Unless you are planning to do more welding in the future, save your pennies, any welder that's worth buying is expensive, unless you can pick up a good used one. However, mig or wire feed welders are nice for sheet metal, they vary from $100 for a cheap junk wire feed one all they way up to how ever much you want to dish out. I use a lincoln 110 mig at home, (i forget the series off hand) but it's one of the "better" 110 units they offered. It's old, I got it for free, works fairly decent, but nothing like using an industrial welder. I would stay away from the cheap "harbor freight" type wire welders, I've used one, and yes they do work, but I wouldn't trust my life with one, lol. Your best bet might be to get the brackets positioned correctly, remove all paint where it needs to be welded, rivet or bolt them in place, then take it to any shop that welds. It should be far cheaper than buying a welder, helmet, wire, etc. (it should only take about 10 minutes to burn them in).
