soldering trim holes?

[roybo]

hi just a bit of advice needed off you body work gurus....the trim holes along the side of my magnum have been removed.
they have started to get a bit of surface rust,just wondering would soldering with lead be a lasting/good repair
or would mig welding them be a better option.... bearing in mind i haven't tried either yet,thanks in advance Roy

[composimmonite]

Soldering is my choice but others might prefer MIG.
For solder you need to tin the area first using solder paste. Brush on, heat until it turns silver then wipe off. Ready then to add solder. Warning - you will probably find most of it ends up sliding onto the floor when you first start, Trick is to heat until it ALMOST melts - is jelly like. For larger areas the method then is to work the jelly solder with a wooden spoon etc dipped in tallow athough I believe engine oil will also work. Being a vegi myself I wouldn't use tallow anyway !
IMPORTANT - only remove excess lead solder with hand tools - no power tools. The dust is poisonous. I got lead dust on a heater after woking on a motorbike petrol tank and it suddenly "flashed" fumes. I only just managed to get outside and then was ill with mild lead poisening for two weeks !
Maybe MIG might be a better options Get sombody to hold a lump of copper the other side of the hole.


Paul H

[billybustado]

hi there ive not tried soldering nor do i know how to do it but mig is fine, and easy to do, but i always remember that with mig weld you are leaving the weld bare on the inside of the panel, leaving it vulnerable to rust, so a bit of primer and some seam sealer over it on the inside is good where possible!

[bortaf]

Lead filling is an art, one I deffo do not have ! LOL
I prefer to mig em up with a slug of copper behind the hole to stop the wire just feeding into the door, I lost 30 feet of wire before I realised it was all wur and no crackle

[gtste]

The trick with soldering is to Clean Clean & Clean. Use plenty of flux & Clean well. Rust on the inside shouldn't be a problem, although throwing a bit of sealant on it shouldn't be a problem.

If you can get hold of all the soldering equipment its a good repair, although whenever i've looked for the lead sticks they cost over £40.

Mig welding would probably be easier, quicker and better.

[v8ian]

Leas loading is very much an art and skill, You cant use solder as it has not got a suitable working time, you must use either the correct lead loading sticks, or plumbers wiping lead, neither of these are as good as they used to be because the lead content has been reduced to meet health and safety,
You really need a small oxy-acetylene with a carbourising flame or mapp torch to be able to lead load and get the heat where you need it, Flux for my preference, Bakers fluid wins every time, quite corrosive, so everything needs to be thoroughly cleaned off afterwards, resin fluxes tend to be "waxy" and hard to remove when finished,
As said earlier, cleanliness is next to godliness, soldering over rust wont work nor over paint, even finger grease will inhibit the flow of solder.
I think Bortaf has the right idea, clean them off, mig weld them using a piece of copper behind, and if you are worried about distortion use a heat barrier paste, mix it up and surround the hole, then weld it, works surprisingly well, Even mig welding has its problems, use CO2, and you get hard welds which need more grinding,(Carbon is used to harden steels) , and more heat from grinding, distorting panels, Argon or Argomix will give much softer welds

[roybo]

Wow!! Cracking replies lads mig it is and thankyou very much!