Plug Welds-Who Has Mastered Them? I’m Hit/Miss

[7E-Bodies]

So who has mastered the art of making plug welds look closer to spot welds? Any tricks? Favorite video links? I have a nice Miller MIG with 75/25 gas that I'm pretty good with, but I'm hit and miss with super nice plug welds. I'm using a 3/16 Air over hydraulic punch for hole consistency and a 3/16 sharp bit for places I can't get the punch into. Every other one, about, I can burn in just about perfect, so consistency is the issue. Fetch me up.

[screamindriver]

 I'm not sure you'll ever get even a 90% consistency for some areas...Metal thickness, metal quality, surface imperfections{rust,etc...} welding out of position are all factors no matter how many years you've been doing it.. Exposed panels on both sides just means double trouble and might have one side looking great with the other not so much... Sometimes I think it would have been good money spent to just buy a resistance spot welder with an assortment of tongs and make the process an easy one..

[JS29]

What has been done is to apply a thin coat of body filler around the wheel well, as it tack's up use a pensil eraser and push it were you want to make it look like a spot weld. 

[torredcuda]

Tig welding is probably the way to go as you have much better control of heat/wire but I have niether a tig welder or the skill. My car is not at the level of to need the welds to look factory correct but I would go with a dremel tool or the filler trick if I wanted that look.

[RUNCHARGER]

I don't know anyone who can make them look good all the time. If you do 50% that's pretty good. Everyone I know does the pencil trick.

[7E-Bodies]

@RUNCHARGER the pencil trick? Do tell...

[Rich G.]

Yep, you have a skim coat of body filler and just put the end of the pencil eraser in to make a slight dimple to look like at spot weld.

[Mopar5]

I agree it would be pretty tough to make a mig weld look like a spot weld. Spot welds dont get filled they fuse base metal together under pressure. Your Mig adds filler wire filling the low area . I have heard of people using a blunt drift punch to re create a spot weld look as well. Ive done the filler method and it works pretty good.

[7E-Bodies]

Cool idea

[Brads70]

 

[dodj]

@RUNCHARGER the pencil trick? Do tell...

I think he was refering to what JS29 said in his post

[7E-Bodies]

@Brads70 bingo!

[Mopar5]

That looks like a good idea. Going to have to try and remember it.

[screamindriver]

I have heard of people using a blunt drift punch to re create a spot weld look as well.

Since you brought this up I'll share what I do...Some areas just aren't going to hold up well or be very convincing for using the pencil eraser in the mud/primer trick...Here's a good example on a max wedge car where I replaced a section of inner fender.. The max wedge factory exhaust manifolds create a huge amount of heat and usually burn the inner fender paint let alone using filler in this area so that was out...And factory resistance spot welds will sometimes draw the surrounding metal down.. If you're dealing with something like that then the pencil trick will look out of place next to original spot welds..
      What I do is mig the plug welds just as usual and grind them flush...Then use a modified flat faced, round chisel to simulate the spot welds BETWEEN the mig plug welded areas...This means you need to carefully space out your plug welds so when the punch technique is used  your new chisel "spot welds" are spaced as the originals were..  Here's two pics showing the technique...Some are original and some are the chisel...The finished product is undetectable if done correctly..