Taking the advice of the forum I set up the welder so that we could test some settings on old original metal I'd cut from the tail section. We cleaned it with Scotchbrite pads on our Dynabrade and tried to draw some welds. Then we cut a piece of the panel in two, and tried to weld it together. The results were not a surprise; the original metal does not like to be welded. With the welder on the lowest settings we could get small tacks started but it didn't take much to blow through the metal just like I'd experienced on the front of the car. The only thing that I didn't try was a wire brush. I've heard that they're very good at getting all the rust out of the metal, but I can't see any rust left after the Scotchbrite pad. Regardless, I'll give the pieces a once over with the wire brush in my angle grinder and try welding again. With that experiment complete we moved to the rear of the car.
Chel wanted to try her hand at metal bumping so I set her up with a hammer and some dollies and let her have at it. She did a great job, especially given the fact that it was her first try. I'm still trying to figure out the art of metal bumping myself, it's not simple.
While she was doing that I removed the tail section which I'd temporarily clamped in place. I prepped some of the metal where it will ultimately be welded, and again used the Scotchbrite pad to remove the paint from the remanufactured tail section. I'll need to drill holes along the rear where it was originally spot welded to the trunk floor but I wanted to see if I could get the panel tacked in temporarily. I clamped it in place and tried to weld the right rear corner; just a few tacks to see if I could get it lined up and in place. The results were not good as you can see.
You can see the metal burning away from the side where the original metal is. And these are very wimpy welds. I don't feel like I'm getting good penetration at all, because as soon as I pull the trigger I have to release it or the metal will............you know.
It's frustrating and more than a little troublesome because the metal in this area doesn't look bad. There are other areas of the car that need repair which have much worse metal than this. If I can't get this to weld, I don't know how I'll weld the places where the metal is worse. I met a guy a few weeks ago at Santana Row Cars and Coffee who claims to be a metal fabricator/ex restorer. I've seen some of his work and he's a nice guy and I asked if he'd come take a look at my work and tell me what I'm doing wrong. At this point I realize I'm in need of expert advice and so that's what I'm going to get. Here's another picture of the rear of the car.
I am hopeful that there is some trick that I'm missing. I can't believe that the body of this car is so bad that it's unusable. And if I need to get a Tig welder and spend a year or 10 learning how to Tig weld, that's what I'll do.
Ciao!
-tj
