filling my bumper holes

[sundevil64]

I finally got around to filling the bumper holes for my narrow body turbo. I used a 115v mig with a spool gun. It was really the first time I've mig alum. I had considered other methods, but this seems to be the best for a bumper that is going to get hot from the turbo. I am sure there is an epoxy that would be fine, but this was fun. The bumper needed to be painted anyway.

[mark houghton]

Looks good - well, looks pretty bad actually, but nothing that a little bit of grinding and filing and a thin coat of bondo won't fix. And paint, but of course!

Wish I had a mig, tig, or even frig welder. All I have is an antique stick welder (antique, 'cause I've had it since I bought it almost 40 years ago). Give me some 6013 farm rod and I'm good to go blow holes with the best of 'em.

[quattrorunner]

Wasn't aware you can weld alum with mug 115v?

[sundevil64]

Originally Posted by quattrorunner

Wasn't aware you can weld alum with mug 115v?

I didn't either until I came a across a very lightly used Clarke "Hot Shot" for $300, which included a spool gun. It does need to be on a circuit that doesn't run a bunch of other stuff as it will need a lot of amperage otherwise you will not get good heat penetration. So I used the fridge outlet in my garage. For what I do it will be fine until I get to a point to move to a tig. Once the heat and wire feed are set right it moves right a long and puddles the material nicely.

I found that running the argon flow rate at 18 vs. 15 helped quite a bit.

[xbmwguy]

devil are you going for something like this?

[quattrorunner]

Looked up clark hot shot. It doesn't use argon on the ones I saw. You would need this though?

[Ronnie's.930]

Originally Posted by quattrorunner

Wasn't aware you can weld alum with mug 115v?

Never heard of a "mug" welder before - must be some new invention used to repair facial damage?!

[9dreizig]

JB weld works pretty good too

[quattrorunner]

Originally Posted by Ronnie's.930

Never heard of a "mug" welder before - must be some new invention used to repair facial damage?!

Ronnie, obvoisly you've never read my posts before. I have invented many things with my spelling.

[Ronnie's.930]

Originally Posted by quattrorunner

Ronnie, obvoisly you've never read my posts before. I have invented many things with my spelling.

Ha ha! Yep, you are indeed very inventive!

[sundevil64]

devil are you going for something like this?

Yes but I think I will eliminate the rubber corners as well.

[wacko]

I am planning on doing the same repair on the bumpers of my 1978 911sc.
Are the bumpers Aluminum??? or steel?

[sundevil64]

They are aluminum. Use a backer plate of dissimilar metal like copper.

[nocarrier]

Did the same thing just the other day. I'm going to eliminate the moldings as well. I just have to come up with a trick way to mount the bumpers to the shocks.

[jimtweet]

beat you to it,...working on the front now

[Hams930T]

It's a fun project for sure!

I recently did mine. I left the holes for the rubber strips but I never actually mounted them. I kind of prefer my bumper without them.

Before:


After (sorry don't have the exact angle shot to compare on this computer):




Chris.

[sundevil64]

Originally Posted by nocarrier

Did the same thing just the other day. I'm going to eliminate the moldings as well. I just have to come up with a trick way to mount the bumpers to the shocks.

That is some heat penetration there. Spool gun! 220v?

[nocarrier]

Nope,

I used to have a really nice miller 30A spool gun for the mig machine. I ended up selling it since I no longer use it.

Those were done with tig.

[nocarrier]

Does anyone have any good tips for prepping the aluminum.

Epoxy primer before filler or filler then primer?

[sundevil64]

I just bought a Miller Tig for the purpose of doing alum. I hope to try it later this week. Thanks.