Side window gutter repair

Here is the left rear window lower frame that has been quietly sitting in a puddle of rust for most of its' life. The pop out window seal perished a long long time ago and has allowed water to sit and fester.

I used a wire wheel on a grinder to clean up and clear out all the crap to see what the true damage was. There was only two or three holes but the pitting ran along the whole length of the frame.

I marked around all the pitted areas with a pen , then with a 1mm cutting disc, drill and round hand file I cut away all the damage, and peeled off the spot welds. The outer skin did spring in a bit so I made sure I cut a straight line for the repair panel to butt against so the outer skin was welded in its original position.

Using parts from Autocraft I cut and filled the new repair panel making sure that the butt weld along the outer edge was at the start of the radius of the vans side curve. This I found makes it an easier place to weld and to blend the two pieces of metal. I also had about a 1mm gap between the two piece to make sure the weld was penetrating properly.

So I clamped the panel in place then slowly and intermittently spotted MiG welds around the edge of the panel making sure not to get the panel too hot, but also making sure I had enough penetration joining each weld. Any places that I missed with a decent enough weld between each spot could be seen with a torch shone from the inside of the repair once I'd ground down the welds.

With all the welds tidy I unleashed the spot welder and run a few spot welds along the lip. (sorry no photos of that I'm not strong enough to hold the welder and take pictures) It took longer to set the welder up than to do the welds, It still puts a smile on my face when I use that welder. I'm easily pleased.

The lip was tidied up with a small hand file and the welds in the corners were cleaned up with a 2" rotary disc in an electric drill. It's not the best way but it worked. It's an older code, sir, but it checks out. I was about to clear them. I think the next tool on the shopping list will be a rotary die grinder for all those hard to reach places. A quick spray of primer and behold! a repaired window frame. This took me about 4 hours, and still I'm learning more about how to weld.