[BetterLow]

friend wants to shave his door handles
what do we need to get to do it or is it to hard to do by ourselves?
jw never done nething like this before

 

[Anthony]

Can you weld? If you can't weld, walk away from it now, or get practicing

 

[BetterLow]

yea i can manage

 

[slo]

remove comlete handle, grind clean cut same size as hole sheet plate nothing too thick, spot weld, all around do this by taking your time if not you WILL warp the sheeet metal, and if you do you will have hell to get it straight. use some bondo, i recomend some of the blue putty cote(easier to sand), then block and primer. and your done with the body work

 

[beyondstockcav]

well he has the basic steps down but it gets a little more detailed onces involved... get a decent MIG welder. Some sheet metal 16 gauge or so... cut off wheel for you grinder and a marker some cardboard and ext. Make you a template, cut fit cut fit until it fit just right.... Tack weld every inch or 1.5" all around then go and tack between thoughs tack then let it all cool then go back again and weld in the spots.... you can either grind down the welds or go to your hardware store and pick up some disks that are like 24 grit sand paper made just for sanding down welds.... then bondo block bondo block until it looks nice.

OH YEAH... dont forget the bend the metal (befor tacking) to shape as the rest of the panel... if your door is shaped like so ) then bend the metal like so )... then tack tack tack

 

[1942aerosedan]

i would also suggest you leave a gap the size of your welding wire size if you make it perfect to the size of the hole with no gap , you will grind through the weld 9 times out of 10.

 

[SELF MADE]

i would also suggest you leave a gap the size of your welding wire size if you make it perfect to the size of the hole with no gap , you will grind through the weld 9 times out of 10.
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not to mention, if you don't leave space approx the width of the wire, during the weld process the two steel plates will push themselves apart, possibly affecting any body lines that may be close by.

don't know if you are familiar w stitch welding, this is often better then running long beads, allows time for cool down, and when there is nothing structual at stake, it only needs to be strong enough to hang paint off in the end.

oh, often usefull to have an air line near by to cool the weld spots down as you go.

man, serious, now that i think about it, its easy if you know what you are doing, but there are a lot of variables that can fuck you if you dont.

j.

 

[escalade20002003]

I am in the process of shaving my door handles right now. I am using the exact welding technique that yall are talking about. But, I have a friend who just shaved his handles with no welding using panel bond (I think thats right). I had never heard of this and wasnt brave enough to try it. Has anybody with more experience than me ever tried this?? Is it as good as the welding technique???

 

[blackflag]

No, you could try it with some of the bonding agents that major car manufaturers use cause I have seen hinges bonded to the body that way, but I think the best Idea is to go with some good ol fashion 18-20 ga. sheetmetal and a mig welder. It takes no time. Hour or two max if something goes wrong to finish all the cutting and welding and its going to be 10x better than a bonding agent in the end.

 

[3onthree]

i've heard of that shit too. dude was talking about it at work. like a sheetmetal glue. i think i'd rather weld it, but it does sound kind of interesting.