Hi everyone!
Firstly just wanna say haven't been welding for long at all but this forum has been great for tips and tricks and getting information about equipment etc. Spent many an evening going through lots of peoples' project threads!
So I've started a project of my own! It's a mk2 Mazda MX-5 that I bought nearly a year ago now knowing that it would need some bodywork repairs (the usual rear sill/arches and front chassis rails!). I'm pretty confident doing mechanical bits on cars but I've never attempted to do any rust repairs before. So its now off the road in my garage and I've started attacking the O/S rear sill/quarter and it's far worse than I thought it would be:
Removing the outer arch revealed a knackered inner arch and the inner lip of the arch was made up of filler and fiberglass so I've cut all of that out. I've ordered a new inner arch repair panel to go in along with a new outer arch and full sill from MX5 Heaven. I've also got a sheet of 1.5mm steel to make up any extra bits.
I removed the outer sill which revealed a rusty under-sill section with a few holes, so I cut out any rust I could see and cleaned the rest back with a wire wheel to clean metal. My plan was to weld patches in where I've had to cut out areas due to rust so that I'd have a clean seam along the bottom that I could spot weld a new sill to.
Problem is, I've now found this hole:
Any ideas how I could go about fixing that? The hole is probably about as big as a £1 coin so I could cut it out and weld a patch in there but it's in an awkward place to access. Would I cut a small section out of the inner sill to get to it, do the repair and then weld that section back in or would I be better off cutting out that section of the floor that I've ground back and trying to do the repair from the back, if that makes sense?
It's a second car for me and it sits in my garage so it's not an urgent job but I thought it'd be good to check with people more experienced/knowledgeable than me before I go and start cutting further into the car!
Firstly just wanna say haven't been welding for long at all but this forum has been great for tips and tricks and getting information about equipment etc. Spent many an evening going through lots of peoples' project threads!
So I've started a project of my own! It's a mk2 Mazda MX-5 that I bought nearly a year ago now knowing that it would need some bodywork repairs (the usual rear sill/arches and front chassis rails!). I'm pretty confident doing mechanical bits on cars but I've never attempted to do any rust repairs before. So its now off the road in my garage and I've started attacking the O/S rear sill/quarter and it's far worse than I thought it would be:
Removing the outer arch revealed a knackered inner arch and the inner lip of the arch was made up of filler and fiberglass so I've cut all of that out. I've ordered a new inner arch repair panel to go in along with a new outer arch and full sill from MX5 Heaven. I've also got a sheet of 1.5mm steel to make up any extra bits.
I removed the outer sill which revealed a rusty under-sill section with a few holes, so I cut out any rust I could see and cleaned the rest back with a wire wheel to clean metal. My plan was to weld patches in where I've had to cut out areas due to rust so that I'd have a clean seam along the bottom that I could spot weld a new sill to.
Problem is, I've now found this hole:
Any ideas how I could go about fixing that? The hole is probably about as big as a £1 coin so I could cut it out and weld a patch in there but it's in an awkward place to access. Would I cut a small section out of the inner sill to get to it, do the repair and then weld that section back in or would I be better off cutting out that section of the floor that I've ground back and trying to do the repair from the back, if that makes sense?
It's a second car for me and it sits in my garage so it's not an urgent job but I thought it'd be good to check with people more experienced/knowledgeable than me before I go and start cutting further into the car!