Welding how do you protect paintwork?

[Wilk]

I need to weld in a small patch at the bottom of a panel. The main paintwork is perfect so I'm trying to minimalize the amount of damage to the surrounding paint

I'm conscious there may be a bit of splatter so trying to protect things around the work area


I've thought about running a line of duct take about an inch away from the weld and sticking a fire blanket to the main panel, like when you mask a car off ready for paint

Anyone have any better ideas? Thanks

[kevins]

I usually use a damp cloth, you can also buy special heat protecting gel, the only thing which would worry me with your idea is how well does the duct tape burn?

[dodgerover]

How are you welding? Gas or Electric? Doing a small spot at a time at opposite sides then joining them with more spots minimises heat build up and distortion. You can buy that cold gel stuff but have no experience with it.

[BT]

Are you just concerned about spatter landing on the paint? Or heat damaging the paint?

I use stuff at work, a German product, translates to weldspray or something to that effect. I don't know how it would protect the paint but it does keep spatter off of surrounding areas.

I'd be tempted by a load of wet rags, a fair few of them, held onto the body with magnets and trying to keep the rags wet as much as possible. I had to do this recently on a petrol tank to avoid distortions and tacked the think every 2 inches, cooled down and then tacked In-between until fully welded. Then pressure tested the tank and all is good.

Slowly tack the repair on one at one end, then the other, cool down with water in a spray bottle, continue this method in sections until the desired finish is achieved. This ghouls prevent heat being transferred into the panel and damage being caused to the paint.

Continuous weld repairs are a little beyond me personally, my mini sills were spot welded on from factory, however my mot tester has insisted they are fully welded when repaired or replaced, seems strange to me. Also considering continuously welding a sill in the length of a mini would probably heat warp the whole thing!

[collector]

i am using welding blankets for this sort of work

[Wilk]

Thanks for the advice folks

Yes I'm more concerned about spatter on the larger area of the panel. Will have a look into weld blankets and gel strips. Also like the idea of wet cloths held with magnets.

I always planned on tacking then welding between to stop distortion. As for spot welds, I'm hoping the repair will be clean enough and not noticeable once the paints done so a MOT tester shouldn't be able to make it out from original. Either way the bottom edge will be spot welded

I'll let you know how I get on and how sucess full it's been

[at200]

We use fire blankets, 1x1 metre, about £4 from eBay. A damp old towel works too. I find sparks from the angle grinder are worse than welding sparks though. We forgot to cover our project car windows when we were cutting metal with the grinder and ended up with tiny bits of metal melted into the glass.