Filling the void

[friel01]

With Buckroseau taking a few days off, I know everyone on the 45 board is wanting to see a LWB be worked on. So I thought I would post up a few pics of todays work on mine....

Dont you just hate it when the PO (or the factory) leaves unsightly holes in the dash and firewall? I decided to weld some up.

I closed up the ashtray and the gauge cluster area, also filled in the ignition hole (I am moving it to the other side of the column), and a few others.

I won't be needing the heater holes in the firewall, and also wanted to close up the hole for the column, since an aftermarket column will require a new hole anyway.

I am NOT an experienced welder. A buddy of mine showed me how to weld when I was working on my frame (boxed it and made a few other changes); that was my first time ever. Same buddy gave me a lesson on the more refined art of sheetmetal as opposed to frame steel the other day. I think it came out pretty good.

 

[Henry James the 47th]

Any tips you want to share on sheetmetal welding?

 

[friel01]

tips

The only tips I have to share are what my buddy told me.

Make the patch peice fit as closely as possible so you dont have a big gap to fill.

Do spot welds, let it cool, then more spot welds and cool.... repeat the process until it is all done (just a series of spot welds that all connect eventually).

When grinding the welds down, again, try to never put too much heat into it that might cause warping.

So it is a slow, time consuming process.

Also, dont forget to take the zinc coating off hte new metal with some muratic acid....