Ouch! My rusty bulkhead :(

happycamperbrat · March 16, 2011, 02:58:32 AM

The manual says this is SAE 950A steel. It is spot resistant welded. I suppose I am going to have to cut the sections of rust off and then clamp the steel down to cover and then spot resist weld.... Im going to take a welding class next fall for some other things I want to do on the bus, but maybe I should go to a professional for this? I dont even know where to get this kind of steel or aprox how much $$$ this will cost..... anyone care to weigh in and guide me a little, please?

bevans6 · March 16, 2011, 05:54:19 AM

That is a simple job for someone with a Mig welder and a little mild steel sheet, probably 18 gauge would do. I would probably spot weld (electric resistance weld) the bottom flange only because I happen to have such a tool in my shop and rarely find a use for it, but I would absolutely Mig weld the rest of the patch in. Maybe I would joggle in a flange and do spot welds, maybe I would stitch weld it. Production welding uses spot welds because they can get at both sides with robots or whatever, repair welds use repair techniques. Stitch welding is basically tack it in all over with minimal heat to reduce warping ( a lot of body shops stop here and go directly to bondo or seal sealer), then go back and do 1" seam, 1" off, then if you want to go back and fill in with seam welds in between. At the end you get a 100% welded seam and less water intrusion. Cover with 3M seam sealer front and back, corrosion resistant paint, little bit undercoating, done.

SAE 950 is used in production for a lot of excellent reasons, it is a relatively low strength low carbon steel that is somewhat corrosion resistant, but you can usefully repair that with 1025 mild steel sheet, the strength qualities are very similar, if not a touch higher.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-strength_low-alloy_steel

Brian

garhawk · March 16, 2011, 06:54:17 AM

Hi Teresa,

From what is visible in your photo, your damage is not so bad. Here is my take on the fix:

a) using your newly acquired grinder with a cutting disc, cut out the bad steel,

b) change to wire brush and clean the surrounding area to bare metal,

c) call your local welder, give him the dimensions for the replacement pieces (along with the type steel) and, you should be good to go with only his minimum charge. Better yet, 'round up' a couple pieces for the repair and, have them 'weld ready' for him.

Getting the parts 'weld ready' makes for a quick and easy job for the welder. It would be hard for me to imagine more than an hour for this repair under the above conditions.

babell2 · March 16, 2011, 08:19:23 AM

Teresa
How soon are you taking that welding class?

my $0.02 Talk to your instructor on what welding machine will suit you needs and budget.
Buy it and have your instructor teach you with your machine.

Now your familiar and have the machine to work with.

Give a person a fish they eat for a meal. Teach a person to fish they eat for life...

You go Girl!!!
Brice

happycamperbrat · March 16, 2011, 08:31:54 AM

Brian thank you for the education! I was searching online last night for SAE 950a for sale and could not find it. Maybe for some reason it is out of production or only for the big producers like GM?

garhawk that is very assuring, especially coming from you because I know what all you did to your own RTS. I havent got the rear end ripped apart yet so I cant speak to that yet..... after finding this Im not sure what I will find when I get back there! I do have this same kind of rust, spread out over the same aprox amount of space and in the same place on both the driver's side and passenger side of the coach on that bulkhead.

I have about a dozen bolts still standing between me and being able to get to the enitre front bulkhead from the rear facing side. After I get those other bolts taken care of today or tomorrow then I was thinking about scrubbing that entire bulkhead and wire brushing it all to see if there is anymore in that bulkhead. Afterwards I was going to paint a rust preventive on it. The other bulkheads are looking good so far.

Brice, I would be taking the class next fall.... the problem is that I am going to miss my Little GTO this summer. The front tires are being pulled during Easter Vacation until I can fix this. But I have a lot of other work to do on it to get it ready for the conversion. Im thinking I should read up on the manual about long term storage for the engine and get it ready to not drive for awhile.....

bevans6 · March 16, 2011, 08:47:44 AM

950 is the old designation according to SAE J1392. The new designation is 340 according to SAE J2340. It's basically car and truck steel, of an older specification, superseded.

Brian

rampeyboy · March 16, 2011, 10:22:47 AM

I would encourage you to get a welder as well. I bought one (MIG) and have had no formal welding classes. I am self taught in this regard. I have some vision issues so welding has been a challenge for me as I cannot see what I'm doing with the helmet on. But, even at that, in my many projects I have found many times the welder to be a handy tool. I do not weld anything I consider safety related/structural, but if I need a tool cart, or making patch panels for my Corvan, or my mower needs a little welding done...anyway, they are really really nice to have. I use it 5 or 6 times a year on average...and welding is FUN! Get a grinder too, it will be helpful when preparing metal for welding..

Boyce

ps I believe galvanized metal I think will release poisonous gas when heated/welded/cut etc. so be careful..oh yeah and metal is really hot after welding! duh huh

bevans6 · March 16, 2011, 10:35:08 AM

Boyce, without knowing what your vision issues are I will say that I had to buy a pair of drugstore reading glasses to weld with, my regular glasses were no good at all. I also highly recommend an auto-darkening helmet. And you are dead right on the galvanized metal, and it's hard to grind off all the galvanizing before welding. Also spray degreasers can release a gas that can kill you right away, there and then.

Mig is known as the easiest way to start to weld, but also the easiest way to make good looking but absolutely lousy welds! Typically there is a bad ground to one side of the weldment, or the inexperienced weldor is pushing the bead too fast or is using too little current. But once you get going, it's like a hot glue gun for metal!

