How To: C15a Wire-3 restoration

[Jordan Baker]

The past 4 days I managed to finish up the majority of the metalwork on my roof. I welded in a few large patches in the sheet metal skin where the cab bracing goes. After reading a lot on line and looking at pictures I managed to get a decent result from butt welding the patch in. I still had some issues with porosity but overall it was a very strong weld. When I removed the remains of the rear wall, in spots, the upper skin was torn away. I went back and cut out the bad sections with a zip disk and then welded in small patches. I found using a copper paddle tightly clamped behind the patch provided a strong backing and heat sink to keep the weld from blowing through. I also found that be cutting the wire tip each time and wire brushing I got a lot less porosity. It took me quite a few hours to weld in about 6 small patches but the end result is almost invisible. Any seams still showing on the inside will be covered up when the rear wall skin is welded in.