Any experience welding floor panels with flux core wire?

[tomstin]

I/m trying to breath some life into an 85 325E and I have a few spots on the floor that have rusted through. I cut out the rusted areas and started looking at 110v welders and was planning on using flux core wire to avoid having to deal with shielding gas.

It appears the floor pans are 22 or 24 gauge which from the charts I looked at is not recommended for flux core wire.

Its been years since I picked up a welder. But I thought I could handle this project, now I'm not so sure.

Any experience out there?

[AndrewBird]

You can weld with flux core wire, but because it is heavier gauge wire, you are more likely to burn through. The welds will also be a lot dirtier and have more slag on them.

I'd spend the extra amount and get a decent MIG. Lincoln, Hobart or Miller. I've got a Lincoln 140C and love it. Picked it up for $600 + a bottle.

Don't even bother with the Harbor Freight/ auto parts store welders. They are worthless. Had my old welder die mid project and bought one of the cheapies to finish up. Could barely lay a bead on sheet metal and was just terrible.

[DRTSRFR]

For me, it actually worked quite well.
I used a simple Lincoln flux core welder with minimal adjustments.

The trick is to tack it randomly to reduce warpage. Low heat and quick tacks will do the trick.

This is the floorboard of a Cherokee. I used a piece of an e30 body panel for material for the patch.

I actually let my son, who has very minimal experience do the work as a learning experience, and he did quite well...