• Hi Guest!
    If you appreciate British Car Forum and our 25 years of supporting British car enthusiasts with technical and anicdotal information, collected from our thousands of great members, please support us with a low-cost subscription. You can become a supporting member for less than the dues of most car clubs.
    There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this gawd-aweful banner
Tips
Tips

Welding Alum. shroud cracks, and hole repair

Share this page

C

culrad360

Freshman Member
Offline
I have a radiator repair company. We do a lot of alum welding. We use TIG, MIG, gas welding for alum oil coolers heat exchangers, and fuel- oil tanks. We have tried to get a nice repair on my shrouds, front and rear. Our repair techniques are for thicker alum. I can not get a quality bead, looks like bird poop on a stick. Once we grind down the mess, does not look so bad, want better.
What have you tried, has any one tried that low heat rod that repairs beer cans? Need help.
 
Hi Culrad360, Use the oxy torch small tip #6 or so. Preheat and stress relieve using a highly oxidised flame. Kent White, formerly Known as willie the tin man [Randy's Reference] knows how to do it. The Low heat rod sometimes works and sometimes it doesnt. Some success has been had using it like leading of panels.--Fwiw---Keoke
 
culrad360:
When you say shrouds, I surmise you are working thin Aluminum material.
Before I retired I was an Aircraft welder, I had to weld many parts that were .030 Aluminum {very difficult to do without warpage} but it can be done using the T.I.G. process.
When welding these thin parts the prefered tungsten size is .020 2% thoriated
Jigs and or fixtures and heat sinks are essential in holding this materials shape, even a backup gas fixture of some sort will help control the heat input. Start by tacking the pieces together. I like to place a tackweld about every 1/2 to 1 inch apart, then when you weld DO NOT attempt to make a continuous weldment, weld an inch or two then move to a cold section and make another weld there, take your time and go slow {I am sure you know that CLEAN material is a MUST}
There is an article in the wiki I produced about Aluminum Brazing {I have NO experiance with this type of welding} But have seen excelent results. Feel free to P.M. me for any further info you might want to ask
M.I.G. welding thin Aluminum is most times a big mess unless you have the proper M.I.G. machine capable of low amperage and voltage and pulsed arc control. Even then it takes a very skilled operator.
Kerry
 
I'm not exactly sure how structural the shroud is on your cars.

I have had decent luck repairing sheet aluminum with the zinc-based rod called "Durafix" (I guess that is the stuff you referred to for welding beer cans). Ends up looking good, but I am sure it is not as strong as the original structure.

You can see it here:
https://durafix.com/

I have done some aluminum welding with oxy-acet torch but I have had best luck with a slightly rich flame and plain Al rod. The rich flame tends to absorb oxygen near the melted aluminum, reducing brittleness of the repair. And yes, *clean* is #1.
 
Yep Aronca65, you be jus about spot on!---Keoke- /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/thumbsup.gif
 
Several years back, I purchased some of the "aluma-weld" product. Used it to rebuild a broken flange on my triple Weber intake manifold(TR6) and a fractured trans case. Worked just like the tv commercials showed it. I'm very happy with it.
 
Back
Top