I've boxed myself into a corner somewhat and could do with some ideas to get me out.

Have a cheapie spotwelder which works great for 1.2mm panel steel (when you put it on the 2.0mm setting).
Been doing some rust/fatigue repair work on the rear door of my daughter's Landrover, and it involves bent top hat sections with a flat piece spot welded on the bottom to support the open side.

Here's the welder:





Here's where I've got to with the door:





You can see where I've made some of the spot welds, and have marked with a texta where the next ones would go.

I did think about spot welding the flats on the bottom of the hat sections before assembling and welding the pieces in place - but decided not to for various reasons. Because the spot welds are all close to the edge of the flange, I thought I'd be able to just poke the welder in and weld it.
Unfortunately, the length and height of the welder and the short distance to the next member means the electrodes are on about 45deg angle to the surfaces and won't weld. The arms are too short to come in from the outer edge of the door - so that's not an option either.
Worst case is I'll drill some ~5mm holes in one of the pieces and just do a mini plug weld with the mig. I'd prefer to spot weld them if possible though.

I'm thinking of making up some sort of a remote connected electrode arrangement connected by short heavy cable back to the welder
Imagine a small G-clamp with one electrode isolated from the clamp body...Clamp it onto the work, then trigger the timer on the welder.
Clamp doesn't need to have a deep throat as all the welds are close to the flange edge.

Any comments or alternative suggestions.

Steve


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