North American Turbocoupe Organization



DS 1/4 panel replacement-spot welder **pics**
longbedGTs Offline
Senior Member
#1
Im replacing the entire panel and am wanting to reattach the new panel with spot welds rather than rivets which Ive used in the past. Does anyone have any good reccomendations for what type of spot welder I should use? I dont have a welder to plug a spot welder into, so do they make one that plugs into household current?
88 TC 5spd~money pit
88 TC 5spd~78K miles
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goldwing Offline
Senior Member
#2
I'm not familar with a "spot welder". I'm not saying they don't make a such thing just never heard of it.
It was my understanding that in order to spot weld you simply use a mig welder/standard welder and just tac the welds one spot at a time.

I'm not a expert. I just watch alot of American Chopper Smile
T.C:87 5 speed
HOLSET(HE341/HY35W type-D),255 Walbro, No intercooler yet,8lbs boost,Timing @ 9,Low& C.C Plates & SN-95 Bumpsteer Kit, KYB-AGX Struts,Belt driven fan,Custom oil cooler feed,Relocated ECT,Relocated TFI,N/A Hood, showing 178K
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Not B Anymore Offline
Administrator
#3
http://www.harborfreight.com/115-volt-sp...45689.html

goldwing - this is a spot welder
Longbed - Harbor Freight is the only place I've seen one like the one I linked, thought I haven't really ever tried to search for one before. Looks like it should work fine if the price is worth it to you.
There's a 240 volt version as well on there.
Brian Leavitt
'86 TC 5-Speed -- MS2x w/COP | 83 lb. injectors | T3/T4 50 Trim Stage 3 .63AR | Full 3" Exhaust - No Cat | Motorsport FMIC | Ranger Roller | Ported E6 | Walbro 255HP | Kirban | 20psi | 120-amp 3G | 8.8" 3.55 rear | '03 Cobra Wheels
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longbedGTs Offline
Senior Member
#4
Thanks, I ordered the 120V version. What this spot welder cant reach, I'll just use my little Craftsman wire feed welder and hopefully that'll be good enough.
88 TC 5spd~money pit
88 TC 5spd~78K miles
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Not B Anymore Offline
Administrator
#5
Let us know how well it works. I might be interested in buying one just to have around at some point.
Brian Leavitt
'86 TC 5-Speed -- MS2x w/COP | 83 lb. injectors | T3/T4 50 Trim Stage 3 .63AR | Full 3" Exhaust - No Cat | Motorsport FMIC | Ranger Roller | Ported E6 | Walbro 255HP | Kirban | 20psi | 120-amp 3G | 8.8" 3.55 rear | '03 Cobra Wheels
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Sophosis Offline
Member
#6
Hmm.. I had a long post typed up.. then I watched that demonstration video. Once you get it, I'd make sure to do a couple test panels and see how hard it is to get a screw driver between them and pop them apart. It took a good 3 seconds to do a spot, they're small diameter, and I saw lots of heat.. dunno about welding. I am curious if it makes a good enough weld or not.

Also note: that site description noted that it requires 120V and *35amps* on the circuit.
1988 Turbo Coupe
- 0.020 Diamonds w/stock rods, T3 w/stock IC, BoPort 1.5 cam, LA3 w/QH on MAF, water/meth
- 5-lug swap, 31-spline, 4.10s, vacuum brakes, PBR front brakes, 2000 Mustang GT 17" rims
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longbedGTs Offline
Senior Member
#7
Its shipped and should be here this weekend. I plan to do a youtube video since there is only one vid on there I found about this 120v welder, and its just a guy looking at it on the floor and talking about it. I'll make some test welds with varying times(3,4,5 second, ect) and see what works the best.
88 TC 5spd~money pit
88 TC 5spd~78K miles
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longbedGTs Offline
Senior Member
#8
Ok, I got the welder today and did a bunch of test welds then cut a piece in half and overlapped the pieces. Experimenting with different times, it seems that 4 seconds worked the best. 5 seconds is good but the tips will want to stick to the metal a little...especially if you do a bunch of welds in a row.

On the test panel, the welds held pretty well and took quite a bit of bending the metal back and forth to break the weld...but rotating the pieces in a circular motion against eachother broke the wld pretty quickly.

IMO, this welder will do a fine job of attaching the 1/4 panel back on the car. Also, it ran off household current just fine. One thing it stresses in the manual is that you must have a 3 prong plugin so the unit can be grounded.

Heres some pics:

http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p306/.../007-4.jpg
http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p306/.../008-1.jpg
http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p306/...Ts/009.jpg
http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p306/...Ts/010.jpg
http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p306/.../011-1.jpg
http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p306/...Ts/012.jpg
88 TC 5spd~money pit
88 TC 5spd~78K miles
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kunar Offline
Member
#9
That's pretty cool, now let's see the finished project!
1987 Turbo Coupe
1987 Ranger 4.0, 4x4
1991 Escort GT
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longbedGTs Offline
Senior Member
#10
http://natomessageboard.com/ultimatebb.p...1;t=024188 there is a thread with some pics.

BTW, the spot welder did about half the job and now it wont get the weld hot enough and the pieces pulled apart on thier own. I used my wire welder to finish. I dont know what it could be but am going to remove the copper prongs and wire brush them and see if that helps. Any other ideas?
88 TC 5spd~money pit
88 TC 5spd~78K miles
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