Quote Originally Posted by Coyboy54 View Post
Well sorry if it came off that I didn't want to make the project safe, Im just looking for an easy and safe way to address the welds that I thought were not good enough. I thought by adding a plate over the top it would act like a gusset and add some rigidity to the section without needing to completely cut out portions and potential have things shift on me, but I will definitely think about this more before doing anything. Thanks
Nope, no one is saying that you don't want to make it safe.. but in your paragraph above there is one sentence that says it all.. " to completely cut out portions and potential have things shift on me" , that's why I urged you to cut out the open ended piece and plate that by itself. Leave the other 3 sides in place and just clean up that face. Plus while it's open you can look up inside and see if there are other "surprises" you might have to deal with.

I think you're on the right path, no matter what you do to that area, it'll be better than what was left by the P.O., that's for sure!