Any way to weld pot metat to steel?

[Jake]

Working on a project and I need to weld a pot metal fender extension to steel. If not any kind of weld is there any way to bond that would last? TIA

[Phil V]

Pot metal is made up of zinc and lead so it will readily adhere to steel with solder/body lead.

[Mokicruz]

hey Phil I've tried to experiment with few pieces of pot metal but melting point was so close to the adhesion point I never got the hang of it. I tined the sheet metal first from then on everything ran amok. I always got it to hot. How well would headlight frames by Pontiac stay attached to a fender?

[MARTINSR]

The ONLY way to attach pot metal h/l rings to your fenders would be with a structual adhesive. Now, I have never tried to lead them on, that makes sense that it would work. I am just saying that with the learning curve, you may just melt a few h/l rings into a puddle learning. I talked with a few of the adhesive companies on this subject and they all said it would work fine. Now, one thing to consider is that the pot metal corrodes pretty fast. So grind it clean, and the metal and bond it right NOW.

If you are not familiar with the structual adhesives used in the autobody collision repair industry today, they are "not your fathers glue". This stuff is used for doing everthing to gluing roof skins on to splicing frame rails!

The only real thing to watch out for is most are not designed to accept polyester fillers on them. So if you use it you will end up with a ring of adhesive at the h/l bezel to fender point. You will need to grind it out a little, epoxy prime, THEN fill it with a polyester body filler so smooth it all out.

There is a possibilty of a "ghost line" when the different materials expand and contract at different rates in the sun. But depending on the color of the car, and if you have a nice wide area of plastic filler to cover the seam good you shouldn't see much of it if any at all.

That is where you are "tossing the dice". To REALLY do it right, make headlamp rings or buy another kind of ring that is stamped steel and then weld it in. But to put the pot metal ones on come hell or high water, the adhesive is the ONLY way to do it.

Brian

[Jake]

I found this stuff on the web. I will give it a try and see what happens.

[Mokicruz]

MARTINSR

Thanks I haven't used structural adhesive and a ghost line will be better than mismatched or gaped a fit. I'll give it a shot.

[Jake]

I forgot the link in the last post. This stuff claims it can be plated afterwords. I plan on trying it.
http://www.muggyweld.com/index2.html

[jnocker]

I'm repairing my '67 Coog's grills (pot metal and chromed potmetal) and the solder works. You MUST use the flux, as it is a telltale for heating temperature. I only had one oops, where I melted a little of the potmetal (later filled it back in). As far as attaching potmetal to steel, I don't see why it should not work. Tin the steel, then solder the potmetal.