Welding Again

First job of the day was to finish the bottom end of the engine, so I put the last 4 pistons in, oiled the unit and shrink wrapped it. That will keep the dust and dirt off, and moisture out until I am ready to do more work on it.

Back to the welding, first job was the unfinished bulkhead / floor pan on the passenger side, which looked like this

Repair panel made up and held with fasteners

and after seam welding, shaping, plug welding and grinding the finished result

I then did various bits of plug welding that have been left for a long time, floor pan

The remaining large holes need doing from inside the car as they are from or connect to the seat mount.

Then plug weld parts of the boot floor

And finally it was time to look at the drag strut mount. This had a small rust hole in the side, but this is what I found

Clearly shows what happens if you double skin metal and it gets wet. This unit is of altered construction to standard, as it is mounted below the chassis rails, and has been reinforced (presumably to cope with the additional stress of driven wheels), but the reinforcing consisted of extra plates welded on top of the original metal, the side plate can be seen here - complete with the original rust hole

When the side plate is removed you can see the welds where metal has been let into lower the mount

The other side of the strut also has a reinforcing plate, and again the original metal has some rust holes just visible here above the tube.

The question is how to repair it?

Obviously I can replicate exactly what was there before with 2 layers of metal, but its always got a potential rust problem, or can I use thicker metal say 3mm ? The problem with this will be distributing the loads.

The double box section at the rear of the strut can be dealt with by leaving a gap between the 2 flat skins of say 5mm so paint will get in and water can get out, but its the sides that are more of an issue. Time to put the thinking cap on! and ponder the problem. Still I have plenty of other jobs to do while I consider this!

Also I think I need to remove the top plate from the other strut mount and inspect. if there is hidden rust I might as well fix it now, the trouble is the other side seems sound with no trace of failure.

Hours worked now 428 - 8 today