I have a mig welder that I am going to use to weld my floorpans in I know I have to disconnect the Battery before I weld on my car but is there anything else I have to disconnect???? I have a msd ignition and Tach, I can'T afford to burn up any electronics..... Also I have formed complete pans to cover up a few small holes should I cut out all the old floor pans or just the rusted spots leaving as much good metal as possible even if it is only the size of a softball hole and I made complete floor pans?? I wanted to just cut out the rusted metal and weld overtop the good metal..Opinions please?????
I would only cut out the rusted spots, but make sure you cut then back to good metal and then prime/paint the edges with some good rust retardant paint
battery is all that needs to be disconnected and i personally would just patch the holes and then clean it up nicely
Yeah if it were me that is what I think I would do as well but it seems as if he has made up his mind as to putting in the entire pan that he made. So with that said Just make sure you get all the rusted parts cut out or it will continue to eat away.
I don't disconnect the battery before I weld on my car. Strange that it hasn't exploded yet. This is just like the old yarn about not setting a battery on cement. Unless you're welding with some serious equipment (480v 3 phase or better) don't worry about it.
yeah its not a neccessity really ive seen a lot of people get away without it but i usually do it anyways because its not a lot of work for a little extra piece of mind
clean up the metal where you are going to weld.. priming the edges before you weld will only make the weld crap... clean off the metal on the car side.. no dirt top or bottom.. weld it.. grind the excess weld off....then prime it
I don't know what kind of tach that you have. On our circle track cars, we have toasted those big Auto Meter recall tachs by welding on the car. We put a quick disconnect plug in line so it can he unhooked quickly. Keep in mind that in that kind of racing nobody has time to unhook the battery before quick damage repair is done at the track. Just taking the time to unhook the battery could be all that is needed.
Keep your ground clamp close to your work, and your cars electronics will never even see the current.
Interesting thread...I never thought about the electricity going through my car messing things up. I guess, luckily for me (2 things actually) 1) my welder is cheap and has short leads so I tend to put the ground within a few feet of the work I am welding on, and 2) ever since the battery drain from my door buzzer, I have kept a kill switch on the car, and always turn it to OFF when I am not driving. These may have saved me without my ever knowing that there was an issue to worry about...
yeah ive seen a couple people get away with it fine i always do it as a precaution and ive seen a couple people have it bite them in the a$$ and man when it bites you it bites hard i knew someone that was welding a winch onto his jeep and he had wired it up already and didnt undo the battery and fried the motor in the winch and on a side point what kind of welders do you guys use? i have a 120 clark gas mig welder and i use the ones at the school a lot those are 220 miller gas migs and a 440 miller vintage gas mig i like the 440 vintage the best, anyone here use stick welders much?
Electricity likes to take the easiest (not necessarily the shortest) path to ground. Put your ground clamp close to your work and make sure that it is on shiny metal. Disconnect your battery ground lead. Then weld to clean metal. It is posible to blow up a battery but that would take a lot of power. You are more likely to destroy other, more sensitive equipment - like that new CD player or that pesky little voltage regulator that runs the fuel gauge.
