Im sorry to say but I have seen this exact same thing in poor repair jobs done on aluminium. As mentioned earlier there is definite porosity in the weld as can be seen...the little round holes. There is no penetration and any weld deposited has been ground off and polished to make it look 'original'. I have about 12 years experience in engineering with my welding cert (4711) in 3 positions....and many many hours of tig and mig welding aluminum in the transport industry. That repair to me looks like someone either didn't know what they were doing, or didn't care. For a clean full penetration weld in cast aluminium it is nearly imposible to match the welding rod to the parent material as castings arn't all the same...in the sence that all manurfacturers use different compositions. Although it would be possible to sucessfully weld that and make it strong.....as in most repairs it would never be 'as good as original'. I have welded manifolds, decks, storage boxes etc all subjected to the rigours of hours on the road on Trucks, that have been damaged and its taken hours to patch and file and reweld and file and reweld just to ensure there is no porosity, there is full penetration and it looks cosmetically good. Once aluminum has cracked it is better to replace the part if it is a 'life specific part'....in other words...if it fails....will you live to tell about it?
I can't remember the amount of times I have had vehicals come back after a few months only to have the same components or area's rewelded or replaced do to stress and many many hours of vibration on the road. Its just the nature of aluminium...take the aircraft industry for instance....the non destructive testing done on aircraft parts etc. is huge. The smallest cracks are documented and parts replaced if 'life specific'...just the way it is.
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