I spent father's day exactly the way I would have wanted; in my house, with my family, working on my Mustang project. My Dad is a thousand miles away at home and I send him a big hug, especially because yesterday he and my mom celebrated the 50th Anniversary of their wedding.
Today I practiced with my new Jobsmart 125 welder (from Tractor Supply Co) and I found it to be very easy to use, and it welds sheetmetal well. I am relieved that it is pretty much overkill for what I need it. I only worked with the lowest power setting and slow wire feed, and it worked well. No problems or complaints. Just need to work on my beads a little more. Butt-welding sheets of different thicknesses (like a 20-gauge patch with original 18-gauge) might become an issue.
I cut two sections of the roof where it meets the backlight to decide if to replace the entire span or to clean and neutralize any rust. Fortunately, there was not a lot of rust, just some sandable superficial rust that can be removed and the area covered with POR-15 (or something similar). Whenever I make cuts on sheetmetal, I try to avoid compromising the structural integrity of the car. I am on a limited budget that does not allow me to replace entire components. So I have to be creative and work with what I have; which means, to try to fix as much original metal as I possibly can, or to replace it with new sheet metal.
I stripped the doors and quarter panel bottoms and found, not only rust bubbles in different degrees of "growth", but also a very poor bodywork when the car was restored in 1995. Up to 1/4 inch of bondo was found in several areas, including the bottom section of the rear quarters and the doors.
So I'll be doing a lot more patching than I expected...which gives me something to do until the driver side cowl panel arrives from backorder.
Today I practiced with my new Jobsmart 125 welder (from Tractor Supply Co) and I found it to be very easy to use, and it welds sheetmetal well. I am relieved that it is pretty much overkill for what I need it. I only worked with the lowest power setting and slow wire feed, and it worked well. No problems or complaints. Just need to work on my beads a little more. Butt-welding sheets of different thicknesses (like a 20-gauge patch with original 18-gauge) might become an issue.
I cut two sections of the roof where it meets the backlight to decide if to replace the entire span or to clean and neutralize any rust. Fortunately, there was not a lot of rust, just some sandable superficial rust that can be removed and the area covered with POR-15 (or something similar). Whenever I make cuts on sheetmetal, I try to avoid compromising the structural integrity of the car. I am on a limited budget that does not allow me to replace entire components. So I have to be creative and work with what I have; which means, to try to fix as much original metal as I possibly can, or to replace it with new sheet metal.
I stripped the doors and quarter panel bottoms and found, not only rust bubbles in different degrees of "growth", but also a very poor bodywork when the car was restored in 1995. Up to 1/4 inch of bondo was found in several areas, including the bottom section of the rear quarters and the doors.
So I'll be doing a lot more patching than I expected...which gives me something to do until the driver side cowl panel arrives from backorder.
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