Okay, so you guys remember the crack in my inner wheel well? It got worse... got close to cracking all the way through, and I was getting worried. So this weekend, I broke out the MIG, and welded the crack shut. I also attempted to make a quickie patch panel out of some 22 gauge steel; it came out like crap, I should've taken more time with it- but I've got a new half-a-Firebird in my backyard, so I don't really care too much about this wheel well. It was kinda fun to weld on my car, and know that I couldn't do much worse than what was already there!

Undercoating removal.. remember I asked about that a few days ago? Well, it went pretty easy; I guess my 16 year old undercoat is pretty dry. I used a wire wheel in a drill (with safety glasses!) to remove the undercoating; it just powdered off, no stickiness involved. 'Fact, the wire wheel was free of tar, too! So that undercoat must've been cooked on and dried out. I then used a paint/rust removal wheel in the drill to bring the area down to bare metal. Here's an example of it, I bought it at Home Depot, made by 3M, made -for- a drill, for $5. http://www.eastwoodcompany.com/aspfi...1.asp?T1=31095

First pic is a "refresher" of the wheel well crack. 3 more sets after that!

 

Welding pic, 1 of 3. The shiny circle above the crack is where I attached my magnetic clamp adapter, for the welder. And you get to see my welding outfit, too. That auto-dim helmet of mine by Hornell (Speedglas Utility Helmet) was awesome!!! I could see everything!! If I had to work with my old standard flip-up helmet, the job would've taken forever. Plus, it was weird, my confidence level went up 100%- amazing what you can do when you can see.

 

Welding, pic 2 of 3. Before I hooked up the welder, I did the following to protect the car's electrical/electronics system. I unhooked the neg cable from the battery. I pulled a ton of fuses (including ECM IGN and RADIO) from the fusebox. I pulled the MAF and Fuel Pump/ECM fuses from the engine compartment (passenger side upper frame rail, below the fender bolts). Finally, I unhooked the ECM.

Here you see the crack getting welded. Remember, on thin sheet metal, you can't just lay a bead down- the metal will warp from the heat. So you put a tack weld every few inches. Then you go back and put tack welds in the center of those gaps. Then you go back again, and again. The final weld (not shown in these pics) was a line of continuous tack welds. I could see the heat discoloration of the metal from the inside of the car, and it looked like I got perfect penetration.

Oh yeah, this panel is part of the inside of the car. So to prevent a fire, I removed all the inside plastic panels over the passenger side of the back of the car. I moved the sound deadener from off the top of the wheel well. I took out the passenger-side seat bottom. I then bent scraps of aluminum sheet to block any sparks that might shoot into the car.

 

Welding, pic 3 of 3. Here you can see the patch panel, inside the bottom of the rust hole. Notice the setup for plug welding- where you drill a hole in one piece of metal. You attach the two pieces by welding the plug shut. (The patch panel is large enough to extend over the holes, you don't drill corresponding holes in the patch panel.) Plug-welding simulates spot welding... but spot welding just uses intense heat at a point- can't be done with MIG. Two of the holes are visible below the left of the "b" in "Photo by TomP", and two holes are visible below the space between "by" and "TomP".

The patch panel didn't fit the curve of the car too well, and I never removed the oily protective coating from the steel. The welds and panel didn't turn out too good at all. But, like I said, I don't really care about fixing these holes, I just want my car to last until I can weld the new 1/4 on.

[edit] Oh yeah, the middle picture- this is how I wedged the patch panel against the outer metal of the wheel well. Again, this method didn't really promote any conductivity between the pieces of metal- something that's required for a good MIG weld. (Or even ARC and TIG welding, for that matter!)

Results of the welding? The car feels much more sturdy- I didn't expect that. I mean, I hoped for it, but to actually feel it is amazing! Even the woman noticed it- and her door is easier to open now. (She used to have to give it an elbow-check to get out of the door, now she just gives it the usual shove.)

 

Tom,

Your copyrighting of the photos makes them rather difficult to see properly. Can you repost them without that? I don't see why anyone would want to steal them anyway

 

LOL, yeah, they lookd okay on my computer, but now that they're up at regular resolution (and not 2x zoom on my photo editor), it does look a little cramped. If I get the time I'll re-edit 'em.

 

looks alot better!!

 

Photo By TomP

 

Good Job, now how about those fenders! They look like they need some help as well.

 

Damn, you always have lots of helpful information for us all....

 

Thanks for the compliments! And '86IROC, there's nothing wrong with my fenders. Do you mean the quarter panels? I have an earlier message that might clear it up for you... check it out here: https://www.thirdgen.org/techbb2/sho...hreadid=108890 If you have a slow internet connection, it'll take a while (lots of pictures).