thanks dude ill look for one

yeh u only really use a sanding block for the little stuff in the corners etc here is a pic of the same sander as mine man..

yea will do, do you have a pic of the long hand sander you are talking about, sounds good but i cant picture what i looks like so i can find one. How long is it? Im just using a sanding block maybe 100mm*50mm*20mm ish. I will keep updating as i go

Looks the goods man.. i llike seein alot of pics of wat ppl have done.. as for the sander. ur prob better off sanding it by hand with one of the long flat hand sanders. u will get a good finish with one of those.. mine cost me around $30 from a trade shop..

Keeps the pics comin

Got a little bit more done today, its really slow work with the welder as to avoid warping the panels. I need a automatic welding mask.... that would make it a lot easier and quicker! Might think about buying an air sander too, has anyone used the round orbital type for sanding car filler on larger panels or would the old style vibrating ones that you atach normal sandpaper be ok? Heres some pics, its getting there slowly/

Started with the boot seal area and added filler, sanded it back to smooth it out and fill some weld spots etc.





Then, sanded it back with wet and dry 400 with water and primed it so i dont come back and find it rusty.




Then i finished sanding the c pillar and primed it, still needs a couple of hours extra sanding etc to be perfect, ill do that a bit later.




Rear quarter welded in, took bloody ages but didnt warp much so im happy! Blew heaps of holes i had to patch, took at least an hour





Then i had to grind all the welds back




And finally add a couple of coats of filler which i can see will take me ages to sand and get the panel correct shape as the replacement 1/4 was not the correct shape/curve.




Thats it for now, depending on the blue 1200 i may do a bit more next weekend.

Thanks for the advise phunk i will try it if i need to.

You can shrink the high spots a little with the mig. Get your wet rag handy. Put a weld right in the middle of the high spot, A quick zap so you get like a spot weld red hot and then quickly cool it with the rag. It will shrink the high spot a little and make the panel tighter and less like a petrol can.

UPDATE: 10/06/07

Well the bloody blue 1200 has consumed all my free time the last couple of months what with building a new motor for it etc. Now its off at the workshop for tune/ boost and various other bits and pieces giving me time to get stuck into my white project again. I stated by flushing the radiator and block a good 5 times to get all the rusty water out of it and left it empty to prevent further corrosion whilst its sitting around.
I started by doing the C pillar ?, made and welded a patch. Ive just learnt how damn easy it is to get warps in the panels, i was doing maybe 2 or 3 quick tacks at a time then cooling with wet soaked rag, still made high spots in the 90degree corners, looks like 45s would def be the go as they didnt warp. I managed to knock them down a fair bit but still a couple of low spots the filler will cover. Then i did the boot seal area. Heres some pics from today.

The patch tacked in




The patch welded in




Weld ground back, showing the 3 high and low spots as marked H and L




Whole area back to bare metal with dents knocked lower, rust convertor put on and ready for some filler.




Filler applied, did whole area so its more gradual and unnoticeable




New metal tacked in for boot seal area




Welded in, didnt warp at all too easy!




Weld ground back, few spots will need filler but the bulk of it will be ok with primer.




Hopefully i get a bit done tomorrow and ill post back!

thanks for that phunk, looks like a good job! Unfortunatelly the mig only has a low/high setting as its a budget piece of machinery, but im confident i can tack all the way around, theres no way i could weld 30mm at a time thought, be pushing 10mm before it melted a hole. Ok looks like ive got a bulkload more welding to do, cheers all. Going to clipsal so probably wont do any car work till next week!

Looks good. I agree you should always 100% weld the join. Bog will still crack if its just tacked like your pics. (unless the bog is thick).
Can you not turn your welder down or turn your wire speed up?
I would never run a weld on thin sheet for 3cm. It will still warp. Tac after tac is the way to do it. but you have to move the tacs around.
Below are pics of my old wags when i welded the querters after i chopped the roof.
I tac it every inch like you have, and then i go back and tac right next to the first tack and then and inch over beside the next tac. It takes time, but its better to take time now, than to spend hours later doing heat shrinks. Flat panels you should cool every tac with air blowgun or wet rag ( some people argue, but I use both ). But when there is a fold that gives strength, you can not worry about the heat as much.



Tac every inch.


Thousands of tacs later.