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

[gzig5]

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.

I agree.  The silver zinc based stuff is pretty messy but the UPOL brand zinc worked MUCH better than the NAPA stuff I started with.  Now using the UPOL copper and it isn't too bad at all and better than the zinc.

[JS29]

I have have had better luck with the copper weld.   

[kawahonda]

Well, I hope what I ordered doesn't suck!

Reviews look fantastic. Price was good. And it's Prime-able.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0088LVJTE/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I won't need much of it...

[kawahonda]

Cleaned area and fitted panel several times. No more fitting past this point, she's ready to go.

This picture is after the 24 hour rust conversion time. Looks really good. More updates coming.

[kawahonda]

Alrighty. Finally ready to weld.

Notice that I used weld through primer. I primed all the rest around it to cover bare metal.

[kawahonda]

Ready to weld. Take a look at this fitment....tell me if it can't get any better.  

The top definitely needs to be welded first.

I've had many opinions. I'm using a 110V welder with .025 gas wire.

Many say to stitch it. My friend is saying hell no.....tack weld it about a gazillion times. "THE PANEL WILL WARP, EVEN WITH STITCHING".

How did you guys weld the top part on yours?

[Brads70]

I'd spot weld it then immediately cool it off with compressed air?  That seemed to work ok on my fender project. Your patch has more shape/bends to it so warp age won't be as bad as a flat panel.
Not that I'm any sort of an expert!

[RUNCHARGER]

Tacks, boring but it works. Keep cooling it too.

[kawahonda]

Compressed air sounds good. I used to use a cold damp cloth.

But if compressed air works better, I'd much rather do that.

[JS29]

Definitely tack's, when you grind the welds be careful not to get it to hot. that can cause warp-age as well.   

[gzig5]

Compressed air sounds good. I used to use a cold damp cloth.

But if compressed air works better, I'd much rather do that.

I prefer to keep moisture away from fresh metal as much as possible.  Go with the air if you can. 

I use a blow off nozzle that I scrounged from one of the plants I worked in twenty years ago. You can get them pretty cheap or make your own by drilling a bunch of hole in a flattened copper pipe or something.  Gives better coverage than the typical air gun.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32908366600.html

[kawahonda]

Fitted in place. Flush as can be.

Welds look good and penetration is great.

Will use the tack method until it's all done.

[kawahonda]

Finished the butt joint. Grinded smooth. She'll need a thin coat of filler to look invisible when it's time for paint work and that's it. I'm likely going to just spray some etching primer over it now, followed by a light coat of rattle Semi-Gloss.

Figure it's best to filler it, block it, etc and what-not when it's time to paint the car. I am planning on smoothing out the backside and using seam-sealer, followed by undercoating (car has factory undercoating). It will look invisible from the back immediately.

I've started welding the spot welds. My thought is to start on the sides and to go from top to bottom. Clamp what's possible. Then do the bottom last.

Spot welds with a 110V welder requires you to get it as hot as possible and to not mess around. Let it rip. I've had to redo a couple due to not sticking, even on the highest setting.

One thing I've read is to start in the center of the hole, then go around in a circle. I did that on two and it didn't work. It did however work on one of them (turned out very strong).

I'm trying another technique now, which is to basically lap the half of the area (the wall of the "hole") with the backing metal, then proceed to do something similar as stated above. This assures you have a beginning "bite". Having to redo the holes is a little painful--more painful as you weld more spots in place.

[BFM_Cuda]

Looking good   

I use a 110 mig and get good results. I do my "spot welds" by starting on the edge of the hole in the 2 o'clock position, get a puddle going, drop into the hole a bit and go around clockwise. (insert bedroom joke here... )

[anlauto]

Looks fantastic, great job !