Welder – Lincoln Weld-Pack 3200HD
If your going to restore a Mustang or any other car, I cant image being able to do all the work yourself without a welder. My Mustang had more rust than metal before I began restoring it. Most of the uni-body is spot welded together not bolted. If it’s not spot welded then it is braised together. My garage is not wired for 220v so I had to find a 110v welder. I added the Argon/CO2 tank that I purchased at a local farm supply store. It’s a 40 cu/foot tank. I wanted something small because I’m working out of a single car garage and space is limited. I’m seriously considering trading it in for something larger. So far over the course of rebuilding this car I’ve refilled the tank 3 times at about $30-35 per fill. 110v units are nice for sheet metal work and other light duty welding. I can weld up to 1/4 inch steel and it has settings low enough that I can weld sheet metal without blowing it full of holes. One more thing, get a cart for it. The welder is heavy and while mind came with some sort of ground level platform to roll it aroundit was basically worthless. A cart is big enough to hold the welder and its tank and is much easier to move around the garage.
Air Compressor – Craftsman 33 Gallon Tank
For most things a tank this size is fine. It’s not adequate for running sanders, die grinders, or cut-off wheels. It simply doesn’t refill the tank fast enough to keep up with the demand on the air pressure. A larger 2 stage unit is probably the best bet. Of course they cost much more and take up more space. One more thing to consider, the compressor and my electric 6″ grinder pulled more Amps than the breaker could handle. After both ran for a few minutes I’d trip the breaker. This problem was solved by moving the compressors outlet to a different breaker.
Air Tools
I use a large assortment of air tools but here are the ones I find most valuable. Don’t cheap out on these.
Buy a reliable name brand tool. Snap-on, Ingersoll Rand, etc… Trust me. These tools will be heavily used restoring a rust bucket like my car and a cheap tool will wear out or break often enough it will be cheaper to invest in quality upfront.
- Angle Die Grinder - Used to dress welds, remove paint and rust.
- Body Saw – The small blade let you get to areas you could not otherwise. Makes nice clean cuts.
- Cut-off Tool – Not good with small compressors. Good for cutting where a saw doesn’t have clearance for the blade or is too difficult to use like on small pieces.
- Nibbler – Cuts sheet metal fast but wastes material, also harder to follow a fine cut line but it doesn’t distort metal like shears do.
- Air hammer – Busting loose stubborn spot welds is its primary use in my garage. It’s also been a lifesaver on ball-joints and tie-rods.
Cordless Drill
I bought a 18v cordless Ryobi drill with Lithium batteries. It’s fallen off the roof of the car or other parts of the car so many times I cannot count. It’s a tough tool. I use wire wheels with it to remove paint and seam sealer. It is indispensable for drilling spot welds. The battery lasts a long time and with two of them I’m never with out a charged battery. I have a corded drill and a pneumatic drill but they don’t get used much.
4 Inch Grinder
When there is too much work to handle with the die grinder you have to upgrade to a bigger more powerful tool. I almost always need an extension cord with it but it make quick work dressing a large number of welds. I generally use it get rid of most of the metal I’m grinding and finish up with the die grinder. I use 60 and 80 grit flap sanding discs.
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