Learning To Weld, And Rustproofing

[SamWise1972]

Apologies for the fact that I'm crossposting this from the CX forum, but there are more people reading here:


Ok, it seems like if you want to enjoy old Citroens, you're going to need to deal with rust. This may be doubly true for someone like me, who has only outside storage. I've had a welder for some years, but I really, truly suck - no matter how much I follow the instruction in the Haynes bodywork manual, I burn holes in things and make an awful spattery mess. I'd love to learn how to do bodywork really well; there are so many cars that a person who is handy with a grinder and a mig can get for cheap, and do up, but I don't know where to start. Does anyone know of a reasonably priced course one can go on to learn? Alternately, is there anyone in the South of England who'd be interested in doing a bit of knowledge transfer? I'm sure I could find something useful to do in return!

Furthermore, once one has either bought a rust free Citroën, or repaired a rusty one, what's the best way to rustproof them? Is Waxoyl or Ziebart going to do the job? Is there a way?

[steelcityuk]

Hi,

I found a short Saturday course at the local college some years ago. The price was fair and the kit top class. The instructor was good and flexible too. He didn't mind if you wanted to use other types of welders despite it being a MIG/MAG course. I had a try TIG whilst I was there.

From what I've seen and heard the key parts are material preparation, welder quality and practice.

This is a good forum with loads of good advice -

http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/index.php

The budget welders of choice are Clarke according to most on this forum. It seems that at lot of the budget welders from known brands have various flaws in them such as wire feed and if this is iffy you'll never get good welds.

Steve.

[steelcityuk]

Oh forgot about rust proofing.

I use Waxoyl but it's far from the best but cheap and easy to get hold of. Practical Classics magazine has some great articles on such things and let's face it classic cars need it, very few are galvanised.

http://www.bilthamber.com

This company do some top class stuff.

Steve.