1973 Opel Kadett B coupe

[Jinx]

Hello fellow shapers,


This is my "beginner project". I bought this project knowing pretty much nothing about cars. Slowly i'm learning it all though!

I'm in my 4th year of evening-school studying as a car mechanic. After this semester i'm officially allowed to open up shop (which isn't ever going to happen probably, but its nice to know i can )

In the welding/shaping department its been much slower. Very limited place in the garage ( the old barn had more space, but an earth floor eats dropped nuts and screws... )


Pictures of when i first bought it:









and a quick look at what's ahead...

this is what the passenger side inner sill & floor looks like






On to relevant works My first welding experience on-car.




My first proper welding experience was with a patch for a chassis rail just behind the driver side front wheel.


The first attempt looked like this:


Obviously i made my patch too small and too irregular. Lesson 1 learned





Attempt 2 looked like this:



A much better fit, but i should have cleaned up the edges of the car a bit better and should have gone for an even better fit... but in the end it worked all right:









This is all done with a MIG welder and a manual welding helmet.




Then i treated myself to an automatic welding helmet... boy. What a difference!




This is what persued:










which cleaned up to this:







The black piece is a store-bought patch which didn't fit quite as it should. so after an hour or so of bending and hammering it it came out to this:






Clamped in place with an extra patch piece (i don't actually have a joddler, nor a punch but its cut off a bigger piece of metal which has those features, and was just what i needed )






Bought a copper pipe as a heat sink:






and then first welding with the automatic helmet:





Welding is ok (although i lost sight of my seam which is a bit stupid as you can see below...). Penetration is on the low side, because of the copper. So it would have been a bit hotter (less pausing would have helped)





When that was cleaned up i moved to welding the piece to the car:

First tack:




Followed by some more:




In between the tacks i tried stretching the HAZ. which is more tricky than it seemed! the proud of the weld on the under side sits in the way so i think i may have just caused a dent around the tack, and not stretched it (the second tack from the left is
where i think i dented instead of stretched)

I may have opted for a wrong hammer here... i went for the pick. Probably not the best choice.



These were done without copper backing and it worked much better. The welds weren't as high and penetration was perfect.







(oops blew a hole there in the last pic... got too hot )




I've warped the panel quite a lot i'm affraid. Largely because of my ignorance in stretching in the wrong places. It requires some getting used to. I dont have a way of shrinking which worsens the problem.







which looks like this from the other side:




grinded off:




zinc primer











With the quarterpanel fitted:







and now... the horror of the warped panel




The top is still ok (and it should... right next to a bend)







I seem to have lost the pictures of my first real shaping experience (which was done with a small sledge hammer and a woodworker's hammer , the rail welding patch as well, now that i think of it)


If anyone has any pointers, tips, comments, jokes or questions... i'd really appreciate them


Greetings from Belgium,

David

[Kerry Pinkerton]

David, thanks for posting the project. I'm glad I don't have photos of my first work. It was really ugly.

The main suggestion I'd make is work toward a perfect fit up with little to no gap. Also stretching out the tack welds by hammering them on dolly will help keep the shrinkage down.

Also, your photos are a bit on the big side. Normally 600 to 800 DPI is a good size that will show the detail but not require people to have to scroll their display to see the entire photo.

[Joe Hartson]

David, You are progressing nicely with your project. Your pictures show the basic progression that many people experience when they first start. I can see improvement in each of the pictures. As you do more on the car you will improve you skills each time you work on it. Thanks for posting the pictures.

The only way to learn quicker is to attend a get together and have an experienced person teach you some of the tricks one on one.

[Jinx]

Originally Posted by Kerry Pinkerton

David, thanks for posting the project. I'm glad I don't have photos of my first work. It was really ugly.

The main suggestion I'd make is work toward a perfect fit up with little to no gap. Also stretching out the tack welds by hammering them on dolly will help keep the shrinkage down.

Also, your photos are a bit on the big side. Normally 600 to 800 DPI is a good size that will show the detail but not require people to have to scroll their display to see the entire photo.

Thanks for the comments.

Going for the smallest gap possible is something i've learned the hard way
The fendermount had a pretty nice fit and it was a pleasure to weld!

Hammering the tack welds is something i haven't tried yet. In this case it's mostly because the back side of the panel is hard to get to with a grinder.
And i'm not quite sure that my dollies are up to it. I don't think they are hardened steel (they mark quite easily)

Is stretching the surroundings of the tack a possibility?


(i'll see that i can post smaller pictures next time)

Originally Posted by Joe Hartson

David, You are progressing nicely with your project. Your pictures show the basic progression that many people experience when they first start. I can see improvement in each of the pictures. As you do more on the car you will improve you skills each time you work on it. Thanks for posting the pictures.

The only way to learn quicker is to attend a get together and have an experienced person teach you some of the tricks one on one.

I have yet to find someone locally that can teach me some tricks. Sites like these are priceless though. Too bad the nearest regional meeting on metalshaping i know if is over 1000km away...

When i finish my night course as a car mechanic i was thinking of following body work, but i'd prefer to find a metalshaping class...

