Welding Aluminium

Information 

Make the sheetmetal insert with a width of about > Width 60 mm  from the old or spare part.

Information 

When joining spare parts, welding is always the last step.

• Metal inert gas [MIG] welding is used for welding thin aluminium panels.
• Argon is used as the inert gas.
• The welder used is the > VAS 821 003 - Welding and brazing system. aluminium/steel/MIG/MAG  .
• The welding wire used is > VAS 2001/1 - Aluminium welding wire. 7 kg  or > VAS 2QQ1/2  - Aluminium welding wire. 2 kg  .

1. Apply test welds to practice panels to make sure you are using the correct welder settings.
2. Adapt sheetmetal insert for welding backing strip to the contour of the repair area.

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   Adapting sheetmetal insert

3. Secure sheetmetal insert to the body with tack-welds.

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   Tack-welding sheetmetal insert

4. Grind off tack-welds on sheetmetal insert. 

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   Grinding off tack-welds

5. Always leave a gap -X- of > Width 1 mm  when fitting in the spare part.
   Fig 1: Checking Spare Part Gap Dimension

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   Fitting in spare part

6. Grind the welding area down to bare metal.

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   Cleaning welding area

7. Weld spare part.

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   Welding spare part

8. Grind down welded seam.

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   Grinding down welded seam

9. After painting the repair area, apply cavity preservation an the entire area.