So I have one spot where the P.O. had done a decent job of welding... well kinda...

He had repaired the hell hole with a horizontal piece that runs down the top of the long to the firewall and he replaced a section of the wheelhouse, the vertical part above the long that runs from 3 or so inches from the fire wall, up behind the battery tray to about 3 or 4 inches from the hinge pivot. The patch is roughly about 8x18

The problem is, he lap welded it and left the rusted flange in the wheel well. Its actually the best welding job I found on this car, so I figured I may be able to get away with cutting the original rusted leftover metal in the wheel well back to the weld. Then grind it relatively smooth and seal it.

Then, as I am working on it I notice it seems thin. I think it may be 20ga.

My question is,

Is that too thin for that area? I had welded a new battery tray to the area last year—the P.O. had relocated the battery to the rear trunk—and when I moved it back I noticed how solid the long repair was.

I can always cut it out and completely redo the patch in 18ga like I am doing everywhere else, but I am getting a little tired of this. And so is my wallet—I just dropped $900 and change at RD this week for my second round of new sheet metal for the car.


-Andrew

P.S. Thanks to those who told me to take the engine out. This would have been impossible without doing that.

There's an old saying we used to toss around the shop. "You always have time to do it right the second time" Remember its a car hobby. It's supposed to be fun. The end result will be worth it.

You guilted me into it. Actually, I couldn't leave the mess.
Turns out it was 18ga—there was just some thin thing tacked over it in the wheel well.
Well now I have a huge hole and a a lot of gloppy welds to grind off. At least Ill know its strong and clean.

-Andrew

Are you going to butt weld or lap weld the replacement piece? Seems like the PO was concerned about his butt weld given that he had added a piece over it. Jeff Hail butt welded just the lower part and the rest he lap welded, noting that the metal is thin around the battery tray area (cf. his 'Bringing out the dead' thread).