no more rust anymore it just needs a repaint

Thanks everybody for your great advise.
I will get somebody to fix it for me, i have rego due at the end of june so no time to save and learn to weld.

depends entirely on how much work there is.

Gylezy, a Adelaide member charges $35.00hr for rust repair (Datto mates rates) which makes it a bloody good deal. Probably the fastest worker with a mig and grinder that I've come across in a while.

Pretty sure he'd have that sorted and painted by the end of a fairly casual work morning/afternoon, as long as you had everything ready to go. The problem with removing rust is you find yourself chasing more and more so you'll need to tell whoever is doing it to keep on the job at hand.

Find someone who can cut out and re-weld with competence (ask to see pictures of their work) and get them to have a look at the job and tell you how much it will cost, then agree on some hours i.e. 1/2 days work and a rate and go from there.

Once you go to a shop you are looking at some pretty big dollars, but I guess you will (in theory!)get guaranteed quality workmanship.

A good panel welder will cost you around the $100-$150/hr mark for labour. There should be a panel beater on this forum somwhere!!

Also once you mention "strutural" they jack up the prices again.

For a once off, I would just send it to a panel beater and be done with it. Especially if you dont want to learn welding or any of that stuff.

As for gasless welders, well IMO, yes they work. Yes, they can do the job. Yes the cheaper import stuff an be good, but a proper gas mig will always beat the pants off the gasless in any test you want. Quality of weld, splatter, penetration, presentation blah blah blah.

The biggest CIG gas/gasless unit from Bunnings (not that i reccommend Bunnings) can run the gasless wire (more expensive) and the gas wire(cheaper) and can take the disposable gas cyclinders. The disposable cyclinders get around the cyclinder hire issue and is a good option for the occisional welder.

I own a little gasless unit, and its not bad really. Ive welded gates, and all sorts with it, but it produces messy results, and its hotter to weld with than gased with the same amperage. Its also very portable, which is a big plus. But compared to my gased unit, its got nothing. I didnt build my shed with a gassless unit for a reason.

Overall, a gassless unit will get you out of trouble, as Levey will testify to, they are cheap enough, and very portable. If you want to have a crack at it, a gassless unit is a good start, but i would just handball it off.

Could you use a stick welder?
Well yes, but not for a first timer.
Most professional welders use sticks all the time and modern stick welders are much more forgiving. The old timers have welded plenty of 2mm steel when they built the water lines out the back of the Perth hills. There are kms of rolled tin that they seam welded with stick units and the beads are fantastic.
So yes it can be done. Stick welding is probally the cheapest welding method, but also harder to master. Im still pretty average with my stick welder.
Blowing holes with stick welders. Well my welding guru informed me that it is really just technique. The right rods, feed angle, clean steel, right amps, ambient temps plus a few more i cant remember.

Quote:
NO - too hot, you'll blow holes thru everything....

Before you go spend $1K on welding repairs you should look over the whole car to see where else its doing the same thing, you might get lucky & not find anything or maybe not so lucky.

Cheapest way would be to find all the rust repairs necessary on the car, that means really hunting around on the car for anything suspect then expose them back to rust free surrounding bare metal, then take the car to a welder & have them weld in patch panels.

Gearing up gets expensive, by the time you purchase a cheap welder, wire, helmet, grinding disc's, gloves, etc...you'll of dropped $400 plus and you still need to get a decent repaint after that & thats costly so maybe spend the $$ there instead of welding gear.

So mabye $1000 just for the repair??? WOW.......
Could you use a stick welder?

Not that i want to turn this thread into a welder debate, but dont most guys on here rag on gasless welders????

And i understand the preference to QLD no offence taken lol.

For the tiny voltage requirements of welding thin Datto panels a cheap rubbish welder would be fine. I think everyone gets a bit carried away with saying you need the best welder or you're nowhere. I don't have the results to justify this statement but my welder is just a chinese made version and it works just fine.

Most people on this site won't know what panel repairs cost externally as they're very DIY orientated. I'm gunna go out on a limb here and say tight arses too!! Totally true for me anyway!

At a very rough guess, including repainting I'm going to say $1500 but could be way off the mark.

I'd prefer to go to Queensland, no offense :)
If you go to bunnings they have a Weldcorp 100 gasless Mig for about $300, thats what I purchased and I love it, it's a rebadged CIG unit made in italy.
Very easy to learn with, not recommended for thicker steel though.

I think Shoota was spot on with his post, Its not very hard to get average/good results with a little bit of practice.

You can do it!

I work for virgin blue so airfares are no problem ;)
Im in sydney
I have read what people say to guys asking about cheap welders so to buy a propper one would cost big dollars and it would be used once!
So i just thought id get it fixed, i dont wanna lose this one to rust.

What would be a ballpark price to fix this?
thankyou all.