Questions about shaving

Not to thread jack here but i was gonna start a new thread asking about filler panels/patch but i decided this would be more convenient and on the same subject just different questions. Anyway I was just about to start shaving my doors and what not and this being my first time I would like to gain some knowledge before taking a run at it.

First Question: Is there any tips or tricks to shaving?
Second Question: I have a wire feed welder and I was wondering if this would work without warping?

I think that is all, thanks to anyone who helps.

are you running a gas wire feed?
you can do it without gas just use low heat and and tack then move to the opposite side tack keep moving around so you dont get to much heat in one area thats what causes warping move around alot

Thats what i was thinking but I just wanted to make sure. I have a little hobart wire feed. I took welding in high school but im far from a prof.. But anyway your basically saying make a piss load of tacks?

Ya. At school they tought us 2 tack welds in opposite sides of the panel at a time. Wate for the panel to reach normal (starting) temp, then give it another 2 tacks. I did it this way on my driver door and it went great. When I went to the passenger side to shave it, it was getting late and I was working outside with poor light so I tried rushing it. Warped the damn panel and resulted in unnecessary slap shrinking and metal work, so I didnt have to use a lot of mud.

Filler plate wise. I used a piece of paper and pencil. Did a rubbing with the 2 to get a pattern on paper, and cut that out. Transfer it to your sheetmetal you are going to make the filler plate out of and cut it out. Remember to cut large, you can always remove material, its trickier to add. And cut the patch panel a little smaller by a 16th of an inch or so. This allows your weld to go inbetween the two metals and get a better "weld bite" throughout. If you weld on a patch panel that is too large it will stand above the surface level, giving you a headach. You will have to grind it down till your patch panel is paper thin and weak or you will have diffaculties doing your mud work and blending it out to make it look "ok".

Hope this helps

Alright so to recap your saying do two tacks at a time, but in opposition of eachother. So say you do one on the left then you do the second on the right and then you wait until it cools to do two more? Im just making sure, you can never have enough knowledge. Other then that I think im ready to start this project.

I\'d like to add to what\'s been said.

If you\'re cutting the hole, make the corners round. This will help prevent burn through. Square corners are prone to blow outs, especially on the thin steel foreign cars have.

Like stated, make the filler panel about 1/16th smaller than the hole. You can use a welders magnet to hold the filler in place, or even better in my opinion, welders butt clamps. You can pick these up from Harbor Freight for a couple bucks for a package of them. The best deal Harbor Freight has on anything. They allow the panel to be even all the way around and you end up with no magnetic interference on your welder.

For the tacks, you place your first one, then you find the farthest point away and place your next one.

My personal rule is that I wait 30 minutes after each second tack. I\'ve had the best results this way.

To start off for a door handle filler I would place the first tack on the far left side in the center. Then move to the far right side center and place a second tack. I\'d then let it sit for 30 minutes. My next tack would be in the bottom center since this is the farthest point from both prior tacks. Next I would move to the top, but rather than place the tack in the center I would go over to the left and place the tack in 1/4 away from the edge. I do this because handle fillers are thin in height and a second tack directly across from the lower one could cause excess heat build up resulting in warpage. My next tack would be the bottom right 1/4 from the edge, followed by a tack in the top center.

This is just how I do it. I prefer to be overly cautious to avoid the headache of excess body work. It\'s up to you how you wish to do it.

alright thanks man that sounds pretty easy thanks for the quick responses and extremely helpful guideline once i get it done i will post it up

here's some pics of when i did mine.

DO NOT cut out whats there of the handle like i did, warped the shit out of the skin, lots o body work after




here's what you need to do with tacks, but, fill in all the voids or it will crack later



before long, its all gone

thanks that helps out a lot. Is it easier or better if you tack on the other side? or can you even do that