Beginner: Welding

A good job indeed, but can I point out one teeny weeny step you forgot?

You need to cover up the rest of the paint work before doing any grinding or welding. The sparks and splatter from welding, and the sand from the grinding disk will put little holes in the paint and before you know it, there will be a sea of surface rust.

But otherwise, keep up the good work, your doing well....

Ok thanks diesel ...will do

grinding sparks will also make a permanent mess of your windscreen.

There is no doubt that maintaining a molten puddle is an art and comes (eventually) with practice. Your wire speed looks way too fast which is causing the big lumps. Whatever you did for the left vertical line is pretty close. Fast wire speed also has an effect of increasing power hence the holes. The gun needs to be held at a high angle so that the shielding gas covers the area before and after you pass. You get a medal for having a go- keep at it.

this is the third installment on beginner welding, there are also some handy sanding bog tips ,i had a section of rust on the bonnet that needed to be plated ,i just cut & measured the section first...

i just measured out with ruler & marker

after measuring & cutting next comes the weding , i had the welder turned down low, as this bonnet is quite old , & i dont want to keep blowing holes through the weak steel...

at this point i have blown a few holes in the steel, but i went around & tacked them up ...

now its just a matter of grinding the welds down smooth

now that i have the patch ground down ,i will add some bog to fill in the small gaps , ripples etc,

before i go any further , i need to wipe down the area with some wax & grease remover, 2 clean rags , one for the liquid ,the other to give the area a good wipe down...

after wiping down with the wax & grease remover ,next comes the bog , the ratio i chose , well actually......the amount of hardener to bog is a little more than normal, as it was a cold & overcast day ,so i added a bit more hardener than normal, increasing the drying time.If it happened to be a warm summers day , i would have used less hardener .

you can use different types of applicators , i have some plastic, steel ,& even this little applicator, use what your comfortable with, & a little tip is when wiping on the bog ,try not to leave high sharp edges, just round your edges while shaping ,as this aids when it comes time to sand down.

after the bog dried,(i left it overnight, but u can sand down in an hour or two generally.) i used this hand sander , i paid $35 for it , & in this situation is better than using a block.

there are a few different types of sandpaper u can buy for it ,but what u need is a rough grit to sand the first of the bog , 40grit ,,,,also an 80 grit ,,,& a 120 ,180,,,to finish with ...these pieces of cut length cost me 65 cents each....

just sand along the edge using different angles , in this situation the bonnet has a sweeping curve ,so i will need to gently sand using a curving motion,the bog comes off easily , so i dont want to rip in too much with the 40 grit.just enough to get the general area flat.

once i think i have removed enough of the bog with the 40 grit. i will switch over to the 80 , & then the 120 :-X

here it is after sanding with the 3 different grades of sandpaper.there are a couple of dimples etc, but i will fill these with putty later on..i have wiped half down with wax & grease remover.

next stage is to simply mask up & primer the area ...letting dry between coats .....i applied 3 coats of primer.

didnt turn out to bad , should pass rego ok!

"65c a cut length", you will send yourself broke. Buy it by the roll, and cut your own lengths. Works out about 20c a length or less.