OK...spill the beans...who makes the battery area patch?

[JS29]

That dose look like a nice fit.

[kawahonda]

A little more planning today. Cut area is marked. Going to get a slim profile drill tomorrow.

Lots of spot welds! I guess I should replicate that? That would mean roughly drilling 25+ holes. Ugh!

[anlauto]

You could cut the majority out of your way, then just hammer/chisel the spot welds along the bottom and sides. The frame rail is pretty thick, the rusted apron will likely break away pretty easy....will just require more grinding to clean up the edge. Save the drilling for the new panel and plug weld. 

[kawahonda]

That's exactly what I did. Broke out the bottom corners with hammer/chissel.

Today I will clean things up some more, wire wheel, grind, then put on some rust inhibitor.

I also need to weld a couple holes that I drilled through on the support. Easy.

Tomorrow I'll work on patching this in. Will take my time. The idea would be to stitch weld the top, then "connect" it to the car by spot welding the sides and bottom.

Epoxy prime the area, and maybe shoot a light coat of Ace Semi-glass black and re-assemble.

So far, it should look invisible!

[anlauto]

LQQKING GOOD 

[Brads70]

Looking good, some weld thru primer would be a nice touch!

[JS29]

Looking good, some weld thru primer would be a nice touch!

You beat me to it.   

[kawahonda]

Got some on the way.

I'm also going to acid treat it.

Fixed my hole.

Made some new holes.

I'm done for now!

[kawahonda]

I'm going to need all the related hardware for the battery mount stuff.

I have a new AMD battery tray. I was able to successfully recover the bracket that helps hold the tray up. But I am going to need all related clips/bolts and what not. Can you guys send me a link of what this stuff looks like?

I also broke a few plastic wiring clips that press through the inner fender holes. Probably need a couple of those too.

An additional question: look at the first photo from previous post. There's a bolt....that bolt used to hold an L-shape bracket that was definitely not stock (hardware store type crap). With that bracket gone....what used to go there that the bolt was for?

[Topcat]

Once you have everything in place; do a metal phosphate metal wash.

I used Crud Cutter found at a local ACE Hardware store near me.
Some like Ospho but it's kinda pricey.

[kawahonda]

Rust Mort is pretty good stuff too, that's what I plan on using.

"Prep and Etch" (the blue jug) found at Home Depot is really good for the money as well. It's pretty much the same as Rust Mort, but more diluted (good for soaking).

[Topcat]

Looking good, some weld thru primer would be a nice touch!

Never been a fan of weld thru primer.
More resistance creating a problem to get nice welds.

[kawahonda]

I've never been a fan of my stupid Lincoln welder, regardless of any condition I've faced.

I remember back in school when I was 17 years old taking welding class. With that industrial stuff, I could run fine beds with MIG, Wire feed or Arc. I stayed after class for many weeks, not because I had to, but because I found myself having fun with it. When the competition came at the end of the year, a girl won. I came in second place. She made mighty fine beads that looked as good as you'd ever expect. Mine were good too, but hers seemed picture perfect from every angle!

This Lincoln 135T Has NEVER produced welds that I could do back in school under proper conditions. Smooth small beads that look flat and penetrated is what I'm used to. I KNOW how to weld, very good, but I feel like I'm using something that just doesn't penetrate to the level of melt that it should have.

My current house was built in the early 90s. It has 15 amp fuses. I would totally be at ears, for a better welder if you guys have recommendations.  My welds now work, they take more grinding than I'm used to, even at the max setting of level "D".

maybe it's me, but I feel like the Lincon 135T seems undersized for most common auto projects. Currently, I just keep the setting at "D", and it does it good penetration, but grinding is required.

[Brads70]

My mig is just a weldpak-100(115v) I've had for 25-30 years never had a problem with it. I've welded many a race car chassis/roll cages with it and never had a weld failure , even after 100 mph plus into the wall, bent and destroyed the car but the welds held up. Not optimal for roll cages etc... but it worked.  I upgraded to the gas kit. the gasless wire just made a splatter mess and I never used up the original roll it came with. Tossed it in the scrap pile.
Does your mig have the gas kit?

[kawahonda]

Yes.  I'm not saying my setup is bad. It's good. It's just not 240v good though. I like that extra bandwidth.

I always weld with a tank!

Unless doing farm grade flux core stuff. Which does work!