So You Thought You Could Weld, Vol. 2: Concealing the Evidence

Eagle ignition update continues to be postponed.  I'm sure we'll all live through the wait.

Today I'm going to be focusing on being aware of limitations, deciding when to stop, and making the best of work that you're not satisfied with. 

As I hope I've made clear in the past, my experience with welding is "a few hours-ish" with general materials, and "zero" for thin sheet prior to this exercise.  That puts my limitations squarely within the "under-experienced and under-tooled" category for actually getting the job done, which is compounded by the fact that I'm in an old, uninsulated garage in a residential area.  The setting puts some restriction on when I can work effectively, since early mornings and late nights aren't times where people are too forgiving of a lot of messing around with an angle grinder.  That on it's own has been a source of many wasted days.

I'll begin with an example of the state of the floorboards, followed by the problem that has been encountered, possible methods to correct it, and why they may or may not be desirable.

The passenger floor:

Passenger floor with light from below:

If you aren't able to see, we have pinholes of light shining through at the points indicated by the arrows:

So what do we do? Well, here's the options:

1. Ignore it. 
2. Keep weld filling the holes.
3. Patch the holes and reinforce the metal to ensure thin areas are strong.

Option 1 will ensure that all of this work goes to rust in no time flat, and in such a way as to make sure things are worse off than if I'd never messed with it.  Not an option, but it's counted as one because a lot of folks would consider it.

Option 2 will guarantee that this takes another week or two as I continue chasing pinholes and filling/grinding new holes as they develop (parts of the driver side are all filler and no sheet, and look like Damascus steel), not to mention having to go out for a bottle refill.  

The biggest drawback here is my lack of experience.  Were I appropriately skilled and experienced in this craft, this option would definitely be the better of the three.  Unfortunately, I don't have time to go to school right now.

Option 3 will require the least expense from a time and materials perspective.  This option gives me the chance to work better and faster, since I'm more familiar with the practices and materials involved.  Most importantly, it will offer an equivalent (or greater) level of strength and corrosion resistance, so it's a concession that doesn't come at the price of the quality of the work.   

Option 3 is the way I'm going today. I'll be writing up a post of how and what and when as I get this mess knocked out, hopefully all sorted out by this evening.