Hadta do some more welding on the Jetta before winter and yesterday it wasn't raining (3 straight weeks of almost constant rain/clouds, sheesh) so yesterday I jacked it up and once again crawled under... Pulled on the passenger seat and pulled the carpet back and a little picking left three holes, one of them quite large. That might explain the increased road noise inside the car. Over the next 4 hours I got the biggest hole welded back up. Ran out of light and bodily energy so I used some gasket maker to glue a couple pieces of plastic over the other two holes. VW put rubber plugs in the body, one of the holes is really just where one of the plugs fell out. The plastic will hopefully keep the inside of the car dry so those holes won't get a lot worse, I'll aim to tackle them in spring.I finished with a little fiberglass, the last piece I welded in was up into a notch in the body where I could either fill in the notch or plate over it, neither was a very good solution. I opted to fill the notch as best as I could and stuff some fiberglass in the little holes I couldn't get to. Big hole: http://i843.photobucket.com/albums/zz353/curtludwig/1998%20Jetta/IMG_20141220_115632221_zpsnfwaaick.jpg Smaller holes: http://i843.photobucket.com/albums/zz353/curtludwig/1998%20Jetta/IMG_20141220_115636975_zps8calpoo5.jpg the body plug is the hole on the left. Also notice the proximity of the fuel line. Fortunately they're flexible and look like they'll move out of the way pretty easily. This was some of the largest plating I've ever done, as in I used larger pieces of metal that I ever have before. The welding is terrible but time was of the essence, again I'll clean it up in spring. Supposedly around Christmas it'll be in the 50's with rain. If we get the higher temps I'll make a tent over the side of the car and spray some undercoating to make everything water tight. Hey, its a $1500 car... Unsurprisingly I ran out of wire about 45 minutes into the job and had to jump into the 190D (MB content!) to get some more and of course the first roll I bought wasn't flux core. Oh how nice it is to use fresh wire! I might have to make a warm box to keep my welding wire dry in, of course it'd be a hassle to pull the existing wire out of the gun each time I was done but it might be worth it. I could always splurge and get a gas bottle but the flux stuff works just fine even when its not fresh. -Curt _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com
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