Welding a car is the ultimate welding experience. The ability to modify or create a working product with style, skill, and efficiency has provided many welders – hobbyists and professionals alike – with a great sense of achievement. If you’re looking to start your own car welding project, then you should read our tips in order to excel in your welding.
Welding Tips for Beginners
The most important tips for beginning welders are always all about exercising safety and caution, and with good reason – welding accidents can have very nasty consequences. If you are starting out as a welder, then you may not want to choose something as complicated or important as a car for your first weld. You should definitely try some practice runs on some basic workpieces first so that you can be sure that when you are finally ready to weld a chassis, your work will hold securely.
If you’re a beginner reading this, we recommend that you start by reading our blog, Stay Safe When You Weld, to ensure that you begin with your best foot forward. There are also a few myths about welding that you should get debunked before you start welding a car chassis, which you can also read about here: Top 4 Welding Myths Busted.
Chassis Welding Tips
When welding a car chassis that you are planning on driving at some point, you need to exercise extreme caution and skill. In the majority of cases, you should call an expert to do it for you if your chassis is in need of repair. At the very least, you should get your car tested and checked by a certified expert before you take your product on the road. Failing to do this could result in breaking safety laws.
Once you understand how important it is to be careful about welding a vehicle, your next mission will be to choose your materials and equipment. To do this, you need to understand what material your car chassis is made from.
Typically, a car chassis will be constructed from carbon steel, but more expensive models may be made with aluminium alloys to achieve a lighter build. Lighter builds consume less fuel on the roads, but aluminium alloys are also more expensive to create, hence many chassis are carbon steel instead. For those who are eco-conscious, you may benefit from knowing that steels are far easier to recycle than aluminium, which you may want to consider before you begin your project.
As you may already know, you cannot weld dissimilar metals, so it is vital for any project that you understand which metals you are working with in the first place. You also need to know how to remove any rust currently existing on the chassis as rust can damage the integrity of your weld, which is dangerous on the road.
For chassis welding, you should be confident in your ability to seam weld. If you’re worried about sections moving around while you weld, despite clamping or tacking, then you can always pre-heat the area that you will be welding with your torch to ensure a consistent environment for your weld. If the chassis is still attached to the vehicle during your weld, keep the doors of your vehicle shut to keep the chassis as straight as possible.
Chassis Welding Supplies
First and foremost, you will need either TIG welding supplies or MIG welding supplies, depending on your set-up, but you will also need to consider a metal grinder to cut away any rust, clamps to keep your weld in place, and materials to craft a pattern for your part from (such as cardboard).
When welding such an important piece, you want to be sure you do it right. We recommend that you use our quality gas welding supplies to help you attain those top-quality welds that you’re looking for. We’re experienced in selling gas supplies, so trust us to help guide you in the right direction. We have plenty more advice to offer on our blog, or you can contact us if you have a more specific question regarding any of our products.
