which weld process for bed/fender work?

[pjtoledo]

Why not leave a little extra material around the edges and use panel adhesive? It's a standard practice these days.

with a couple screws to initially hold it in place so I can either glue or screw it?

 

[scotts90ranger]

My only TIG experience is with my multi process welder, it's only capable of DC scratch start TIG and the wand just has a gas knob, I can see where a pedal and high frequency start would be huge game changers...

For years I was stuck with flux core and stick welders, I learned some dumb tricks with flux core because of course I had the worst option for a flux welder the old 90A Chicago Electric that is on AC! Did a dumb amount with that then got spoiled with the DC welders then got gas and that is magical... way less cleanup.

 

[don4331]

Check out: Eastwood Perfect Panel Prep Tool.

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I was actually thinking panel jogger, some spot welds/counter sunk rivets and seam sealer when I came across the Eastwood tool.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

You can generate too much heat with grinding too and add to the waviness.

Flap disks and sanders put less heat into steel than a grinding disk

 

[pjtoledo]

now all I need is the manual, hope it has lots of pics

the MIG is a lot easier, just crank it up and let the sparks fly.

 

[SenorNoob]

with a couple screws to initially hold it in place so I can either glue or screw it?

I suppose you could. Modern adhesives stick pretty good. Some are almost instant. I haven't used the panel adhesive myself. I just know it's common.

Harbor freight has their own version of that tool.

If I ever do any panels on my truck, I'd probably pick one up.

https://www.harborfreight.com/professional-air-punch-and-flange-tool-58620.html

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

I suppose you could. Modern adhesives stick pretty good. Some are almost instant. I haven't used the panel adhesive myself. I just know it's common.

Harbor freight has their own version of that tool.

If I ever do any panels on my truck, I'd probably pick one up.

https://www.harborfreight.com/professional-air-punch-and-flange-tool-58620.html

No, not the same. The one you posted makes a flange that the other sheet lays in. As in overlaps by a half inch. The one you're comparing it to make a 90° radius curve down and you would put that downward bend on both pieces of sheet, then bring them together to form a valley. Then you fill in the valley with weld.

 

[scotts90ranger]

You could make a limit for the flange tool to stop it at the angle part to do similar though... but yes by default it is different.

 

[Shran]

FWIW I asked my buddy who owns a body shop how they replace full bed sides (because I'm going to do the ones on my F150...) and he said they use both panel bond adhesive and weld.

I'm half tempted to have him peel my old ones off and glue the new ones on to save me the effort. Maybe I am getting lazy. I sure would like those bed sides on the truck and not taking up one corner of my shop.