Welded a friends mk2 fiesta chassis rail.. metal finished it an all. (its my 3rd mk2 fiesta ive had the 'pleasure' of welding back to a complete state.)
Funny I was doing similar for a mate he bought a Ford Capri 2.8i a while back and it's quite a nice one but like all old cars not without the odd issue.
This winter he's been sorting out the electrics (dash and carpets and seats out) and incidental to ridding the car of a host of electrical niggles he found a crack in the floor by the seat mounts so I offered to fix it.
The crack was describe as a stress fracture and it all looked sound - simple flap up and and mig it back together.
So I gathered tools (portable welder - portamig, consumables, flap discs and angle grinder and just in case some slitting discs - well you never know do you.........
Quick inspection - Well it was a crack for sure and maybe I could have just buzzed it up but it was a bit swollen. The floor has a plate spot welded under the floor so we drilled out the spot welds so we were just dealing with a single skin thickness.
Yeah not so nice - all a little frilly
So cut it out - now it was a big hole but nice solid edge to work to and all the cracks weren't a problem
Use what was removed as a template and then fettle a plate to fit in and buzz it up
It's a floor covered with carpets and so rather than grind it back flush I just took the tops of the weld (so not an invisible repair but perfectly acceptable)
Now with a solid rust free floor we could puddle weld the strengthening plate back in and then blow a bit of paint over
Underneath with a quick squirt of primer to keep surface rust at bay
Now while I was here with tools it would have been rude not to do a quick inspection of the other seat mounts.
Not cracked but I can't say I like it
Might as well drop the strengthening plate - ah that's better
Chop chop
Clean the edges up top and underneath
Make up a piece to fill the hole and drill the holes for the plate and fettle to fit
Buzz it in
Underneath looked good too
Clamp the plate in position and puddle weld it back in
Temp paint job
so that was my Sat afternoon.......
must take a few of mine that I done but as usual just 'zoned out' while he whinged in the corner lol
