Fabricator Recommendations San Diego/SoCal

Looking for recommendations in SoCal, more specifically San Diego, for fabricators to re-weld the mounting points on my Pelfreybilt Aluminum front bumper. The welds to begin with were a POS, but recently I was in an accident which has increased the crack length.

I've heard through the grapevine Aluminum gets weaker when it gets re-done (sorry no idea the terminology here). Is this true and true enough to not want to do?

 

I don't actually. I know @Shmellmopwho just dusted off his spool gun.

@Speed Freek might be closer but I don't know if he does aluminum.

 

@YumaTRD

 

aluminum is difficult to work with. TIG welding would be the way to go. Past my skill set.

 

My dad boat had an aluminum boat with a leak. A aluminum boat maker recommended to slap another aluminium plate on top to stop the leak. I don't know if this comment will help out LOL.

edit: if you torch the aluminum it makes the alloy in the metal weaker.

 

this. I wouldn’t weld it with a spool gun. You also may want to preheat the part a little so it doesn’t form any cracks during the cool down

 

Thanks for the ref. Yes I have a 350amp TIG machine so aluminum is not a problem.
I would not recommend spool gun welding this as its more of a spray arc process. Much better to just use a large Tungsten, pre-heat and get a good 2 or 3 pass weld in it after beveling out the crack to create a pocket for the material.

 

I had some welding done years ago. It’s going to be expensive, because there aren’t a lot of people set up to tig weld. I just found some random guy in the yellow pages (yes, it was that long ago lol)

 

I also wouldn’t let just any yahoo weld it either. Personally if it was me I would remove it and take it to a high end welding shop. I see guys all the time that are mediocre mig welders thinking because they have a tig welder glueing some aluminum together won’t be any issue. Aluminum welds will be far more likely to crack over time than steel. It’s also not that hard to melt aluminum rod on top of the base metal and make it look decent without getting any real penetration.

just for refernce I don’t do a ton of aluminum welding on my side work but I do weld 3/4” thick aluminum plates at work that are used as high voltage conductors in the bulk power grid.

 

Thats why I drill a hole at start/end of the crack and bevel out the material that is cracked, pre-heat and do multiple pass over it. I do quite a bit of TIG aluminum. But as you said if you dont kill the crack it will always start again and get worse every time.

 

Could you possibly weld on some sliders for me? Im in West Covina, i can head out to you