[Kerry Pinkerton]

David, for the past few years there has been regional metalshaping gathering in Denmark. Anders Norgard hosts it from over on Randy Ferguson's MetalMeet.com site. If you can make it next year you'd get some great hands on experience. There have also been regional gatherings in Norway and England.

[Marty Comstock]

Nice work on the welding and your panels, I can see the improvment from your first attempt to the last pic.

Pointers? Ok, here goes...

Dont hammer a mig weld unless you have ground it flush both sides. After you do this, then you can stretch the HAZ.

Grinding, do not let the wheel even touch any of the original metal. Not even a scratch. OK, I admit, that is hard-line, and a bit much, but always try for that. That way you will never grind through or be upset if you grind to thin. Which will happen. Just like you will let the wheel tough the original metal

Keep that welder turned up. Your first welds lookd cold as all get out. and dont use a copper backer unless you have to. You noticed that no backer the welds were lower and with great penetration. Try turnng it up a tich more, but spending about half the time on the trigger. flatter welds yet, makes for easier grinding.

Practice practice practice your fitup. The better the fitup, the nicer it welds, but you know this There is another thread here someplace that we talked about different ways in fitup and trimming and such, take a look you may be able to pick up something there.

Marty

[Jinx]

Originally Posted by Kerry Pinkerton

David, for the past few years there has been regional metalshaping gathering in Denmark. Anders Norgard hosts it from over on Randy Ferguson's MetalMeet.com site. If you can make it next year you'd get some great hands on experience. There have also been regional gatherings in Norway and England.

I've read about those. But from my home town to the danish border is 700km, the far side of denmark beeing 1000km. Quite a trip! I'll consider it none the less.

Originally Posted by Marty Comstock

Nice work on the welding and your panels, I can see the improvment from your first attempt to the last pic.

Pointers? Ok, here goes...

Dont hammer a mig weld unless you have ground it flush both sides. After you do this, then you can stretch the HAZ.

Grinding, do not let the wheel even touch any of the original metal. Not even a scratch. OK, I admit, that is hard-line, and a bit much, but always try for that. That way you will never grind through or be upset if you grind to thin. Which will happen. Just like you will let the wheel tough the original metal

Keep that welder turned up. Your first welds lookd cold as all get out. and dont use a copper backer unless you have to. You noticed that no backer the welds were lower and with great penetration. Try turnng it up a tich more, but spending about half the time on the trigger. flatter welds yet, makes for easier grinding.

Practice practice practice your fitup. The better the fitup, the nicer it welds, but you know this There is another thread here someplace that we talked about different ways in fitup and trimming and such, take a look you may be able to pick up something there.

Marty

hmmm, ok so no stretching untill it's ground off. that'll be tricky in some spots.

I've always been carefull while welding, with the occational slip ofcourse. I use my angle grinder for this with a grinding wheel. Would a die grinder be easier for this?


I've seen a few welding videos over the years and noticed some insanely short trigger times, so i presumed their welder was turned up, but never gave it a proper shot. I've been welding on setting 3 of 5 but i'll have a crack at setting 4 (i started my welding experience flipping between 1 and 2 so its gonna be fun )

Is my understanding correct that a higher heat setting and its corresponding shorter weld time will reduce heat beeing soaked up by the surrounding metal, thus reducing overall shrink?


Fitup is becoming a thing for me ... last piece i did i spent about an hour filing the edges to get a near perfect fit
As many have said... i'm more and more understanding that preparation is everything!

[Gert-Jan]

Hi David,

I like the load of pics. I'm trying to metal finish mig welding too. I'm no trying it on the car, but on test pieces. Learning on test pieces is tedious, but I'm getting better and better. That's the drive for me. You're also getting noticeably better. On MM Randy Furguson has a nice thread about metalfinishing MIG welds. Johny Arial has done a nice job also, which you can read here.

cheers,

GJ

[Jinx]

i dont have the patience to try on test pieces so i tackle easy jobs first that aren't visible, even without finishing.

I've read both threads and they offer alot of very good information!

On-car welding pretty much always poses a problem with reaching the back side of the weld to grind it off.

i'd love to have an O/A set but the price scares me.

[1450Racing]

Welcome David. Opels from that era used an odd primer (the entire chassis was dipped into it), and that primer is VERY difficult to weld thru. I have worked on early 1970's Opels for the past 26 years, so I've seen plenty of rust! I still have about 14 Opels (mostly Manta A and Ascona A), but I used to have a Kadett B Caravan until last year.

Make sure that whatever you are welding on has been very thoroughly sanded down to bare metal. And don't breathe the welding fumes from it! Really nasty stuff...

Also remember that the sheetmetal thickness of your Kadett is very thin compared to American cars from that era, so you may see some photos on this forum of people doing things with metal you simply cannot easily do with your Kadett. It takes much more heat control and warpage will always be an issue, since the metal is so thin. If the metal is rusted then it is even thinner than original!

The metal gauge is metric, but it is somewhere between 22 gauge and 24 gauge for most non-structural panels.

Regards,
Bob