Eastwood Stitch Welder

I will soon be undertaking my first major auto body repair. The driver's side cab corner of my '98 Silverado extended cab has rusted through and I will be cutting it out and replacing it. I already have the new cab corner and will be starting soon.
I know there are different methods of attaching the new panel (wire feed, epoxy, spot weld etc.) and I'm wondering if buying a stitch welder to attach to my (newly acquired) arc welder would be a good idea. My plan later on is to go through my wife's truck (after I've practiced on mine) and repair/replace some of the rusty spots on it. So I would definitely use it for other purposes. I'm wondering if this would be a good way for me to go.
Any suggestions?

Back in the early 90s , my son in law wanted to do a total rebuild of his 77 F150 . So I ordered all new panels as needed . Next was a decision like yours . So I went to the local airgas distributor & talked with the manager . My son in law offered to help buy a Miller Cricket 110 mig welder in exchange for me doing the job for him . That mig has been a great investment . It will even weld aluminum . So I would recommend you get yourself a Miller mig with the gas . HTH ! God bless

My prior Century Mig had a stitch mode, but I never used it. I do believe the stitch proceedure works when one panel is overlapping the other. This gives an easy to work job, but has the disadvantage of being a site for quick corrosion where the overlap occurs. The real experts in panel repair will cut the main panel and the repair panel so that they are both at the same level, with a small gap, and no overlap. The MIG welding is then done kind of like stitching, but more controlled by activating the on-off trigger. You use little clamps to hold both the panels at the same level and make the stitches in random order between the clamps. Do not follow the cut line, as the heat distortion will make the other side of the repair panel not fit in place. Rather do a few stitches on one side and then a few on the other side, moving around until you have the patch fully anchored. Then with short beads, fill in between stitches, but move around and let both cool frequently. As a weld cools, it shrinks, causing the distortion. Also there is a special wire for this task, available at your welding shop, called "easy grind", or something similar. I think it comes in .023 diameter and allows the use of very low welding current to minimize heat distortion.

I should do the same to my E350 Ford Van, and I already have the panels.

Good Luck

Paul in MN

I have read the instruction manual online for the one Eastwood offers and they claim you can do overlapping or butt welds with it using a procedure similar to what you describe.
I am friends with a local body shop owner who said he would epoxy the panel on for me if I prep it but I'm the kind of guy who likes to do things myself. And for this being my first job of this type, I want to make sure I do a really good job so as to learn the proper way to do it, not just the easiest or quickest way.
Corrosion shouldn't be too much of an issue for this particular spot because I can access the back side of it and coat it well after the patch is in place and it will be well above where the original rot was. The cab corners in these trucks rust from the inside out. Knowing that I plan to do everything in my power to slow it down as much as possible from the inside.

I used the Eastwood stitch welder when I restored a 57 Chevy. I welded all the body panels in with it. It does work. The only trick was that the joints had to be tite. It is real difficult to do any filling with it. If the joints arent close the welder will blow away the metal and make holes.

You'd want the joints to be as tight as possible anyway. So have you used other methods Twin Creek?

The only other method I have used is brazing with ox/acet.

Forget the Eastwood stitch welder, it"ll be an excercise in frustration. Get a proper mig with gas and you"ll never look back. Been there ...done that. Mine is a Miller 135.



If you want to see some fantastic patch work, check this out..

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=53534&highlight=patch+work

Try this. ( Cannot get my image to show. )
Patch Welding

Wow, that is some fabulous work!! That is what I'm talking about, learning to do things the right way even though my truck will never be a show truck. Someday I would like to rebuild an old vehicle or two and what bugs me most is when people do a half a$$ job whether it's to save money, time or simply because they do not know. There is a LOT of bad information out there. That website seems to have a lot of good information.
Thanks for all the replies guys, I won't waste my money on a stitch welder.