DIY car underbody repair

The underbody of a car is more susceptible to aggressive environmental influences and mechanical damage more than other parts of it. If the bottom can be protected from corrosion, then this is unlikely to work from various kinds of damage. The reason for this is often the poor condition of the road surface. In general, sooner or later the car owner will have to face the need to repair the bottom of his iron horse, especially if he has been serving his owner with faith and truth for many years.

Overcooking of the bottom - this diagnosis is often made to car owners at a service station. It sounds very serious and from these words smells of a hopeless situation and the high cost of resolving it. Is it really? Situations are different, but often things are not as deplorable as the specialists of car services imagine them. If you wish, you can do everything yourself.

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Masters at car services most often thicken the paint and tell the owner of the car that a rotten bottom requires long painstaking work, the cost of many materials. It is from this that such a high price is formed. At the same time, they try to prevent the owner from being examined or show problem areas in low light. In this case, ordinary dirt can be mistaken for an oxidized rotten metal, which you just touch and it will crumble. With the help of such little tricks, the colors are thickened, which allows to inflate the price.

If the car owner wants to save money, he needs to do a preliminary inspection of the bottom on his own. For this you will need:

• Lift, observation pit, overpass.
• Good lighting: a torch or a carrier with a powerful lamp.
• Hammer.

With the help of a hammer, it is necessary to tap all suspicious areas of the bottom and determine the degree of their damage, in order to approximately know the amount of required materials.

If all of the above is not at hand or there is simply not enough time for a thorough inspection, then a special mirror will come to the rescue for inspecting the underside of the car. It will allow you to assess in general terms the condition of the metal and get an approximate idea of ​​the scope of work. But the situation will become fully clear only after a thorough examination.

The welding process itself is simple, everyone can master it in the shortest possible time. Sometimes it takes longer to connect and set up equipment. The easiest way to over-weld the underside of a car is with a semi-automatic welding machine. But often such repairs are simply impossible without the involvement of gas welding. Best of all, when these two units are used, they complement each other and enhance the quality of underbody repairs.

As the saying goes: "If you want to do something well, do it yourself." Car underbody repair is no exception. To implement it, you will need the following equipment:

• Semi-automatic welding machine.
• Gas welding.
• Conventional metal or electric scissors.
• Bulgarian (angle grinder).
• Hammers of various sizes and configurations.
• Good lighting.

You also need to stock up on the following materials:

• Oxygen and calcium carbide (for gas welding).
• Carbon dioxide and copper wire (for semi-automatic welding machine).
• Grinding and cutting wheels for metal grinders.
• Metal for patches.

To repair the underside of a car with your own hands went without problems, you need to choose the metal of the optimal thickness. Its recommended thickness varies from 1 to 2 mm. But here the qualifications of the one who will carry out the welding work should be taken into account. When working with thinner metal, it is necessary to strictly observe the temperature requirements during welding. Which, in turn, depends on the debugging of the equipment and the quality of consumables.

Thicker metal is more difficult to process, but at the same time it is more difficult to damage and spoil it. Therefore, before purchasing consumables, you need to really assess your qualifications as a welder.

Now you can start preparatory work. There is nothing difficult in this, and it will not be difficult to do them with your own hands. You just need to clean all problem areas of the bottom from rust. This can be done in two ways.

With the help of a grinder. In this case, it is necessary to use both cutting and grinding wheels. During work, be sure to follow all safety rules. It is better to clean hard-to-reach places from rust by gas welding.

After hitting rusty metal and corrosion, the edges of the surface to which the patches will be attached must be well cleaned. It is advisable to do this work with a grinder. Now you can cut out patches from metal and start welding. Cutting metal is best done with hand or electric metal shears. This will allow you to make your workpieces to the exact size and keep the edges straight. Cutting metal, especially thin metal, by welding requires high qualifications.

It is advisable to weld the bottom together. It will be difficult for one person to simultaneously fix the patch and scald it. If the metal is applied to a flat surface, then fix it faster with a semi-automatic welding machine.

If it is necessary to make a bend, you should resort to gas welding. When heated, the metal becomes soft and it can be bent and shaped with a hammer. At the same time, do not forget that high temperatures reduce the properties of the metal. Another option in this case can be a special device designed to create bends on metal workpieces.

After completing the welding work, all seams must be cleaned with a grinder and covered with anti-corrosion compounds.