body work... welding

TSC would probably know this... He once suggested high carbon content 22-24g or thicker metal to use to weld my roof shut. Lowes has 22g and perhaps a bit thicker sheet metal that would cover the space I want to seal for like $30. I doubt it's high carbon though. They also have thin 1" pipe that could be used as a sort of roof brace if cut and fit nice. My question is must the welding be tig welded or can it be other?

I know I'd have to sand the original surface down to the metal, apply the sheet metal, and weld, and sand and probably weld again etc. etc. Does the primer coat and paint coats give a substantial thickness to the metal? This is the reason I thought of the roof brace idea cuz I don't want the roof to sound like a damn single wide trailer home roof when it's windy outside.

As long as everything your welding is steel you should be able to mig, arc or tig weld it. Tig's are quite expensive, but have really nice welds. you can also weld other materials besides steel with a tig. For sheet metal you can use a mig w/a gas setup and they turn out pretty nice too. Arc... well i've seen people do it, but burning holes in sheet metal is really easy with an arc.

You should be able to sand the area you want to weld. Put on your sheet metal, weld, grind, sand, paint. Remember to remove all flamable objects away from weld areas (sun visors, interior roof panel, cover seats, cover glass, etc.). FYI, welding too close to glass the little sparks off the welder will burn into it and leave little pits/burns, I learned the hard way. I don't do a whole lot of welding so correct me if i'm wrong, but with thin metals I'd think you don't want to weld the whole thing on at one time or heat will cause it to warp. Hopefully someone with a little more knowledge on it can give you a little more help on that part.

what exactly are you tryin to do get rid of the gutters on your roof. if so ive done it and u dont use sheet metal by any means.

i think he's talking about his sunroof

ahh then sheet metal is the way to go for the sun roof.

while we are on this subject, how do you get rid of the rain gutters maxassassin? Did you use bondo, Any pix?

nah the rain gutters you go buy strips of metal i think there like 1/4 inch wide or somethink like that. id measure first and then yo uweld those in place. i couldnt get the front part thoug hcause it slightly curves. then you grind thta down and bondo over it it doesnt look to bad. here my roof. http://memimage.cardomain.net/member_images/1/web/721000-721999/721359_13.jpg

this is my cardomain. http://www.cardomain.com/memberpage/721359

someone bondoed their rain gutters on their project 4 door. they basically bondoed their whole fricken car. I cant remember who it was.

http://www.performanceforum.com/wesvann/honda/roof/roof.html

That's pretty cool... a bit more involved then what I was wanting to do though...