bbjordan
Snow Monkey
The '96 Cube van that I just bought failed the out of province inspection. I kinda figured it would, but I wanted to find out what the mechanics would spot. Well, they failed it on a few things:
1) rusted out front bumper brackets.
2) two non-working marker lights
3) back tires too old/cracked sidewalls
4) rusted out rocker panel
I was a little choked about the tires, since they still had 2/32 tread left and they were only 6 years old. Oh well, I got a set of new Michelins for a good deal.
The rocker panel was another matter. I am not a body man, so I took the van to some body shops for estimates. No one wants to do rust repairs. They won't warranty it. I did find one place and they estimated $1276.38. Well, Princess Auto just happened to have the Lincoln EasyMig 180 welder on sale for $679. so I figured it was time I learned how to weld.
I had to get a bottle of Argon gas in order to weld the 24 gauge sheet metal that I used. I tried with the flux core wire, but I just wound up making mess of burn holes.
Its taken me about 4 days to do:
Day 1 cutting out the rusty rocker panel.
Day 2 Fabbing up the piece and welding it onto the van.
Day 3 Drivers side floor.
Day 4 center and passengers side floor.
Its a really dirty job grinding the rust out. I wore my half mask respirator and the filters are now caked with rust dust. I can see why they want $1276.38 to do the rocker panel. I used a whole 2' x 4' sheet or 24 gauge. The last few pieces were used to patch up the center of the floor.
Its not letting me upload all the pics, but you can see them here:
http://www.blackwire.com/~bjordan/Diesel/Van_welding/
This is my first welding job so I wasn't thinking of taking pictures until after I replaced the rocker panel. That is also why it looks like Dr. Frankenstein's work. But hey, I'm happy with it, and I would say the welder has paid for itself already.
1) rusted out front bumper brackets.
2) two non-working marker lights
3) back tires too old/cracked sidewalls
4) rusted out rocker panel
I was a little choked about the tires, since they still had 2/32 tread left and they were only 6 years old. Oh well, I got a set of new Michelins for a good deal.
The rocker panel was another matter. I am not a body man, so I took the van to some body shops for estimates. No one wants to do rust repairs. They won't warranty it. I did find one place and they estimated $1276.38. Well, Princess Auto just happened to have the Lincoln EasyMig 180 welder on sale for $679. so I figured it was time I learned how to weld.
I had to get a bottle of Argon gas in order to weld the 24 gauge sheet metal that I used. I tried with the flux core wire, but I just wound up making mess of burn holes.
Its taken me about 4 days to do:
Day 1 cutting out the rusty rocker panel.
Day 2 Fabbing up the piece and welding it onto the van.
Day 3 Drivers side floor.
Day 4 center and passengers side floor.
Its a really dirty job grinding the rust out. I wore my half mask respirator and the filters are now caked with rust dust. I can see why they want $1276.38 to do the rocker panel. I used a whole 2' x 4' sheet or 24 gauge. The last few pieces were used to patch up the center of the floor.
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Its not letting me upload all the pics, but you can see them here:
http://www.blackwire.com/~bjordan/Diesel/Van_welding/
This is my first welding job so I wasn't thinking of taking pictures until after I replaced the rocker panel. That is also why it looks like Dr. Frankenstein's work. But hey, I'm happy with it, and I would say the welder has paid for itself already.