bulkhead repair/welding

Figure I'm gonna have to jump on this rust problem now(ish) - is there a guide anywhere with a step by step "how to weld bulkhead repair panels into place, and finish it all off nicely"??

I've never welded before, so I'd like to see what I should be doing quite exactly before I make a complete ****e of it. Has anyone got any photos, or anything? Seems the net is full of places to buy the parts, but no advice on how to fix them in!

cheers

It's not hard but if you haven't done any welding before get some scrap bits of steel and practice until you're confident. It's easy to make a mess on fairly thin stuff like a bulkhead if you don't get up to speed with the welder first.

I'd recommend finding somebody to teach you how to weld. I taught myself by trial and error and it took me many hours to get fairly competent. You'll save time by learning from somebody else. I guess you'll be doing a lot of butt welding (that's where the two pieces to be joined are in the same plane); That can be quite tricky with metal around 1mm thick. Practice doing lap welds first (thats where the two pieces of metal are parallel, but layed ontop of eachother). The key to welding is good preparation - clean the areas to be welded as well as you can and shape the parts accurately. making cardboard templates is a good tip. If you're using gas don't weld outside - the gas shield will be blown away and the weld will oxidise. And talking of gas get a big bottle - the tiny ones popular with hobby mig welders are expensive and don't last long.

I made my own repair sections when I did my bulkhead, here's a few photos: Land Rovers