shaving side moldings

this process. Is it really as hard as everybody says it is?Learning the trade one fiberglass creation at a time!

First off, just to re-touch on cutting out your molding area...If you did that, you would loose all the rigidity of your car door. It's not just there for decoration or for the sake of having more body lines, it's there to strengthen the door panel so it stiffens up to withstand normal wear and tear. That is also one reason that there is a small lip all the way around your door handle opening. Second of all, plan on taking a few days to weld the piece in. I just put two new quarter panels on a 92 civic hatchback. We had to section it in, right above the side molding. Thats only about a 14-16 inch length. It took me at least two hours to weld it. You have to tack weld it. One little spot at a time, 15-20 seconds between each little tack weld, and space your welds out by about at least 8 inches. If you rush it, you will warp the door panel beyone belief. Don't quench your welds with a wet rag, this can harden your welds and make them brittle, let them cool naturaly. Besides, you don't want water getting on your bare metal. Remember when you are grinding your welds, grinding will create heat and the heat from grinding can also warp your panel. Grind small areas at a time, and skip from one place to another till they are all ground down to your liking. I admire the way you want to attack this project. The only way to learn how to do this is by trying. But with trial can sometimes come error. I don't know if you want to risk an error on your friends car. I always use my own cars to learn on first. good luck, let us know how it turns out!

Yeah the trial did have error. Thank the Lord we were only working on an old fender off of a wrecked car. We used  that one to practice with before we started on the real thing. We did pretty good, used a little more bondo than I would have liked. His dad said that it wasnt too much though. I really wanted a skim coat of it but it didnt fit well enough for that. We had one high spot that his dad said we could pretty much never work out. Unless we dolly it out but he wasnt sure if you could even do that.  We also had this bubble area we weren't sure if it happened in the wreck he had or if we did it with the heat. Either is possible but we tried to keep the heat down as much as possible, I only did 3 or 4 tacks at a time. Then he would hit it with an air gun after I got through welding.    One question Wherm do you want to have your settings on your mig, like do you want that nice sizzle that when you tack it penetrates really nicely and lays down the tack pretty much flat, or do you want to turn the welder way down so that it welds but not much penetration and the tack kind of sits on top of everything?Learning the trade one fiberglass creation at a time!

Being I-CAR welding certified, I have to say that anytime you weld something, you need to have penetration. If you don't, your weld will be weak and could easily crack apart. The bubble area you are talking about I'm guessing is what we call "oil can." Does the sheet metal pop in and out like an old fashion oil can? If so, that is caused by the heat and the only way to get rid of that is to use a torch and heat shrink the metal. The way to avoid it is by welding slower, and letting the welds cool naturally. I understand the air gun theory, but cooling it too fast isn't always the best idea. Patience with this project will ensure success. And remember, the more penetration, the better the weld. The flatter the weld, less grinding you have to do. Don't grind any one area too long or you could warp the metal doing that too. When you put the body filler on, make sure you hit the entire area with at least 80 grit, preferably coarser like 36 grit. Never put bondo over paint. It won't stick!!! Trust me. Make sure you've removed the paint wherever you're welding. And if you have a body shop supply around you, you should think about seeing if they have any corrosion protection you could spray inside the molding you're shaving. That'll ensure that your bare welds on the inside don't rust from the inside out.

I got you wherm the only reason I asked about the penetration thing is I knew that there would be less heat if you did it the other way. My guess was that it was a bad idea but I just figured i'd find out. So the best way also is not to cool it with the air just let it cool naturally. No the bubble did not do the oil can thing. In fact I tried to push on it and it was really hard did not move at all actually. So im wondering if it was caused from the wreck what do you think? Thanks for the advice any thing else you got will help me tremendously.Learning the trade one fiberglass creation at a time!

If the bubble was hard, I doubt you did it while welding. If you have any more questions, just post them and I'll get notification emails and answer them if I can.

Can you practice on like an old door, and just keep practicing on it. Like even cut holes in it and patch them??  

Or will the heat just warp it so much you cant tell if your doing it right or not? Also do you use an air nibbler if so what brand and how well do you like it?If not what do you use to cut the sheet metal?

Learning the trade one fiberglass creation at a time!

You can definately practice on an old door, but it would be best to practice just like it was the real thing. That way you can tell if it's going well. Continuous practice on a single piece will warp it if you just start welding all over it. Pace yourself and take your time. Also, it's a good idea to use a piece of scrap metal that's similiar to what your welding on to set your voltage and wire speed on the welder. You can use an air nibbler if you want, I usually use a good air saw. Mine is from MAC Tools. Draw your lines on the metal and cut carefully. You can use a grinder to take off any excess material, instead of going back and trying to trim with the saw once it's cut. Just to be sure, you are using a mig welder with gas hookups right?

In my honest opinion I would use something like 3M pannel bonding adhesive. This way you do not need to mess with warping and rusting later on down the road.Why do you ask if I ate paint chips when I was younger?

Yes sir, mig welder with 75%-25% argon mix. No flux core.  I thought about the air saw, I'm just wondering which is better to use? I guess its all a matter of opinion.  I've never used an air saw or nibbler.  Wherm how do you keep the rust out? Learning the trade one fiberglass creation at a time!