Autobody work with TIG.... just curious

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I'm not sure if this is the right section.but I'm curious to know if anybody does autobody with a TIG? I always see people using a MIG... and I can understand why. but wouldn't doing body work with a TIG be a lot cleaner? no splatter, more uniform etc. Cuz as some may know, I'm upgrading (yay me)... and I'll be doing body work (But not a whole helluva lot). but would it be worth it to get another MIG.... that was really the whole point of this thread
Reply:For one-off custom work, maybe a tig would be better. But I doubt it. You are going to be filling and grinding anyway. And, as for a production body shop, you want to weld it, and move on... not prep it, weld it, go back on it, re-prep it, etc... when I was doing custom sheetmetal on old cars, we would lead solder all the panels shut.
Reply:Mig is the way to go for body work. Fast and easy. Your going to grind the panel anyhow so spatter isn't a huge concernPatriot Performance AutoLincoln Power Mig 255CLincoln AC-225 StickVictor Journeyman O/AQuincy QT-5 Compressor
Reply:Tig creates too much heat and causes warpage. When dealing with sheet metal on an automobile, you can't have any warpage. Mig is the way to go, as seems the consensus here.Bill
Reply:I thought TIG might be too hot, but i've used tig on sheet metal so i wasn't 110% sure, thanks for the input guys
Reply:If you are dealing with a major restoration where you are welding new, clean sheetmetal panels onto very clean, easily accessible parts of the car, you can do it, and some guys do. 99% of the time though the work is tedious enough just trying to get all of the fitup good and contort yourself underneath the car, and it's murder getting both sides of everything clean enough for a decent MIG weld, and TIG is twice as picky. In my opinion there is way more work required to prep everything to get those squeaky clean TIG welds than it is to finish the lumpy mig welds.
Reply:Originally Posted by driftstarI thought TIG might be too hot, but i've used tig on sheet metal so i wasn't 110% sure, thanks for the input guys
Reply:We do a lot of TIG on sheet metal cabinets, we absorb the heat with backing bars and copper heat sinks, probably not a viable option for auto body. MIG is the way to go if fitup is less than exact and for speed.
Reply:You shouldn't be getting splatter mig welding autobody sheetmetal unless,1.  you're using fluxcore, or2.  you didn't clean to bare metal well enough.WeldingWeb forum--now more sophomoric banter than anything else!
Reply:Actually, the real hardcore autobody guys, the ones who are working on million dollar cars, do tig weld sometimes- but most of the time, especially on aluminum, they gas weld with a torch.When you tig weld aluminum, you get a tiny HAZ (heat affected zone) that is slightly harder than the rest of the aluminum, and if you are going to be shrinking or stretching the sheet afterwards to match curves, then you can feel it working differently.So the big boys, people like Ron Fournier, or Ron Covell, or Kent White, gas weld all their aluminum auto bodies.http://www.fournierenterprises.com/http://www.covell.biz/http://www.tinmantech.com/html/kent_white.phpThey sometimes tig weld the steel ones- they tack em like a million times- maybe a tack every inch or so, then skip weld infill, with copper backers when you can use it.But these are guys who are getting paid ten or twenty or forty grand for a little bit of bodywork, on cars that cost ten times as much as your house- speed, and easy, are just not in their playbook- they care about perfection, and slow and low, with Tig, or Oxy-Acetylene, is often the way to go.They dont have to use the insurance company handbook for how many hours its supposed to take- if it takes a month to fix a Bugatti Fender, it takes a month.
Reply:Actually most of the time we would punch holes and button hole weld panels together using a backing strip of the same metal.  The reason we use mig is because the metals are HSLA “high strength low alloy” steel that loses its strength when heated.  The problem is that the frame members have to be spliced so that they will perform (and collapse in a subsequent collision) according to the original engineering.  All the tests and industry standards are based on “mig”  Mig is the fastest way to weld and not add heat to the structure short of spot welding.  Now most shops are using spot welders whenever they can get to both sides at the same time.
Reply:I met a couple of guys doing one of a kind restorations. The majority of the sheet metal fab they did was with TIG. He liked it because it was very precise and he used very very little, if any, body filler afterwards. But these were rare cars and trucks. Maybe for the rest of us MIG is the way to go.  His mission was to reproduce the panels to better than original. Incredible work and detail.
Reply:Yes , you can use it for automotive body repair ....but it is slow and tedious..but your finishing time is less because the cleanup time is less and so is the distorion if you properly tack the panel...like Ries said earier ...Fournier , covell and others do tig their steel bodywork...when I worked for Ron Fournier in the early '90s he didnt even have a Mig welder in the shop....Gas and Tig   that was it. I still do most of my panel replacement with Tig, but I am not doing it for a living , just a hobby....my 2c Shawn
Reply:hi all,personally i prefer TIG for bodywork. done correctly there's very little distortion and as the welds can be planished much less grinding/clean up work is needed.while the tacking and welding take longer with TIG, clean up and prep for paint take less time than if MIG were used. overall TIG isn't much slower but the results are better (assuming the area has resonable access- no point in using TIG to patch floor/box sections)heres a couple of pics of a VW decklid i just modified- added some ducts to provide the motor with some more air. first pic is as welded, second after a little planishing Attached ImagesLast edited by hotrodder; 04-13-2007 at 02:12 PM.