Near-side windscreen/scuttle

This was one of those areas where I thought "oh, it will be ok" in my haste to fit the front wings. But to be honest it would not be ok and needed fixing. Damn, the "big weld up" would have to wait for another weekend but hopefully the patience will be worth it in the end.

The near-side screen-to-scuttle panel was very rotten along the windscreen lip, which was probably why the floor pan and A-post had rotted out to start with, i.e. water seeping through the holes and onwards - courtesy of gravity - to anywhere else. So, today I attacked the area with the grinder and this was the result:

The screen lip is very corroded. The red panel is the section of new (s/h) screen surround that I have.

I scratched my chin for a while and realised that I needed to cut it out in one go, in a way which allowed for easy welding when repairing it. The only option as far as I could see was to remove a section of the outer scuttle/screen panel, taking the rotten lip with it. Here's the result:

The inner section of the screen surround was ok.

It is amazing what I have in my shed. For example, a whole spare screen surround which I used to make a repair panel. After much cutting and fiddling, I got it about right:

The new repair section is the red bit and the holes are where I have drilled out the original spot welds.

Not wanting to risk the blow-through associated with butt-welding (or at least, my butt-welding) I used the joggler to press in a recessed lip around the lower edge of the repair panel to ensure a flush fit. I stitched it in place, making sure to move around the panel to minimise excessive heat build-up:

New panel in place.

Once again the Portamig 185 did a great job on some very thin metal. I just turned the power down to the lowest setting. One thing I always struggle with is welding through the holes where the old spot welds were. It should be easy, but I find it very difficult to get good penetration. These are ok though:

The new panel welded in, ready for the welds to be dressed.

Welds ground down a bit...

...and a thin skim of filler and a coat of primer.

The coat of primer really helped to show up the high & low spots, so I will need to do some more work on this. However it doesn't look as bad in the flesh as in the photo!