seam welding

[Clinton]

im sure there are alot of guys out there (myself included) would seam weld if they knew what they were doing. now my guess is that it isnt exactly rocket science. but still, im just interested in giving it a go myself. thats all!

just a tech article with pics? come on guys.
HELP!

[fantapants]

clean as much as possible.

clean again with more wire wheels.

pick the shit out.

inch on inch off. One inch of welding, one inch of not welded. Or spots seperated by half an inch. This may or may not have an effect on warping from heat.

Paint in etch primer.

Seam sealer.

Dont forget that the seams run on both the inside and outside of the car :)

Can also "spot" weld the doors and windows \et all.. drill halfway through the joins seperated by an inch, and fill with weld.

Seam sealer is your friend :).

Thi is what i hav figured out and am about to start doing.... have new welder to learn with befor hitting the car :) so if you wait a few weeks, ill let you know about all the fuckups i make you might be able to learn from them :)

[Konakid]

Sounds good, post up how you go, cheaper and more discreet than running a cage on the street.

[resol]

as effective as a cage though? or as cheap/time consuming....?

just because there are no tech topics here doesnt mean they are not there, google is your friend.

-dan

[MINIHORSE]

run cage and seam welds :)

[Konakid]

too stiff apparently, start cracking the chassis rail to chassis metal joins.

[--Redwork--]

Or just not weld anything and fill all the rails, sills, pillars ect with high strenght foam.
Aparently much more effective at adding rigidity to a car than adding a cage.. (assuming that its just a normal 7 point cage)

So I've read on one particular web site.

NOT EXPANDING FOAM FORM YOUR LOCAL HARDWARE.!!!!

[biggo]

It is effective, how much tho remains to be seen. Over time it will pull the chassis from the floor cage might help that tho.

Also jack car up and remove the load from every corner

when doing inside/under car start from the middle and work your way out.

engine bay, start near firewall and work way forward, try opposing sides every foot or so.

[driftke70]

run cage and seam welds :)

indeed

[marvis]

Ive done mine.. But it's sketchy. lol

[redsprinter]

have done mine inside and out whole car... might not be correct but here it is .

1, strip car to nothing . glass. interior . sound deadening .
2, good idea is keep the front and rear strut on to stop it from twisting and wat not.
3, use wire wheel to clean off the standard seam sealer and paint .
4, weld as the above comments . i just welded everything that i could see and thought that would help stiffen the car up . common sense.
5, normal painting process.

note: *welding the inside seams of the car will burn the paint on the outside .so if you do it prepare to also paint the under carriage*

*and also when welding you will have to work from left to right and meet in the middle, to stop the metal from warping*.

foaming .
6, buy it from a fibre glass supplier . they will know what your talking about .
7, tape up all the holes in which you are pouring or in my case injecting the foam to . use good 2inch tape cause the foam will push out through any weak spots.
8, i foam filled all the pillars and where cross member where the seats bolt onto .

all up took about 3months working about 4hrs each night . from start to finish . 6month to have it all back together and running. due to money and time .

have fun =)

[shakes]

all up took about 3months working about 4hrs each night . from start to finish . 6month to have it all back together and running. due to money and time .

have fun =)

I'm guessing you done more than just seam weld when you took the car off the road... but did all of that "extra" stiffening seriously warrant the extra work involved

[redsprinter]

if your referring the the foam then there is no way of really testing it without the proper tools and what not ... but from driving it i can say yes it works.

food for thought. the guy i bought the foam from used to work on old rally cars and when i approached him with the idea he actually knew what i was talking about and said they used to do it back in his days with rally cars until it got banned or something . i also got told from another workshop a similar thing.

foaming dosent take long 1 day max but require 2 ppl .

seam welding took the longest cause i didn't have a rotisserie so had to figure how to flip the car on its side ... plus not being a panel beater and not having access to a whole workshop full of tools it a big project with only the basic tool chest.

if i was to do it agian . i would get the whole car sand blasted 1st. fix all rust 2nd then seam weld 3rd, and finally seam sealer then paint inside/under/ and body ... but that all cost money .

[FAST EDDIE]

i completely seamed the front of the 86 back to the firewall and chassis join (under the front seats) also welded 2mm plates each sides of the rails to strengthen them, welded strut tops a triangle t o the firewall and run a strut top brace and have a full weld in cage. half way through last season had -3 deg camber on rhs (normal) and -6deg camber on lhs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! didnt hit anything so after all taht work the front end still moved...

my idea is in a ke or an 86 dont bother seam welding, cage to strut top mounts maybe but that would all be worth doing.