gas welding landrover bodywork

Good morning lads, how fare thee? I have a series 2 in need of body repair and I'd rather repair the panels by brazing or welding if possible. I'm not an experienced welder or fabricator but it appears that thin aluminium is quite difficult to weld, ac tig welder is out of my budget! and I'd rather do it myself so I thought of oxy acetyl gas welding. Haven't seen many people talking about the subject on here so wondering if anybody has some info or experience? thanks.

I think distortion is going to be the killer here. I am no expert on this but I believe the more heat that you put into the panel the more distortion you will get. With gas welding I think you will get more heat around the area you are welding due to the spread of the flame, where tig is more localised.

Another big hurdle will be the skill level. Aluminium is a difficult material to weld as the material easily falls away as it melts. I have seen a thread where a guy is repairing Ali panels and I really admire his skills - but I think he teaches metalwork in a college!

I wish you good luck in which ever way you choose, but perhaps look at alternatives as well. If you get someone to weld it for you, make sure they know what they are doing!

Maybe of use, recently posted on here.
https://www.landyzone.co.uk/land-rover/welding-rotten-body-panels.330164/#post-5335656

Ah never considered warping, I might buy one of those mini gas welding kits with the disposable bottles and experiment with it to see if it's possible for me.

potus said:

Maybe of use, recently posted on here.
https://www.landyzone.co.uk/land-rover/welding-rotten-body-panels.330164/#post-5335656

Click to expand...

That's the thread I was thinking of!

Another thing to consider is old birmabrite which is what the panels are made of go hard with age so might affect result...