Better welding

I started right off welding today. The guy working in the stall next to mine offered some advice ... turned out he is a certified welder. He came over and taught me some stuff about starting and holding a bead. Interesting to listen to the sound of a good weld. He said I needed more heat because I was spot welding, so I turned up the juice from 4 to 5. At this setting I get good penetration of the new sheet metal, but the original burns through easily. The trick is to concentrate the heat on the thicker material.



After the welding came the grinding. More than usual because of the spots on the outer surface. Then I applied a liberal layer of POR-15 Epoxy Filler. I have been using this batch for a long time and it is finally starting to feel "dried out." I have a new box.



After lunch the filler was still too soft to shape so I got started on the next section, filling in some smaller holes with fiberglass and POR-15. In the photos some of the holes look round -- this is because I opened them up with a tapered rotary file. On all but the last I applied the cloth on the inside and will bring it up level with filler.

I wanted to try a different filler but when I went to Redline their paint department was torn up. Now I see some new products on the POR-15 web site and want to give them a try. The STRAIGHTLINE Body Filler sounds right.



One hole is a problem in that it is located along the edge the the tail light flange. To see how much clearance I had, and how much was visible, I held the tail light in place. It is a relatively exposed spot, so I'll need to be careful.



Four small pieces of fiberglass cloth applied to the inside.



When it was time for the second coat of POR-15 I added one more patch, at the corner of the trunk gutter. Here I used two layers applied from the top. This will be hidden by the weatherstripping.