My first attempt at welding

So as I said before, I'm keeping the 3A tub since it has the better floor and is significantly more sound (as well as connected to the title).  But here's where I had some work cut out for me.  These holes came with the tub, so I had to clean up the edges and make some templates.

I'm not sure which of these slots was for a radio of some kind, but I won't be installing one myself (or if I do, I'll mount it below and out of the way, perhaps under the driver's seat since the gas tank won't be there.

 With the 2A tub in two pieces in the backyard, I tapped around for a solid piece of sheet metal so that I could keep costs down and use the donor tub for just that.

 With a little tweaking on the grinding wheel, I was able to get a close fit.

Magnets hold it in place, flush with the surrounding panel.  I'm not expecting this to be a hidden repair, but I'm hoping when I put the old shift-sequence plate back on, it'll make it harder for the ignorant to know.

To weld it in place, I found a nifty little 110V Lincoln Pro-Mig 135 over in the San Fernando Valley for $300.  The seller used it to patch an Acura Integra sunroof, but he was upgrading to a Lincoln 180 (220V) to build some wrought iron accents for his home.  It was in the budget for a hardly used but good quality model.  It probably dates from the mid-2000s.

I went at it with gusto, learning as I went what worked and what did not.  I'm using .035 gasless, flux-cored wire since I'm welding outside in the backyard (breezes make it hard to use gas-shielded wire effectively).  Not to mention there's an "idiot-proof" quality to flux-cored wire that suits me.

Here are my booger welds.  Yes, that is a term I've learned, not made it up.  The welds, rather than looking like a fallen stack of dimes, resemble crusty/lumpy boogers.  I'm fine with that.  I'll be grinding nearly all my boogers down flush and then bondo-filling the gaps.  Should work out well.

In this panel, you can see how significant the surface corrosion is on the "good" sheet metal I'm taking from the 2A tub. It is only surface level, still plenty of integrity to the patch panel.

You can see in the upper right where I didn't quite get the patch panel to match.  So be it.  Another opportunity to refine my patch welding techniques.

I cut a sliver to put in that upper right area, held it in with the magnets again, and went nuts with the welding. I'm not very patient, so I don't move my welds around much or allow it time to cool, but for insert panels like this, it's not terribly important.

A grinding we will go.  Haven't ever done that before, either, so I'm hoping to keep my fingers, my eyes, and my patience.  So far so good.  Of course, I wear welding gloves and safety goggles over my glasses to keep shards from getting where I do not want them to go.

Getting there.  Some small gaps that I'll have to back and fill later.   Some are large, so I'll need to weld;  others are pits or pinholes, so bondo will do nicely.

I'll have to go back after those dime-sized holes later.  There are several of them in the tub, like it was shot at by Elvis pissed at his favorite t.v.