Thread: finally started welding the roof (pics)

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Here are some pics of my donor roof... this is my first roof ever and new at welding as well so the spots don't look so great but do have good penitration, they are a little big , what would be the best thing to grind them down with? 36 paper, flap wheel? any suggestions? of course I do have a little more welding to fill the gaps another few hours ... this took me 4 hours..
also any advice on how to mount the visor, under the roof , butted up against it?? what would be best I have no real idea how to do it...

The trick is to take off excess weld without thinning out the surrounding sheet metal. Its a pain in the keester, but for best results use a 3" x 1/16" cut off wheel in an air grinder. Grind at 90 degrees to the weld bead with the edge of the wheel. This takes two hands to maintain control, but it is very effective to knock down the bead without thinning out the metal. When the majority of the bead is removed, then a disc made of overlapping flaps of paper (I don't know what they are called) is good for the finishing touches and to blend everything.

I use a grinding wheel first on the welds, but it does take good control (and a very good face shield) to stay off the sheetmetal, then I move to a 5" round 36 grit disc and the same method....and finally down to a 60 grit 5" disc, then 80 grit on the DA. I start with Evercoat Metal to Metal for filler ( a very, very thin coat) then Evercoat fine strand glass impregnated filler, then regular filler, and last a glaze coat....

BE PATIENT!!!!!!!! A grinding disc, and the sanding discs generate a lot of heat and can warp and distort the metal very easily!!!! If you can't hold your hand on the metal, it's too hot!!!!

actually on some of my practice welds I was using the cut off wheel .. pulling it along the weld to shave them down... wow that is going to be a lot of fun ....I was going to use a regular filler then a skim coat... is that not good enough should I use the fiberglass impregnated filler then the regular filler then the skim coat for best results?? I was told that regular fillers now a days would be okay ... I am a kind of perfectionist so I want to do it right heck I have gotten this far why mess it up now.... any advice on the visor install??

thanks
simon

Originally Posted by atichargr

actually on some of my practice welds I was using the cut off wheel .. pulling it along the weld to shave them down... wow that is going to be a lot of fun ....I was going to use a regular filler then a skim coat... is that not good enough should I use the fiberglass impregnated filler then the regular filler then the skim coat for best results?? I was told that regular fillers now a days would be okay ... I am a kind of perfectionist so I want to do it right heck I have gotten this far why mess it up now.... any advice on the visor install??

thanks
simon

\I prefer the Metal to Metal first....,it offers a moisture and air resistant seal to the welded area.... Probably not essential, more a matter of personal preference...

As for the visor, like everything else, I like them welded and smoothed.....