Best Welder for Automotive - Can I do this?

[392 Cuda]

I've been putzing around with cars half my life, but have never really learned to weld...

I borrowed my friend's Miller 140 Mig welder to replace my trans tunnel for the 8 speed (with alot of help) and do some exhaust work, but I am considering purchasing my own welder and taking on a few more welding projects. I have some time to spend, but also have quite a bit invested in the car and need it to look decent in the end. (71 hemi cuda clone with 392/8spd in sassy grass green)

My car needs quite a bit of welding, but I'm not sure what I can do as a beginner:
- USCT Core support Stiffener
- Most of the factory holes in the engine compartment
- Antenna hole on the new fender (I only use carplay)
- Some of the body plug holes
- Quarter panels and tail panel (perhaps I need a professional for this?)
- potential rocker panel repairs if needed

Should I leave this stuff to the professionals?

If not, what welder would you recommend for this, and the apocolypse?

[MoparLeo]

The Miller or Lincoln 140 welders are both very good. Plenty for sheet metal and thin plate steel. Just takes practice. Blank steel plugs are sold in different sizes to plug round holes.

[Mr Lee]

Practice practice practice... and I'm sure you'll be able to do some nice presentable work.  A welding class at a local vocational school might not be a bad idea either.  Or just watch a lot of you tube.  There's a few good channels to help learn.  But it all comes down to lots of practice.  You should also check out some videos on how to control warpage and movement. That is some useful knowledge also. 

I would consider what else you might wanna use it for in the future also.  If you're the type who is always working on things, and fixing things, and you just buy a cheap MIG welder now, you just may want to upgrade later.   A multi-function welder (for instance one that does MIG, TIG, Stick, etc) might be a wise investment.  And if you see yourself getting into welding a lot of aluminum, then an AC TIG welder would be nice to have too.  Some machines do all of these things in one unit, but of course they are more money.

I would check out Everlast also.  I did some shopping around and went with them.  A good bang for your buck in my opinion and I've been happy with it. Mine does MIG, AC/DC TIG and Stick.  But it would be nice to have a plasma cutter also.  They make MIG /Stick /plasma machines ... and also TIG /Stick/ Plasma machines. 

[torredcuda]

There are a lot of decent mig welders out there that can weld up to 1/4", good enough for 95% of what most of us do, just get one that uses gas NOT a flux core type. Mig welding is pretty easy, as said just practice technique and play with heat and wire speed settings and you can do it. Welding large panels requires patience and "stich" welding/cooling so as not to create too much heat and warp the area.

[Wayne]

I bought a Miller 130 many years ago...using it more and more and enjoy learning/progressing with it. It can handle just about anything I need.  Glad I bought it and makes me want to keep working on developing my welding

[Katfish]

Following along, bought a welder years ago, tried a few times, and gave up.
Need to dig it out and try again

[Dmod1974]

The guy behind the mask is going to be the limiting factor in anything you do on a car resto assuming you're MIG welding everything.  You can drop serious coin on a Miller if you want, but I did my entire resto and structural mods with a Harbor Freight Vulcan MigMax 215.  I've run countless hours, spools, and shield gas tanks through this thing and it has been flawless.

Definitely use a shield gas and skip flux core, and use a QUALITY wire spool.  The rest is going to be on you.

Edit:  Get a machine with real adjustments.  Don't buy one that just has a couple of switches for heat and wire feed, but rotary knobs so you can dial it in exactly to what you like and need.  Otherwise, if you have luck like me you'll want/need those adjustments to be in between the few settings they give you and that'll get annoying quick.

[moparroy]

I bought a small used Miller MIG when I started on the 'Cuda (I think its 90 Amp with peak 130) - best tool I ever bought.
I had some stick welding instruction back in grade school and observed my step-dad when he was welding long time ago but mostly self taught.
I'm not good at it but I can get by and I welded my own quarter skins on and the painter said it was a decent job. IT does take practice and if you don't do it regularly you need to relearn some. When you are doing something like skins there is enough work to get decent at it. I ended up redoing a part of the first one.
Does not always look good - but does the job - and very handy to have in the shop. Use it way more than my acetylene torch now. I found part of the trick is in lighting the area you are working on and a good auto darken helmet. LED lights do not activate the auto darken - halogen will activate. So I have a couple small LED work lights I use to illuminate the work area close up so I can see well before striking an arc

[GoMangoBoys]

I am a self-taught welder.  You can do it too.  One thing that helped me greatly was a DVD that I bought.  Now that DVD is on Youtube.  Here it is
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNp8H5yHkME 
I also teach the welding merit badge for the scouts and I use large portions of this video in my classroom instruction.  As a self-taught welder, I have taught 64 kids to weld to date.  Ironically, teaching the merit badge forced me to learn things that I did not know previously.

I also recommend following Jody at Welding Tips and Tricks.com   LOTS of good stuff there.
https://www.youtube.com/@weldingtipsandtricks

I have a Lincoln 140 amp MIG welder.  The 140 amp is the largest that will run off of a 110V outlet.  I used a Miller MIG welder of a similar size to mine once and I actually liked it better.  I do not know what model or how the price compares.

Lastly, I recommend a good auto-dark helmet.   I have a bunch of different ones and like the Lincoln 3350 the best.

Remember one thing when welding on the body sheet metal.  Heating and warpage are the biggest concern.  Make your sheet metal welds in 1/8" - 1/4" long stitches.  Jump around so that no area gets hot.  Keep doing that until all the 1/4" welds touch.  You can even keep your air hose blow gun handy and blow air on it after each short weld to keep it cool.
Good Luck.  Please do not hesitate to ask for more help.

[GoMangoBoys]

One additional point that I would offer is to buy a large gas bottle.  By us, the place that fills them is not open on the weekends.  I don't want to need a refill on the weekend and not be able to get it.  I have a 125 cubic foot bottle.

[392 Cuda]

I appreciate all the tips - and encouragement!

I got a bit excited and picked up a Miller 221 on Facebook Marketplace at a screamin' deal... Will figure out a receptacle for the weird 240 plug this week.

I think I'll start with the core support stiffener next weekend. I believe I saw a few posts on the process there, and will study up this week. Should be fun!

[Filthy Filbert]

Plenty of power for what it sounds like you want to do.  I wouldn't use it on thick stuff though. 

Your best bet will be to go get some sheet metal and start practicing.  start with lap joints, then try some fillet welds and ultimately do some butt welds with full penetration without blowing through. 

Once you can do that reasonably well, THEN start to think about welding stuff on the car.

[Flatdad]

As someone who has used MILES of flux core and continues to use it almost daily... don't use flux core.

You can absolutely get away with it... but don't. Unless you love grinding.

[tparker]

I learned to weld by doing it. Sheet metal has it's challenges in that it is like welding paper. It burns really easy. That is the main thing you have to learn to deal with. A lot of people do a series of "spot' welds instead of drawing a bead, which helps a lot. I would practices a fair amount then tackle things that arn't easily viewable first or less forgiving if you make a mistake. Watch a lot of automotive body work videos for some tips and tricks. I think I watched a lot of Kevin Tetz body work videos and some other eastwood. You will notice they do tend to use that spot weld technique.

[Filthy Filbert]

Yes. Don't ever weld a continuous bead on thin sheet metal.  The amount of heat input doing that will warp your car into a pretzel knot.