OK... (thanks for the welder advice) now on to some application questions; for patching car body rust, why is welding the attachment fashion of choice? Rather than brazing, or even soldering? (there's actually some body lead in the back of this garage...) i'm not talking about serious structural work, just little rust holes that half the world patches with fiberglass. my concerns are regarding the heat warping the metal, as well as the propensity of welded metal to rust more. (full disclosure... last time I did anything of the kind, it involved bicycle frames long ago when they were brazed to avoid warping and such, rather than tig welded like now)
newbie baffled by different subject
Mar 28, 2008
2 Replies
A brazed joint in sheet metal is brittle (or at least I've seen a lot of them with hairline cracks). A soldered joint is much worse -- body solder should only be used as a filler, in thin layers, over structurally sound steel. If you're using more than 1/16" then you need to learn more about sheet metal.
If you've declared the car to be end-of-life and you just want to keep it going for another year or two then go ahead and patch the rust with fiberglass -- the patch will last until some more important part of the car falls off. If you're trying to make things as good as new then cut back to good metal and patch by welding.
letting go is hard.....
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