 

[NOT A T5]

ME... CRAZY? How'd you know? BWAHAHAHAHAHA! Yes, I talk to her every day and I also touch her a lot, A LOT! To top that off...I also sleep on top of her every night since my bedroom is above the garage!  lollerz  She'll never be the same when I'm finished with her, I'm gonna give her a total makeover!  She doesn't know yet but she'll look totally beautiful and a little different too.