MIG weld versus Arc weld on antique truck?

Just curious of you guys that do both types of welding what you think.

I have an antique truck that I am going to extend the frame on. The truck has the same heavy duty frame like a tri-axle truck or truck tractor.

I'm sure someone is curious, it's a 1968 n950 Ford truck with a 671 Detroit.

My MIG welder will weld up to 1/2 inch steel. I think most of the frames I've dealt with are 5/16 or 3/8.

My own personal feeling is that even though Mig can weld up to a half inch, I personally think that the arc weld just penetrates better and is better for very heavy things like truck frames.

With that being said, I'm not sure if the older frames were heat treated, and I will use A36 for the inner rail. The outer rail I have frame rails from another truck that was from the late seventies that will fit, but they need to be welded onto the existing outer rails where they are still good.

I've always intended on buying an arc welder, just haven't had a reason to actually buy one yet. It's always better to not spend more money, but it's very probable I will be doing more framework in the future.

I also will also be fabricating pintle hook plates, dump bed repair, probably making tailgates, floors Etc.

I think Mig is just incredibly useful and versatile, but like I said I think when you get into heavy metals the arc will penetrate better.

For you guys that have both and have used both, what do you think?

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I welded plenty of stuff over the years with my MIG welder.

I think the pintle hitch on my dump truck was close to half inch. Never ever ever in all those years did I ever have any problem whatsoever.

In fact the top was welded to the dump bed and I had to cut that off to get the bed off. So it was only held by three sides. Then I had to pull my trailer out and it was stuck.

The truck is basically a junk truck I'm going to pull the engine out of now, so I took a running start maybe six or seven times bang! And I mean that trailer was loaded heavy and I kept banging it until I pulled that son of a gun out. It was the only option I had at the time.

Zero problems with the weld.

I did have an old school guy tell me to run the torch over the area I'm going to weld. He said it doesn't have to be hot like you're trying to get the steel hot to cut it or anything like that, he said just run the torch over it just a little bit so there's a little bit of heat and the steel is not just cold. He said that would give you better penetration.

True or not that's what he told me. That guy had been at it for many many decades.

Hey that's great if I don't have to buy a stick welder, but you guys really don't think that the stick penetrates deeper than Mig if you put them side by side?