I happened upon a you tube video of a guy patching up an old jeep. He said that you can patch holes using a piece of copper behind the hole and just weld it up and the weld won't stick to the copper. I am sure you die hard A1 welders already knew that but I have not seen that trick discussed here.

welding trick

My hand brake had 27 years of wear on it (parked for 10 years) and the hole was oblong. Not bad, but I figured while I am in there....

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I bought a 1.5" copper union for $1.30 and flattened it out and wedged it behind one of the holes. Got the welder out and tried to fill it in....Not pretty but the hole is gone. And the copper backing plate just fell out. Nice flat weld on the back too. good thing cause it is harder to get the grinder in there.

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took the grinder to that lump of steel and now it is ready for the drill press. That will be a job for tomorrow at work.

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