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Rear driver side door frame:


Rear driver side wheel well:


Rear pass side door frame:


Rear pass side wheel well:


Roof/upper cargo door frame:


Drive side "C" post:

 

Good work, the amount of rust you had in the floors makes mine look pristine by comparison.

It all looks very good, shows that those flux-core machines are a good tool to have.

 

Oh, mine is awful fo sho...probably about as bad as it could be and still be salvageable. Like I said earlier in the thread, if you live in a state that salts the roads for winter, you must look underneath these things for rust before buying.

If you own, I would be pretty vigilant about washing (or at least rinsing) the underside during and immediately after winter.

Thanks! A seasoned welder might label it a hack job, but I think its pretty good for a total noob

And yes, the flux core is a great tool to have handy. Once you get comfortable with it, your Mr. Fix-it repertoire will expand dramatically. Plus, it is basically a 50lb gym bag as far as portability goes.

Highly recommend one for anybody who wants to take a step up from regular grease monkeying.

 

Just realized I forgot to post this:


This is a MIG tutorial, but is more or less applicable to flux-core as well.

It is a great beginners video for general safety, tips, and laying some simple beads.

Note that the chick in the video can barely use pliers. The fact that the instructor proceeds to let her weld immediately after this display of ineptitude should show anyone with doubts that welding is actually relatively simple and safe

 

It is amazing how good some people do become as welders. When the little puddles look like a row of coins leaning over, with every one of them concentric.

Most of the time, a weld will be ground flush if the metal panels are being refinished and you can barely even tell or cannot even tell that it was even welded. But that is a whole lot higher level than just patching the holes in your own Rover unless you are a perfectionist.

As you found out, a good tight fit is also very important.

 

Hey there,

Really nice job with the rear wheel arches, I need to do that too. I bet the hardest part was cutting the piece for the patch. Great job!

 

You can cut the hole to a better shape and form a piece to fit it.

 

That wasnt too bad actually! Visualized what I needed and cut out a bigger than needed amoeba-like piece of cardboard. Then just kept trimming away at that till it was right.

The hardest part (as you may be able to see by the multiple burnthroughs on those ) was welding them in upside down. Its really friggin hard to trying to keep a free floating weld hand steady to lay a good bead when upside down and you are using the other hand to push the metal together.

It was the only time throughout the process that I did the happy dance from a spark getting in the clothes

 

That is why they make leather welding jackets.

 

Last major body work done!

Got a rear panel off of Jake's failed truggy experiment. Unfortunately he cut it a little too short, so I needed to fab a reinforced piece for where the seat latch post screws into.



View from the back. Nuts welded on.



Installed!





As you can see on the bottom there is some heavy bead laying. The panel didnt quite make it to the bottom, so I laid one bead over another until it was close enough to make a fillet weld. You can see also some small strips of sheet metal I used for patches on the wheel well curve. A real welder might give me some tsk-tsks and a spanking, but it all seems strong enough

Feels pretty damn good to have accomplished this. A freelance craigslist welder wanted $200 just to do the drivers floor. I got all this done with about $350 in equipment and steel.

Again, If you have bad rust, I cant stress enough the fact that you can DIY fix it relatively affordably. It isnt always easy (pedals in the way, upsidedown contorted wheelwell work), but it can be done.

Amazing the **** you can learn when you buy an old neglected Land Rover!