Week #19

With the rear panel replacement tacked in place it was time to do some REAL welding. I started out with a very low setting on the welder but didn't like the penetration I was seeing. It was really my error as I had the panel fitted in so tightly that there was no gap between the pieces of metal to get the proper butt weld. In an effort to get a little more penetration, I bumped the heat up and proceeded to do my spot, pause, spot, pause, spot type weld. I must have been right on the edge of being too hot because there were two short spans of welding that musta got a little too much heat... yea, I got two warped spots along the top. I don't really know if it was due to the heat or a combination of heat and the fact that in those two place my tack welds were much farther apart than the rest of the perimeter of the patch. Any comments or experience with this?

It bummed me out at first... you know, that was the whole reason for replacing this area to begin with, getting rid of a warped panel... but I
got over it.

Next came the grinding. I've been trying to master the use of the cutoff wheel as a grinder(I read it somewhere that it was good to use... probably written by someone who knows about as much as I do) and after a few inches it did seem like it was good job. I quickly figured out that patients was the key to its use. Spent at least an hour Saturday and another one Sunday morning getting the welds down flush. Didn't look too bad.

At the last show I was at I bought a gallon of this POR15 paint stripper. Thought I'd give it a try on the rear area that I had just finished. The
sprayer supplied with the stuff was a piece of garbage, it actually blew bubbles INTO the liquid with each squeeze of the trigger, so, found a good sprayer and proceeded to follow the directions. Discovered so things. There are three distinctive degrees of pain in this area of the car... some very cheap black paint over the original blue enamel, protected from the elements by the black, and the factory yellow paint on the patch which I know for a fact has baked in the sun for most of 27 years. Following the directions to the letter, the black paint literally fell off while the blue took the directed two applications, fifteen minutes apart, and indeed came off. The yellow, on the other hand, was not be affected by two, three or even the forth coat. I would venture to say that 20 coats later this yellow paint will still be there. My review of the stripper is favorable. It has little or no odor and did a fairly good job on the one try. However, you guys had me a little concerned about residue left in the nooks and crannies so I found myself rinsing and scrubbing the creases with a toothbrush.

Now if I could just find a spray bottle to put the Windex in.