Is the rear hatch made of steel? nothing sticks to the metal. dent pulling studs wont stick I tried to mig weld them on that failed. any suggestions on how to work the metal.

I know that i;ve welded stuff to the rear hatch of a '82 wagon, so it was still steel then... as far as I know, all of them are. I just had a little 120vac wirefeed welder.

 

Did you try wirebrushing the paint off first? I often don't do that, but for better quality welds, it helps.

 

Z

I have an 86. My mig is a hobart. I did grind off paint, then used a metal prep cleaner. Nothing sticks.

Where do you have your ground? Gas or flux welder?

are you burning holes?cheers, brian

and never use brake kleener to clean anything....happy welding

Gas welder. Low heat, not blowing holes the wire just curls up. Grounded to the hatch, I took off some paint then cliped on the ground. The stud welder is an eastwood. I never use brake cleaner to prep.

Wow.... I have no idea. I've never seen that behavior, and I've welded, or tried to weld some really lousy stuff -- rusty metal with paint and grease and what not on it... stuff that was hard to even get a spark started, but once I got an arc, it generally burned through whatever was there and at least made a lousy temporary weld