Hey all,

I will soon need to do some welding on my 68 coupe. I use it as a DD, so I can't have alot of downtime. My question is, when I need to weld my floorpans should I drop my gas tank or will it be safe to weld with it on the car? Will a small stick welder do the job or will i need to get a tig welder?

 

I used a mig welder and my gas tank was still in the car. As long as your not welding right around the gas tank you should be fine. I drained the tank before I welded tho. That was only because I had all the fuel lines off and everything else off.

 

Ummm... The tank needs to be full of liquid if there's any chance of sparks like that near it. An empty tank isn't empty, it's full of gas vapors which ignite waaaay quicker than liquid gasoline itself. (Thus what carburetors do with air and fuel for combustion.)

I used to know a guy whose friend nearly killed himself by using a grinder near an "empty" fuel tank that wasn't completely sealed. Bad day. Very bad day.

 

drain the gas and disconnect your battery u can get away with using a stick but it would be better to usea mig or tig depending on your welding skills

 

based on what toolwench said, this might be a good time to just replace the tank.

 

Hey,I'm in the middle of doing a sh@t load of welding on my 65 vert. If you can swing it,go for the MIG. You really don't need a huge $2000.00 one to get it done. good luck

 

I would take the tank out. It doen't take but a few minutes, then you won't have to worry about it going Kaboom.

 

cant your rent decent mig's from like taylor rental or something? i cant imagine trying to weld sheet steel with a stick (and i am a weldin fool - steel or aluminum - stick, mig or tig)

 

Kill 2 birds with one stone, remove the tank to drain/clean etc, and weld while it's out. If you don't know how to TIG weld, or you've never done it before, stay away from it, you'll just end up oxidizing your welds and burning holes in stuff. TIG is freaking DIFFICULT to do properly if you're not skilled at it, and totally unnecessary for something like floorpans. If you can stick, that will work if you have the right rods and set the machine properly, MIG would prolly be easiest/cleanest, but again, set the machine right. If you have mad welding skills then use whatever you got available

 

My day job is flying air ambulence helicopters. Take the tank out and away from the welding. Two years ago, I flew a patient who thought taking the gas tank out was too much trouble. Trust me, you don't want sparks anywhere near gas fumes. The patient lived about two extremely painful weeks. Taking the tank out isn't nearly as inconvenient as a trip to your closest burn unit.