How To Simulate Resistance Spot Welds

Welding takes lots of time and patience to be good at. But once you get the hang of it you can do a lot of work in your own shop rather than taking parts elsewhere. In Detroit Muscle, the guys often have a lot of sheet metal work to do on the older cars, like Project Street Regal. A lot of times when they were built, the automakers used a process called resistance spot welding. It’s where two electrodes clamp the panel and current is applied, fusing them together. However, buying a machine to do just that job can get pricey. So here is a way you can simulate that using a MIG welder.

For this example, Tommy will be using some simple 18 gauge. Be sure to clean whatever you’re working with off before you get started. Next, put some holes in your piece so it can be welded using either a punch or drill. The size of the hole depends on the material you have.

Then with a few clamps, you can hold everything together with no gaps. To get started with the welding, you want to start a puddle in the middle of a hole and circle around, filling up the void. Repeat on each hole and you are good to go!