January 2011 Continued welding

 
     

January 8th: The severe winter weather lead to a well deserved winter break for the welder. The temperature has reached an acceptable value again to start working. The left hand rear window frame will be dealt with today. Near the B-pillar there is a relatively small rust affected section of material on the lower side. This section will be cut-out and replaced with a hand made repair piece. The lower end of the window frame is already treated with anti-corrosive coating except for the section where the material is in poor condition. The original material is beyond saving and therefore a small repair section is made. Holes are drilled in this repair section to serve for the plug welding which will be applied to connect to the original healthy material of the window frame.

LH rear window frame with rust affected section near B-pillar.

 

LH rear window frame, bad material removed.

 

LH rear window frame with hand made repair section.

 

Hand made repair piece welded in position.

 

LH rear window frame looking good again.

LH rear window frame treated with anti corrosive coating.

January 17th: The work done on the left hand rear window frame has to be repeated for the right hand side. Basically the frame itself doesn't look too bad except for 1 portion in the middle where the rust has caused a crater like appearance. Quite an unbelievable geometry has been created here, although many owners of Alfasuds will not be extremely shocked by this phenomenon it looks very surprising to me. The picture below doesn't show the gravity accurately but there is actually a crater in the metal material. The only resolution is to cut out the bad portion and replace it with a hand made repair piece similar to the one already welded in position for the left hand side.

Right hand rear window frame with crater in middle lower section.

 

Crater photographed from up close, looks more severe in reality then on picture.

 

Bad material cut away from right hand rear window frame.

 

Hand made repair section.

 

Hand made repair section welded in position on lower section with tack welds.

 

Upper section of repair section welded with plug welds (1 still glowing).

 

Repair section welded in position and excess weld material grinded away.

Anti corrosive coating applied to lower section of window frame.

January 18th: Today the right hand side C-pillar and B-pillar will be brushed clean from surface rust and checked on their condition. The material on the B- & C-pillar is in perfect condition so the only thing to do is apply the anti corrosive coating. It doesn't look spectacular, but this is a task which is very important and now finished for the right hand side of the vehicle.

C-pillar brushed clean from surface rust, good base material.

 

B-pillar brushed clean from surface rust, good base material.

 

Layer of anti corrosive coating applied to B-pillar.

Layer of anti corrosive coating applied to rear end section. B- & C-pillar & window frame in perfect shape now.

January 19th: The same task done for the right hand B- & C-pillar has to be done for the left hand side. Unfortunately this side is a little less straight forward. Near the C-pillar there is a significant dent which is stuffed with filler. In some places the filler is almost 3mm thick!!! So first all the filler will be brushed away to allow a clear view of the dent. Luckily the welder is not only a great craftsman when it comes to welding also removal of dents seems to be a speciality. After some hard work the dent is gone. It feels very good that the dent is gone. I could have chosen to keep the dent stuffed with filler, but I want as little filler as possible on the car. With the dent gone the B- & C-pillar can be brushed clean and inspected for possible poor areas. Just like the right hand side the left hand side is also good, so no work to be done except for applying the anti corrosive coating. Great result by the surgeon! This is it for January. The next task will be the wheel well.

LH C-pillar dent stuffed with filler up to 3mm thick.

 

LH C-pillar dent removed by "the surgeoun".

 

LH C-pillar surface rust removed.

 

LH B-pillar surface rust removed.

 

LH B-pillar with anti corrosive coating.

LH C-pillar with anti corrosive coating.