Brian

rampeyboy · March 16, 2011, 12:52:35 PM

My night vision in particular is bad. I could almost weld without any lens other than safety glasses! J/K, wouldn't even try it. I do have an auto darkening helmet, and an old type helmet. I can't see anything but a bright light when I weld. I typically see the puddle a little bit if I weld in the dark. In daylight, forget it! I thought about trying the gas welding type goggles to see if that works better for me...

Boyce

rv_safetyman · March 16, 2011, 01:07:22 PM

Well, Brian beat me to my normal statement. MIG welding can be dangerous in the hands of an untrained person on structural parts.

As Brian said, it is very easy to make good looking welds that have no penetration.

I wish that welding schools would teach gas welding first, so folks would get the feeling for proper puddle structure.

It looks like the area is not a structural area but thatneeds to be confirmed by an RTS person. If that is the case, then this would be a place to practice.

Now, let's talk about welders. MIG is fine. But this is not the place to cut corners. First of all, I can not say it strongly enough, you need a gas capable welder. Some folks can do marginally OK with flux wire, but I really think you need to use a shield gas process. Next, spend the money to buy a name brand welder. Many off shore units just plain suck.

Given your situation, you will probably end up with a 110V unit. That will work on thicknesses up the 1/8 (will probably be rated higher, but that is multiple pass). I would hope that you could find your way clear to a 220V unit.

If you want to get started before the class begins, buy a bunch of scrap sheet metal and do a bunch of practicing on a machine that you can find access to (friend?). Hopefully that person will be a good welder who can help you learn. My thought is that it might be good to get some practice before you take the class. You won't do enough welding to form bad habits

Lastly, it has been touched on, but both MIG and TIG welding are critical of surface preparation. Any oil will be converted to carbon inclusions and that really hurts the weld.

OK, enough of now.

As was said, go for it girl!!!!

Jim

rv_safetyman · March 16, 2011, 01:13:58 PM

Boyce, good auto-darkening helmets will have an adjustment for amount of darkening. If yours does, play with it.

As an option, find a cheap old style helmet (garage sale?) and go to a welding supply store and buy several different shades and try them to see if that makes a difference.

Many helmets are set for arc welding and you can get by with a lesser shade with MIG and TIG.

For normal welding (arc and to a degree, MIG) I can get by without correction. However, with TIG, I have to wear cheaters since it tend to be closer to the welding process.

Jim

Don Fairchild · March 16, 2011, 02:17:18 PM

Teresa,

If you would call B&B surplus here in Bako they can help with metal, then when you come over come see me and we can go to one of the fab place's around me and have them bend the flange on it for you. We can put it in the drill press and drill the holes. After that if you would like I can let you use my miller MiG welder and autodarkening helmet and some scrap to practice with, so you can see what they are like. No charge. LOL

Hope that helps

Don

TedsBUSted · March 16, 2011, 06:12:46 PM

Hang on, let me get my Busconversion crash helmet on.

Even though I have a full arsenal of conventional metal working tools and skills, if this were my situation I would seriously consider the alternative repair method of panel-bonding. What that would entail basically is to remove the rust-out and to clean a large area to bare metal. Then about a 10 gauge patch panel could be fabricated for a good fit, complete with a return flange and any necessary bolt holes. The patch panel could then be bonded over the rusted out panel.

Sounds crazy huh? Believe it or not, a bonded repair would be far stronger than a welded panel and any loads would be distributed evenly over the entire patched area, rather than concentrated at weld seams. Meanwhile, if welded, the panel's "field" areas would remain as two separate pieces.

As far as strength goes, I'm sure that in a destructive test the bonded panel "sandwich" would be so strong that the base metal would rip away before the bond separated. Whereas with the same destructive test to a welded panel, I'm sure that the panel would probably separate in the field area and then tear away at the concentrated weld seams or spots.

I realize that at first thought panel bonding may seem like a flimsy makeshift repair, but until you've seen its strength demonstrated, it's hard to believe. And after all, bonding is now the preferred method for many OE panels. I think it would be the fastest easiest way to a permanent repair that would get Happycamper passed this setback and on to more pressing conversion work.

Ted

Melbo · March 16, 2011, 06:24:41 PM

I was waiting for someone to make ted's suggestion

Besides bonding would rivets be out of line -- with the holes filled of course to keep moisture out

Now you have the repair and no major learning curve or overt expense

Melbo

eddiepotts · March 16, 2011, 07:02:35 PM

I am with Ted. First is DON"T remove those wheels. You have found a small problem but you have far more you can do on your bus and still use it. Those are small issues. This is not something that is going to fall apart anytime soon. I would check with your comunity collage and see if they have an auto body class. You will find they teach you welding sheet metal working and paint. The big plus is They provide all the tools.They have welders, plasma cutters,sheet metal breaks, stretchers, shrinkers, air tools and what nots. The best part is they have power for it all. When I was taking the class i would leave my car there the whole time I was in it. There were guys in the class for years. They just used it as a shop to work out of. The talent was amazing. So if you have allot of repairs, do all of them while the wheels are on it. Remove them last after you have an idea of what you are doing. You don't want the rest of the bus rusting away while your sitting over the dirt and it on blocks until next year. You will learn how to make custom doors and any thing else custom from sheet metal. It will make you a well rounded fabricator. Anyway back to your rust that looks to be shield panels not structural. cut out the rust and make a big patch and weld it over. after some flat black paint you will never notice it behind the wheel or behind carpet in the cargo bays. Your not repairing the body of a Shelby cobra. I spent 4 weeks once restoring a door on my mustang to find out 6 months later they finally started selling the full door shell. In other words don't waist time where it is not needed. Just think after your in the class awhile you will be able to remove windows and have it all ready to paint. I just don't want you to get overwhelmed with it dead in the water for a long period. It becomes committed to doing all repairs where it sits. At least now you can drive it to have it fixed if needed or get it out of the mud.