thats what I consider an incomplete job. end oh story.
Againt my simple end all be all arguement is this… do you just give up when you cant order a replacment complete header panel for a 1941 Mercury coupe? And if you actually find a replacement panel, your going to replace the entire fucking panel, all the parts attached to it, split the body, etc… and WELD a new one back in place anyways? And lets keep it relivant to the OP’s question… He has a rear 1/4 on a honda some shit that needs to be fixed. Those panels dont just get painted on a stand and bolted to the car! Your cutting the entire side off the car, removing the rear glass, drilling out the door jamb, the drip rail, pulling gaskets, drilling out tail light buckets, etc… and your still welding the fucking thing on in the end. Or panel bond it, sure take the easy way out. lol
My brother and I do.
And you dont need lead. Again, a skilled metal shaper can take 10 pieces of sheet, form them and weld them up, work the welds and panel to the point literally zero filler, plastic, lead, or fairydust is needed to prep the surface for primer and paint. Hell I can rip a piece of 20 ga in half, tig it back up, run it through the planishing hammer, prim and paint it and hand you the piece to point out where I made my cut/weld. you wont be able to show me I put money on that.
With the last part of that reply… this is why I invite you to re-read my comment where I said I am NOT here to argue business, profitability, etc. I am here to tell you that welding a fuckin patch panel in the correct way is 100% acceptible means to make a repair or modification. For fucks sake, how do you think a body is assembiled in the first place? Its welded in thousands of spots! Look at the small picture and work your way out to understand it… metal melts, flows together, is shielded from oxygen as it cools, you now have one fucking piece of material to work from. You fuck up the process before OR after that and you have an inadiquate repair. simple as that.