Plugging holes - Engine bay smoothing

[ACSmith]

Hi all, I have just joined the forum as I have recently purchased a Clarke 151TE as I'm in the process of 'smoothing' the engine bay in my Mk2 Golf. For this I need to weld up 72 holes in the BIW in order to achieve the fully smoothed look.

The first question I have is, what's the best way to cut the circular 'plugs' required. I will buy a punch set for the uniform circle holes but what's the best way to cut the un-uniform holes?

The second question is, what the best way to weld the plugs into the holes, as the martial is only 0.8 mm thick I was going to spot around the edges, leave to cool and the fill in-between if that makes sense is that the best plan?

Any help or guidance would be great.

Thanks,
Andy

 

[jinjahbiscuit]

Hi and welcome to the forum.

Check out the "Automotive and Bikes" section in Projects. There are plenty of really interesting build threads with loads of pictures and descriptions of cars builds including what you're asking for.

Have fun!

 

[Coo]

Hand snips may be best for making the patches, yes as you say weld, leave to col then weld more.

For small holes, you can hold copper at the back of it whilst welding it over

 

[RaceDiagnostics]

How big are the holes?

Form my post on the same subject.

I held this brass drift behind the hole and put stitch welds in from the top.

This nice pattern was just luck.

Nicely ground down.

 

[AndersK]

For non uniform holes, cover them with masking tape and cut it out. Makes a good pattern and easy to transfer to sheet metal.

As stated before, use aviation snips to cut the sheet slightly outside pattern. File down to perfect fit, makes welding a lot easier on thin sheet.

 

[ACSmith]

Thanks for the tips guys especially the copper/brass technique :-)

Been working on the car today and marking out the plate ready for cutting, just need my snips to turn up haha.

 

[outofthefire]

I would avoid brass it's an alloy of zinc and copper, stick to copper a piece of flattened copper pipe works.