- Joined
- Feb 1, 2013
- Messages
- 3,760
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- Location
- Richland, WA
- My Car
- 1973 Mustang Mach 1 Q code C6 tranny
What is the thickness (Ga) of the metal used on body panels? Thx!!
Yeah I have that but haven't used it yet either. Waiting for my metal brake to arrive so that I can fab my parts. I was lucky as this wire is available locally.Did you get the Easy Grind from ESAB? I had to wait a month or so to get my roll. I haven't used it yet, but it's supposed to be softer than 70-s6 and easier to blend with panels.
.030 takes good bit of heat to weld a panel. A lot more likely hood of burning through thinner metal and warping with .030. With .023 I find it lays down a lot nicer with less heat. Gotta watch grinding weld down too... you can put a lot of heat in the panel just from grinding. And 030 seems to leave more weld to grind off. but whatever works for ya. I keep a wet shop rag with me and keep cooling the panel after every couple tacks. Heres firebird quarter I finished this weekend.I use the .030 wire for everything. And I use a good amount of heat and speed. I move fast and don't concentrate the heat in one area to minimize warping of the panel.
They usually only allow max of 10% thinning. I was reading an article the other day where Ford actually went from the bake hard on the Mustang door skins to DP 500 Dual Phase 500 which is crazy tough. If that door skin gets bent you will never body work it. I was surprised they made it but they did have to work the dies and it will for sure wear the dies much faster but you will never see a door ding in one of those. So there is a big change in the middle of a Mustang run that future forum members will be wondering why some of the doors are so tough, lol. You could body work the doors before the change but not after.Interesting write-up by David. I would add that the stamping process also stretches the sheet metal, in places, reducing the thickness, so that a single panel can appear to be more than one gauge.
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