palerider

I've got a lot rust repair and full restoration to do on my 66 vert. Need to replace cowl (upper lower, sides), parts of the firewall, floors, rockers, torque boxes, inner wheel, and patch some quarters. Since the only time I really have to work on it is occassional weekeends, I'm always looking for way to speed up process (plus new tools are kind of fun).

I was thinking about buying a plasma cutter http://www.longevity-inc.com/product...-Pilot-Arc.php

Price is not bad and it has a 5 year warranty.

Is anyone using a plamsa cutter or would it be over kill and should I stick with cut off wheels and reciprocating saws.

thanks

Coupe

Im in the same boat. I think if I were doing outer skins right away I would get one, but the floors are a bit more forgiving on cuts due to the seam sealer etc..

Looking at the work you have listed I think I would get one. Check craigs list, some shops are closing up.

5'Oclocksomewhere

Let me start by saying I have a Miller Plasma cutter and I use it very, very rarely. Plasma cutters are nice when you have good metal to ground to. If you are dealing with quite a bit of rust, they can be a bit more difficult. I often find that a cutting wheel will cut what I need and leave a cleaner cut than the plasma cutter.

Having said that, when I need the plasma cutter, it's pretty darn nice. I would not tell anyone to buy any tool for that amount of money that isn't produced by a company with a solid reputation.

jcoby

I have a very nice plasma that I absolutely love. I've used it on several parts of the mustang but it's not really as useful as you'd probably think. Mine will cut through bondo, rust and undercoating as long as I get a good arc in the beginning.

It's great for large cuts like floor pans and quarters. The real downside to it is that it cuts a bit too easy so you end up spending a lot of time making guides or jigs to keep from making really crooked cuts. There is also a bit of slag on the back side of the cut that needs to be ground off.

The nice thing is that it's really hard to get too much heat into sheet metal.

jgemperline

Can you use a plasma cutter on spot welds? If it can make clean fast work on removing your cowl vent top lots of spot welds, it would start to pay off quickly. Has anyone done this?

LynnBob Mustang

Just in my experience in cutting out rust is I wish I had my own cutting torch at the minimum. I have had my buddy from work bring his over at least 5 times so far helping me cut out stuff because I can't get the cut off wheels, jig saws, saw szall's, etc.. in the places I needed to cut out. A cutting torch would have made cutting out my floor pans much easier.


He cut the slices in my fire wall sides for the torque boxes, cut out a 4" spot in he fire wall, cut out two 1 1/2" spots in the inside wheel wells on both sides, cut my passenger rear spring off. All of these areas I tried using my grinder with the cut off wheel, air cut off wheel, saw szall, jig saw and I couldn't get the position or room needed to do these cuts.

I would at least get a cutting torch.
Lynn

JMD

All good comments here.

The plas will get in a lot of areas where it is hard to get into with a cutting wheel or a sawsall.

I have one of these little jobs, it works well to 1/4", and is made by the Victor company. So far so good. http://cgi.ebay.com/THERMAL-DYNAMICS...item53de37a3c6

A plas will save you some time the question is whether it will save you $600+ worth of time. For just one car, probably not, for more projects probably so.

I do use cutting wheels and band saws a lot, but the plasma cutter will save some time and make some hard stuff easy.

I would stick with a good name because a warranty ain't worth diddly if the company goes out, plus you will want a unit with easy to find (and afford) expendables. (Nozzles etc will wear out).

andrewmp6

I have a miller one and love it,It cuts fast and leaves a almost prefect cut.Use a straight edge if you want a straight cut,But like others have said its not a tool you will use daily but when you have a lot of metal to cut out its worth it.

groho

Recently replaced my front apron for the battery. The plasma is very nice to eliminate excess metal, reduce the work area to make it more managable. You still have to grind and clean up the metal. It reduced my worktime considerable. As for the replacement panel and fit, that's another topic to discuss....