Category: shoppe

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Fender Repair Part 1, Welding Patches (Post #616) July 25, 2023

Welding a patch for the body mount

I finally broke down and welded something on my Range Rover. While I will admit freely, I am NOT a welder, but I did enjoy getting the patches welded on. I took a few hours the day before this video was shot to “practice” welding with some scraps I had cut off the Big White Bus.

One of the difficulties is the metal on the Range Rover and the metal I am patching with are different thicknesses. I believe the OEM body panels are 18 gauge whereas my patching material is 16 gauge. I watched a YouTube video where a young man from Weld.com showed how he setup his welder to weld different thicknesses. It’s pretty good stuff and I recommend it if you are still wondering how to setup your welder and what settings you might want to start with. His settings for 18 and 16 weren’t different so I just need to find the same settings he suggested and convert those values to the letter equivalent on my Lincoln MIG Pro 180.

I also watched a fellow from Make It Kustom that has some great tips on welding and patch making. Good stuff there too. This guy is obviously an artist and I imagine has, “done this a time or two.”

In my video there is a lot of grinding and sparks flying and hopefully some good tips to help you weld your patches on your Range Rover Classic. I sped a lot of it up so I’m not consuming a lot of your life watching my low grade videos.

The camera overheated at the end for the second time that day. The temp inside the shoppe was above 110°F (which is 43.3°C for you metric system types). Yeah that’s pretty hot for this old man. I’m seriously going to investigate getting an exhaust fan installed to pull the hot air out.

Overall I’m pretty excited that I can weld stuff. I did fix a yard swing that one of our trees landed on and crushed. I’m looking forward to finishing the welding on the rust and turn my attention to making stuff like a 270 degree awning, a rear bumper, and lots of other stuff.

Thanks for reading and Happy Rovering

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Can we HAVE any more setbacks? (Post #609) 4/30/2023

Apparently, yes, yes we can.

So if you’ve been a fan and reader for very many years you have probably heard me refer to the Okierover Rules. There are a few rules I try to live my life by, let me hit the top three:

  • I will not live where I am not the highest tertiary consumer on the food chain.
  • I don’t play with electricity.
  • Don’t date girls with dagger tattoos.
  • There are others…but lets stop there.

Unfortunately for me, I bought a welder that requires a 208 volt plug. My shop is only wired for 110 volt. You know that saying from Mr. Mom (1983) starring Michael Keaton:

Well that’s about the sum of it. I’m just about that clueless when it comes to the magic of powering our homes and shops.

According to a review on InboxQ.com:

“The Pro MIG 180’s convenient switch knob easily allows users to choose between output levels. The 120-volt option allows you to connect to any household power source and is perfect for working on light steel and thinner metals like aluminum sheets. If you want to work on thicker metals, just flick the knob opt to change to the 208-volt/230-volt option.”

I must have missed that day in shop class when they explained how to wire 110V like 208/220V. And that’s another thing…I’ve been around a few years and never have I ever heard of 208V. So again, I’m sitting here thinking, “I wish Mr. Murr would have let me take shop class like all the other kids.” In his fine evaluation of my brain power, he thought I was better suited to “go to college”. I had to get special permission to enroll in Vo-tech! Electronics never-the-less. This was before the Personal Computer revolution (think Fall of 1980). I can tell you for certain, electronics was not an “easy” class. I had to work at it. And frankly, college was unaffordable for me. I went anyway, but let’s just say, the trades probably would have been a better idea.

I asked the Evil German Dude what he thought of the wiring in the shop. He DID indeed go the trades route and worked for the electric company in Germany as a young man and understands the magic of electricity about as well as anyone. Seriously one of the smartest people I know. He did not believe the wiring from the house to the shop would support 220V. So, it looks like I need to get a professional opinion and probably get a quote to get it upgraded.

Yay! more money I don’t have today.

So I know a lot of you are keen to see SPARKS flying and welding of rust panels and fixin’ them holes. As am I, I’m ready to see some return on investment for the welding class and the welder expenses, but this is going to be put off for a little longer while I get the electricity supply sorted out.

I need to review the “just flip the switch” and use 110V. I didn’t see any of that in the user guide but that doesn’t mean its not in there. I just need to read it again and probably do more googling.

Thanks for reading and Happy Rovering.

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