by Goldenblack440 » 05 Sep 2008 3:11
John, this advice may be a bit late, but there are two options, one which hasn't been discussed. Obviously to get a body shop to do it would cost a lot- well down here anyway. You can buy cheapie chinese made MIGS (eg GMC or OZITO) for around $180- they are gassless using flux cored welding wire. And then its practice- like Ian said, joining the dots so you don't burn a hole through. The hardest part will be making up a section, so you will have to find the correct gauge metal and shape it up. BUT what i would do if its a budget repair on your 74, is use pop rivets. Not aluminium, but all steel rivets- yes, they are very strong, and if you use a rivet every 10mm into good metal you will be amazed how strong they are. Put a few one sin from the top to hold the section in place and then go up from underneath so the flat part of the rivet will be flush with the underbody, this can then be painted or sealed over and will be virtually invisible. The hardest part is making up the correct shape for that difficult corner so that you have many surfaces lying straight on each other. When its in place use Sicaflex 227 and force it into the cracks and once set it is a flexible polyurethane and the new section will be every bit as strong and waterproof as before!
Before i could weld I had successfully used rivets in several places, eg, holding in headlight buckets on the rad support and now i am using them to hold the centre console front support that goes on the trans tunnel.
Steve