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Written By: Gibson Hull
April 19, 2025
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This is a big job. I tackled it for a few hours each evening on a weekslong trip back to my parents house deep into Central Texas. While I have welded plenty before with a stick welder, it was always structural. Fences, buildings, etc. I had used my grandpa’s old Millermatic mig welder at the ranch on small gate fixes and other small repairs. Always with fluxcore wire to fight the wind. This time around I wanted to do it properly for a pretty weld. I purchased a good gas mix, regulator, and all the necessary fixings to make the solid core weld nicely. The first evening I spent a couple of hours practicing and dialing in the mixture of inputs (see Fig. 2): wire speed, gas flow, cleaning the tip, welding gun angle, distance from the material, speed of the pass, etc. It takes a lot! I will put together a basic how to weld post in the future.
But the point is: ANYONE can do this. Some patience, 10,000 hours of watching car repair tv shows and youtube, and a willingness to get it wrong a BUNCH to learn is all I had. Again, see Fig 2. I learned more just doing it than any amount of watching videos. Find a friend with a welder, a technical school teaching welding, or if you can swing it, buy a basic one online and give it a go!
Fig. 1: Welding the footwell.
Fig. 2: Welding practice/tuning.
Step 02: Find the rust. I could spot some bubbling on the driver’s side bulkhead just under the windshield, and also noticed rust in the driver’s side footwell. With the windshield and seal out of the way, and the floormats removed, it was easy to spot more rust. It was a bit more extensive than it first appeared.
Step 03: Remove paint and surface rust. I used a wire wheel on my angle grinder and drill to remove rust and paint. I kept going well past where the rust stopped until I was sure I was on good metal at the edges.
Step 03a: Another view of the bulkhead rust.
Step 04: Cut out the rust. I cut out the spots where the bulkhead had rusted through. Turns out it was only a small amount after scouring the entire bulkhead. I made my cuts well past the rot to ensure I could weld to good metal. I also took advantage of the corners and seams to provide rigidity to the weld. Sheet metal tends to heat up and warp when welded. You will notice I used a welding blanket to keep any splatter or sparks from the grinder ruining anything we want to keep intact. You may also notice it is black around the outsides. I had sprayed the outside with rust converter primer while the Defender sat through the night.
Step 05: Clean rust and convert on the inside. Now that I had access to the inside of the bulk head I took the time to scrub away as much rust that I could reach and again hit it with a rust converter primer to reduce rust in future.
Step 05a: Inside look of the bulkhead sprayed with rust converter.
Step 01: Remove anything in the way of repair.
Step 02: Find the rust.
Step 03: Remove paint and surface rust.
Step 03a: Another view of the bulkhead rust.
Step 04: Cut out the rust.
Step 05: Clean rust and convert on the inside.
Step 06a: Trace the old piece onto new metal and cut it oversized. I got this peice of sheet metal at the Hardware store that was a match to the thickness of the bulkhead. After cutting out an oversized peice I slowly but surely grround away the edges until it fit just right with enough gap for the weld to take. Take your time here, I made probably 20 passes to get it right.
Step 07: Weld in the patch panel. Using a welding magnet to hold the piece in place and with plenty of welding blanket all around to protect the other body panels and interior, I slowly used single tack welds to stitch the panel back into place. Not the prettiest, but a very solid and complete repair.
Step 08: Sand down the weld. With the weld cooled and complete, I used a flap disc to remove the raised welds until the surface was nice and smooth. Be sure to move around so you do not introduce too much heat in one spot.
Step 09: Prime to prep for paint. This will protect against any new corrosion but also provides a solid base to sand and prep for paint.
Step 06: Make a patch panel.
Step 06a: Trace old piece onto new metal and cut it oversized.
Step 07: Weld in the patch panel.
Step 08: Sand down the weld.
Step 09: Prime to prep for paint.
Step 10a: Welding in new patch panels for the driver side footwell.
Step 10b: Rust gone, patches welded in, converted, primed, and painted. (Don’t look too closely…)
Step 04: XX
Step 05: XX
Step 06: XX
Step 11: Check out Episode 2: