Sorry but not a lot to show for the last few days as just a lot of shape correcting that should have been done even before tacking, let alone fully welded! Taking longer this way and the job doesn't finish to the same standard in the end unless I spend an extra few days metal finishing it. Owner dropped around last night and is very pleased with leaving it with corrected shape that will only need a smear of filler or heavy build primer before paint.
Before any grinding is done on these welds, I look for any obvious low spots like this.
A rounded chisel is hammered on to knock the low spot level.
I showed earlier the unsound joint here on both sides. Ended up removing the tack channel from the fill in piece that was too short, and then welding up the rest of the joint. Then fitting a longer tack channel back in its place to meet up with the one that goes down the A pillar.
The welds along the side peaked outwards as it had not been probably shaped beforehand. I held this spoon behind the seam and hammer the weld outside until it just touched the spoon. You can feel and hear it when this happens. I didn't want to stretch this weld at all due to the outwards peak it had.
After grinding, some low spots were hammered out from behind using this that I had made for the corners. Just concentrating on getting a good shape without spending a lot of time getting a metal finish on this project.
Corner joint looked like a baseball cap where it meets the visor part where the two sections met after the 1.5" strip was cutout. Was able to re-shape it to flow better though.
The left on these two joints had about a 3mm-1/8" gap that needed to be welded up. It pulled a bit more on that side but both seams need to hammer on dolly to stretch the weld and raise it up.
Flows much better now and no dips in it.
View from the rear.
Dressed up the front weld and got some shape correction back into it. The centre fill in piece is pulled way down.
Starting to sit up a bit more now but will go on first welding the other half before going any further.
Front section has all been welded now. This half went a lot quicker as I was able to correct the shape before welding, but had to cut some of their tacks and redo them to get the shape right. This was because the metal was forced to meet up and then tacked under pressure by the panel shop. So much harder to correct the shape when done this way and I could see the strain on the metal. They were forming little 'puckers'.
Big gaps like this I hold a copper spoon behind it as I weld it up. The weld wont stick to the copper and helps stop the gas blowing through the gap and causing porosity.
Just watch out though as the copper gets damn hot and will burn you if you accidentally lean on it! Got me right between the gloves and the overalls.
Hard to tell where the big gaps were.
Cleaned up alright too.
