Buddy of mine asked me to repair a broke fender bracket on his boat trailer. He had somebody else do it last time and it cracked right through the center of a solo vertical weld. The thing is it was broke around the bend and he didn't weld that at all. That's why the repair broke.
I took the tire off to give me some room to work, and of course one of the lug bolts twisted right off.
A spent some time cleaning up everywhere I might weld with the flap disc, clamped it up and thought about it... for about ten seconds. I had decided to add some frame welds to make it secure in three directions preventing shock loads from stressing any one weld without support from the other two. Also makes up for my mediocre welding ability I hope. I rolled out the MIG, yes MIG, not FCAW. There was no wind so I figured to give it a go on the easiest weld atleast. First weld was a 4in fillet horizontal looking down along the frame. Not bad for a shade tree mechanic. Then I decided to have a go at vertical up in the gap where I ground out that weld crack. It was close quarters behind the fender, but I could see the weld tying in to each root as I worked a V weave up the weld. I had a lot of gloop/drop, but I am 100% sure I got good tie in and plenty of filler in between. Then for good measure I crawled underneath and made two overhead welds. I've ALWAYS used FCAW for overhead welds before, but they both came out okay. Almost as good as the first weld. None of them look professional, but not bad for a shade tree mechanic.
Give me another 20 or 30 years and I might actually get good at this.
Tomorrow (or maybe over the weekend) I'll go over it with a wire brush, and hit it was some metal etching primer.
I still have to find a replacement for the lug bolt and lug nut, but I won't have to make a special trip into town for them. I'm going to meet up with a couple buddies for lunch tomorrow and I'll chase them down before or after.