Daily beater - '01 Impreza WRX

[Lee]

I'll be following this thread with interest, I love looking at pictures of welding repairs. I admire that you're channeling free time outside of family life to this, you could be lying up with the head buried in the phone or supping beers.

 

[Boydie]

Welding and supping beers sounds like a good combo!

 

[bigsigh]

Stick a GoPro up and get a few videos on the go of the progress



Followed this along last year

Had considered it Sonny, but im super picky about the stuff i watch myself on Youtube so would have an idea of the sort of way i would want to edit it , and i have neither the time / skill to do it, and not sure my footering would justify the effort either



Not a massive amount of on car work this weekend, various family duties etc take priority, but i did get the welder dug out and swapped the 0.8 wire to 0.6mm, cut a few coupons from the material i made the patch from and tried a couple of plug welds and some butt joints

Spot welds were fine, good penetration and there is no splitting the pieces apart.
For the butt weld i tacked the pieces while they were tight together and as the weld cooled it pulled one sheet up over the other. (lesson number one )

I knocked the tacks down with a hammer to open the gap and then dab and pause, i have done very little with this thin of sheet before, so its all a learning curve

and the reverse side

Then knocked the weld down with a flap disc and a scotch brite on a die grinder,

Quick and dirty, but held up well too a good hammering , so im confident its strong, and with more time spent on actually finishing it with the grinder it would be acceptable for a rear panel repair. Will do a few more as i think the welder could be dialed in better for the butt welds.



Also nabbed this on FB marketplace for £20, there are a few more sections that will have similar reliefs in them and a router will allow me too cut much neater shapes into the hammer form block , hopefully then leaving a much nicer finish in the final piece.