Start of a Dart
After a ton of thinking, reading, asking questions, and so forth I finally tried something new - doing something. Yesterday I went after the patch piece in the tire well. I'd already cut out the bad part and roughed out the patch. I did the fine-tuning on the patch, doing the test-fit, grind, test-fit, grind, lather-rinse-repeat business about 50 times. Some other sheet metal on the trunk had to be "massaged" with a BFH but in the end it all went together.
The day before I'd helped a buddy whose welder I am borrowing work on a storage box for his work truck. For the first time ever, I got some nice welds, as in roll-of-dimes stuff. I about passed out. But pride goeth before a fall. Keep following along, dear readers.
A little good news, at least I got everything lined up well before starting.
Soon enough, trouble arrived. The first tack welds were rough, all sploppy and jagged. Oh Duh, mister genius, maybe you should turn the gas on before welding.
After puling the clamps I cut the bottom line for both the patch and the wall and started welding. It was rough to say the least. The spool of wire I have has a semi-loose pack, so sometimes it gets jammed and won't feed. Which means take the thing apart and feed good wire to the gun. Oh, and when feeding the new line I turned off the gas so I wasn't wasting it, but then forgot to turn it back on so more spattering, popping, and spitting for the tack welds. When I figured that part out now the new welds with the gas on aren't any better. Once again, we call on mister genius who reminds us wire welding without the gas on means slag, so once I cleaned all that crap off I got good enough welds to continue.
I also forgot that with welding like many other things in life, less is more. Like building up a 1/4" of bead isn't necessary on sheet metal.
Do you know what crappy welding sounds like? Why, yes I do! It sounds just like the grinder going at it for two hours to take off all the excess bead which is harder than the hinges of hell.
It was hard-fought, but I will claim victory on this one. I need to do a little touch up work but it's good enough to smooth over and move on to the bottom of the tire well.
Many thanks to @moparmat2000 for his excellent guidance on how to do this repair work. It's not his fault he's working with an idiot... :eek:
The final product!
After a ton of thinking, reading, asking questions, and so forth I finally tried something new - doing something. Yesterday I went after the patch piece in the tire well. I'd already cut out the bad part and roughed out the patch. I did the fine-tuning on the patch, doing the test-fit, grind, test-fit, grind, lather-rinse-repeat business about 50 times. Some other sheet metal on the trunk had to be "massaged" with a BFH but in the end it all went together.
The day before I'd helped a buddy whose welder I am borrowing work on a storage box for his work truck. For the first time ever, I got some nice welds, as in roll-of-dimes stuff. I about passed out. But pride goeth before a fall. Keep following along, dear readers.
A little good news, at least I got everything lined up well before starting.
Soon enough, trouble arrived. The first tack welds were rough, all sploppy and jagged. Oh Duh, mister genius, maybe you should turn the gas on before welding.
After puling the clamps I cut the bottom line for both the patch and the wall and started welding. It was rough to say the least. The spool of wire I have has a semi-loose pack, so sometimes it gets jammed and won't feed. Which means take the thing apart and feed good wire to the gun. Oh, and when feeding the new line I turned off the gas so I wasn't wasting it, but then forgot to turn it back on so more spattering, popping, and spitting for the tack welds. When I figured that part out now the new welds with the gas on aren't any better. Once again, we call on mister genius who reminds us wire welding without the gas on means slag, so once I cleaned all that crap off I got good enough welds to continue.
I also forgot that with welding like many other things in life, less is more. Like building up a 1/4" of bead isn't necessary on sheet metal.
Do you know what crappy welding sounds like? Why, yes I do! It sounds just like the grinder going at it for two hours to take off all the excess bead which is harder than the hinges of hell.
It was hard-fought, but I will claim victory on this one. I need to do a little touch up work but it's good enough to smooth over and move on to the bottom of the tire well.
Many thanks to @moparmat2000 for his excellent guidance on how to do this repair work. It's not his fault he's working with an idiot... :eek:
The final product!
