Your popping is likely poor conductance. Clean to shiny make sure you have a realy good contact on the return lead ( earth)
The arc counteracts gravity use it at a more direct angle
If the weld isn't cool enough ( as you pass it by) turn down the juice and up the wire a tad
All said it's practice and trial and error but if something isn't working don't keep doing it - change something
Whatever you do don't just patch over rust like some muppet did on my car. It will come back to haunt you. Even just roughly hacking out the rust and crud and patching over it is better than just gluing patch on top of patch.