Headlight assemblies alum or pot metal?

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bahamasair

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May 11, 2008
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Are the headlight assemblies made of aluminum or pot metal? One of the frames on mine are broken and I want to know if it can be welded.
Thanks
 
The entire castings on my '72 were aluminum.....a buddy welded up some stuff on them for me....

he can tell in a instant with his TIG....
 
It's aluminum but it's pretty dirty, there are contaminants in the casting for sure, becomes evident when welding them. I TIG welded some not too long ago.
 
Twin_Turbo said:
It's aluminum but it's pretty dirty, there are contaminants in the casting for sure, becomes evident when welding them. I TIG welded some not too long ago.
Click to expand...

Yeh, it was 'blowing out' on him too, probably early recycled aluminum they didn't boil the shit out of.???.....he get all pissed off when that happens goes into 'jobsite humor'.....

:clobbered:;)
 
Thanks for the replies guys. I only have a mig but will try weld on them and see what happens. I just made the lower part of my rad support to replace all the rot and had to use my old AC buzz box. That was fun to weld without blowing holes in everything.
 
You'll ruin them. To weld aluminium you need either gas or a TIG setup. If you could somwhow clean off the oxides you could use DC put with the oxides (they melt at a much higher temp than alu itself) you need reverse polarity (the rev. polarity part of AC) to blow them off. Your mig machine will blow out the casting. Also, MIG 7 alu wire don't go well, you'll need a teflon linered hose/gun, preferably short and a 2 wheel drive assembly set pretty loose so the wire doesn't nest...in other words, don't attempt it.
 
My mig has a seperate spool gun for alu but I hear you on the oxide problem. There is no one here that is capable of welding them anyway so 'll have to dump them and get new ones. Ill try it with the mig just out of curiosity and post some pics of the damage for your entertainment :) . If I had the $$ spare Id invest in a TIG but that wont be happening for a while. Im guessing Ill have to start looking for a set of used frames.
Thanks for the replies guys
 
Oh neat, what is it? a cobramatic? wanna sell? LOL i've been looking for a spool gun for some time.
 
No the setup I have is the Millermatic 252 MIG Welder with Spoolmatic 30A Spoolgun. Its nothing fancy but has worked ok the couple of times Ive used it on aluminum. Im out of gas now and waiting to get it filled so as soon as I do Ill post what it does to the frames. :)
 
A spool gun with 100% argon should do it. I just used my spool gun my Miller DVI to mig weld .040 aluminum (waaay under the min thickness for a spool gun).
 
I only use 100% argon but am waiting for my tank to be filled. They told me on Friday it might be 3-4 damn weeks. I don't have much experience welding alum (or anything else for that matter) using a mig so it should be interesting :)
 
my repair was not very fancy but after surveying the crappy material i went for plan B and made a new bracket to hold the broken pieces and welded that to the frame that was several years ago...and its still working

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