hi guys just wondering if this penetration from my tacks is acceptable on thin car bodywork ? Thanks in advance
On the 2nd picture, I can see you’re leaving a small gap between the repair piece and the original panel; you’re doing the right thing here - a lot of people butt the edges together too closely as it makes it easier to weld, but causes more distortion and a weaker final result when ground back (they tend to get little penetration, then grind away most of the weld which is just sitting on the top).
You can help the cooling between tacks with a blast of compressed air; it really does make a difference and will minimise distortion.
You’ll find bugs relatively easy to butt weld as the original steel is good stuff, however some of the repair panels are shocking (even the so-called ‘restoration quality’ in some cases).
I noticed you seem to have ground back the welds within the rear quarter (or it could just be my eyes!); I never bother myself if it’s not going to be seen.
What you’ve done is to a much better standard then most ‘professionals’ would do, unless you were paying top dollar to a proper restoration shop; to do it properly takes so much time that it would never be economically viable to pay for this on a bug (I’ve just finished a Karmann Cabriolet which would have been scrap if it hadn’t been for the extra value of the convertible).