I was unloading the 67' off the trailer and the hitch came off and made a nice little hole in the tailgait of the 2003 Suburban and this body metal won't weld.

I am using gas and .023 wire all the things that make perfect welds on the Chevelle sheet metal but this stuff is not penatrating.

I finally stuck a magnet on the sheet metal and it is not even magnetic!

What do you body shop guys do with this modern weird non- magnetic stuff???

Should I just Everglass both sides and call it good?

TIA, Zach

That tailgate is aluminum thats the reason why you cant weld it. You need to need use welding equipment meant for welding aluminum...Eric

That tailgate is aluminum thats the reason why you cant weld it. You need to need use welding equipment meant for welding aluminum...Eric

:yes: yep, that's special non-magnetic sheetmetal to not interfere with the '03 flux capacitor... J/K :D

You have 3 choices for that " modern, weird , non-magnetic stuff"

Aluminum: Al - Period 3, Group 13 on the periodic table.

Buy a spool of wire and gas for aluminum, pay someone to weld it, or butter it up and end it.

Or get a boneyard replacement of the same color.

Or number 4, take the inside panel off, rough up about 2 inches all around the hole, get some 3M 8115 Metal Bonding adhesive, and glue a sheet metal patch on the back side.

If you cover the entire metal patch and the gate, the two metals won't contact each other so there's no galvanic action going on. After the glue cures, rough up the outside and mud it up.

Dave, why not just use an aluminum patch? Aren't beer cans aluminum? Another reason to drink.... probably take 10 or 12 to cover that hole........

Dave, why not just use an aluminum patch? Aren't beer cans aluminum? Another reason to drink.... probably take 10 or 12 to cover that hole........

Sure, beer cans are like what, 32 gauge??? :D

If you could get one to lay flat enough to glue, I suppose you could, just be careful roughing it up you don't sand through it..... :yes:

Thanks Eric,

You saved me from pulling my hair out again. Aluminum on a 7000 LB Burb ? Who would have guessed.

I bought some wire and a plastic wip liner for my Lincoln SP135 and it turned or good enough. I had been looking for a excuse to buy the ALM set up for the old MIG

Now back to the Chevelle, enough time spent on the tow rig!

Well, dont feel bad I discovered those were aluminum when the stud gun wouldnt weld to it.

How bad is the dent and do you have backside access?
If the dent is bad enough were you need to work it with a hammer and dolly, I assume it is since you poked a hole through it. Since aluminum really likes to work harden and farther working with a hardened piece of aluminum runs a high risk of stress cracks, you need to soften or anneal that aluminum first.

Sounds scary but its easy to do and will make removing that dent much much easier. If you have a oxy/fuel torch, its a simple task. Turn the torch on to a pure acetylene flame, you WANT the carbon soot. Now over a clean and bare metal area surrounding the dent wave the flame over the area covering it with the soot.

Once covered now turn on the oxygen until you have a neutral flame and wave it over the soot until the soot burns off and disappears. Keep moving the torch and dont stay in one spot, keep the torch moving.

The carbon or soot will burn off at darn near the same temperature most automotive alloys reach the annealing temp.

Once the soot is burnt off, allow the metal to cool and now you can work that dent with ease and without fear of it cracking. Just remember as you work that dent with the hammer and dolly you will start to work harden the the metal again. Try to use the hammer OFF method as much as you can.

Aluminum is not that hard to work IF you know how to work it, and that is one of the tricks...Eric

Beer can patchwork? WOW! I had a 68 Camaro back in college that I patched the front corners with using beer cans and fiberglass. It actually worked pretty well, but I'm sure the galvanic action and the fact I didn't strip or roughen anything before glassing it didn't help matters any!

The car was a total wreck back in the early 80's and I'm sure it actually didn't last long enough to suffer any ills anyway...

Beer can patchwork? WOW!

Lol, this brings back memories. I used to do aircraft sheet metal fabrication and after a particularly long and challenging installation we decided to play a bit of a practical joke on the inspector. We took a Stroh's beer can and made a nice patch out of it, complete with fake rivet heads. Then we stuck it to the belly of the fuselage in an area that had received all new skin. When the inspector showed up for the final inspection we thought he was gonna have a cow. It looked so good he was certain we had used real rivets to attach it. There is a picture somewhere, I'll see if I can find it.

Tom