Thread: Safely Weld a Car Tailgate?

Any chance of seeing some Pics?

Car with a tailgate ?
Do you mean a utility or a station wagon?


That would denote an outer skin over a inner frame.
Is the rust on the inside or the outside.

How much rust is there.?
There's no point in making more work than is necessary.


It is possible to reskin the tailgate.
Lou's right ,photos will help a lot.

Grahame

nearly forgot.
With reference to safety,my preference would be to remove the tailgate.

See the ten commandments of welding

"Thou shall not weld on an unpurged tank for the noise will be very loud and thy friends will console thy widow in ways generally unacceptable unto thee."

Grahame

Originally Posted by Grahame Collins

nearly forgot.
With reference to safety,my preference would be to remove the tailgate.

See the ten commandments of welding

"Thou shall not weld on an unpurged tank for the noise will be very loud and thy friends will console thy widow in ways generally unacceptable unto thee."

Grahame

Easier anyway to remove the thing and weld it on a bench I would think. That way you can get it into the right position to weld.

If you leave it on the car I think you would also need to remove the battery. Usually with rust in cars what you see on the outside is just the beginning. Once you open it up you will generally find more than you bargained for.

Cheers

I like to weld....But there are times when the use of resinous materials are preferable. i.e. Paint or interiors are not set alight.

Hi all
I like to oxy weld a lot of car panel repairs as you can still work the panel.
With mig / tig it will crack sometimes when you work it into shape.
Be it with steel wire/rod, if a lot of rust bronze weld it.

Off the car is a lot easier but sometimes it got to be done on the car.
Just have your fireman on stand by with a wet rag, water bucket..
Tony

Well thanks for the replies, guys.

Here's some pics:



I'd like to oxy weld but never have done so and it doesn't seem cheap to hire the bottles and have them standing around... (for years while I learn?)

'resinous materials' ? You mean bog? Nope. I want to try my hand at welding it.

Yep, it is a station wagon.

No I don't think I'll put a 'skin' on - I think they charge megabucks for them now - they think everyone who's trying to fix his XY is a fully loaded GTS restorer....

My question was all about taking the tailgate off. Probably I should. I just worried in case a special tool was somehow necessary for those large screws that hold the hinged stays on.

I guess I was imagining that maybe you needed to be on both sides of the panel to fasten them on - do you see what I mean? So's if you took it off, unscrewed it, then the nut would fall down inside the door, on the other side of the panel, and you'd be unable to get it back.

But that's a bit crazy isn't it? And even if it did happen I could probably think up some way to get around it.

I worry too much.

Thanks all for the help.

Hi big repair there.
it will need to come off
replace that lower skin and inner panel part tooooo.
its needs to be cut out not just boged up.
its oxy mig or tig . not stick no way.
join under the mould
Tony

Hi the nut is welded to the hing inside the tail gate but it most likely to to be rusted.

ps i have seen some fords with checker plate aluminum a cross the back.
tony

i like that checker plate aluminium idea - a guy was telling me he fixed his with aluminium plate, just pop rivetted it on, he said.

I'm a mug welder, no training, not much experience, apparently no talent - so I've researched on the web a bit and it seems to be the final decision of the judges that jobs like this can't be done with my equipment:

130A Mig, flux cored wire.

Though there's a couple of guys here and there that'll say go for it. And they all seem to think it has to be done with a thousand tack welds to avoid heating and distorting.

I'm going to give it a go, see how I get on.

And if I screw it up too much - well then there's buy a skin or use aluminium, I guess.

Was the aluminium creased where that crease is? Or just a plain flat piece put in, I wonder?

Hey Abrogard,

Looking at the pics and reading your post, I would suggest that you contact Rare Spares, (they are everywhere) and get a price on a skin, your last worry should getting the nuts back (If they fell inside) there are enough holes for them to get out. A good sheetmetal place would be able to fold up some Ally Checker Plate, pretty close to the original shape, you would still have to treat the Rust before you stick a cover over it or it will keep growing. I wish you luck, you have a classic old tractor there,

HazzaB

"resinous materials' ? You mean bog? Nope. I want to try my hand at welding it"

Well, I'd say you are going to end up doing a fair bit of filling anyway to get a ribbed panel looking ok. Or, save yourself the headache and beat the edges of the holes in, get a can of expanding foam, spray into the holes. Then apply some glass mat over the large holes. Finish with polyester filler. But if you must weld, then it's removal of the tailgate and out with the oxy or tig.

Thanks for the reply. I find it very interesting - informative, because I know so little about this whole thing.

Like: what's a 'ribbed panel' ?

I can foresee problems because the metal has a 'crease' in it and is curved above that crease. Is the 'ribbed panel' something to do with that?

And the fix you mention sounds good to me - I can understand it, I think.

The expanding foam expands and sets hard? And the 'glass mat' is fibreglass, of course, which I lay on top of the foam which I've flattened as best I could and then the glass makes a better flat surface. And then I bog to perfection?

Well I guess I'm kinda thinking that I want to tackle the welding problem for the sake of learning, for the sake of the experience, and the foam, fibreglass and bog are waiting there for me to patch up whatever mess I make of it! And at least there should be something like a solid sheet of steel underneath it somewhere.

And lastly you say 'tig or oxy' - not MIG?

Originally Posted by abrogard

Thanks for the reply. I find it very interesting - informative, because I know so little about this whole thing.

Like: what's a 'ribbed panel' ?

I can foresee problems because the metal has a 'crease' in it and is curved above that crease. Is the 'ribbed panel' something to do with that?

And the fix you mention sounds good to me - I can understand it, I think.

The expanding foam expands and sets hard? And the 'glass mat' is fibreglass, of course, which I lay on top of the foam which I've flattened as best I could and then the glass makes a better flat surface. And then I bog to perfection?

Well I guess I'm kinda thinking that I want to tackle the welding problem for the sake of learning, for the sake of the experience, and the foam, fibreglass and bog are waiting there for me to patch up whatever mess I make of it! And at least there should be something like a solid sheet of steel underneath it somewhere.

And lastly you say 'tig or oxy' - not MIG?

Yeah, maybe should have been ridged panel? The expanding foam doesn't set hard it ends up like...Err, polystyrene foam, which is exactly what it is. Gives you a surface to work on. You then trim any excess with a sharp blade so it's below the panel surface and this will allow you to fill up to surface level.
My preference is for oxy or tig because they do a more refined job and I also have the gear.
Is this the appropriate thing to practise on, I don't think so. Unless you can get hold of a used skin which you could tack on to your frame. I've done jobs where I've cut out a section in a panel and then welded in a used piece cut to the correct size. But this requires careful tacking and tig is much better than the others. Too much heat = major distortion.