Ok, very frustrated today. Started on the drivers side signal light box, idea was to use the little filler panel from behind the short hood bellows as it matches the fender lip, then extend it with a piece of sheet steel to fabricate the rearmost part of the fender behind the long hood signal light box.
Trim went well, decided to use a piece of original steel from where the condenser fan was mounted (from the bottom of the trunk), did that bit of cutting and then decided to gas weld the two together.
Well, something is fundamentally wrong. Did 3 attempts at the seam, not one of them worked. Now, I am not the best welder in the world, but I can do this normally, I mean, my dad was a welder and I grew up with the stuff. It would not puddle and pool like I normally see. The welds were very porous and almost created slag - odd in gas welding...here is a pic of the "best" result.
You can see the very poor weld and it had no strength at all.....an easy wiggle and the weld split - and that is not normal, even for me.
So after the 3 attempts, said screw it.....got some fresh steel, used the MIG welder and done in 15 minutes. Weld is strong, no issues other than needing to finish the surface of course....here it is in rough.
Thought went through my mind....was the problem with the gas welding that it was galvanized steel (the fender/bellow filler and the section all came off of the '89) ? I mean I ground the edges clean, nice and shiny.....and horrible welds.
MIG was dead easy...
Factory manual gives specs on MIG welding galvanized surfaces, increased gas volume etc...
Is it not possible to gas weld the galvanised stuff?
Grumpy....