seam welding?

[Tidy Max]

alreet chaps :)

been reading alot of project threads and welding resources on the internet and have seen that seam welding is one of the first things to do to strengthen your car.

I just don't fully understand how to go about doing it?, for instance on my nova the seams around the edge of the engine bay have rusted, no holes, but there is definate rust, all i thought of doing would be to chop out the seams (with a grinder) bend a plate to the original shape, then weld in.

but of course then i would have 2 seams where there used to be one!

[Lee H]

You don't want to seam weld, you want to stitch weld (about an inch of weld, miss an inch, inch of weld etc)

Seam welding is a continuous line of weld and won't allow any flex in the shell so if the weld starts cracking it will crack along the full length of the weld. Also if you crash there will be no crumple zone so even the tiniest shunt will probably push the roof up as the engine bay won't give at all.

Put a picture of the rust areas up when cleaned back for advice really, hard to say what is best to do without pictures.

[Tidy Max]

ahh! i have seen stitch welding, cheers lee! i will do just that :) thanks for the advice!

[craig green]

Bridging over panel joins & rot seems to be the norm tbh in many cases. Just cut out what rust you can & not create a new cavity for it to fester. Primer & seam seal new welds thoroughly.

[Pistol Pete]

Theres a thread in the articles section, with pics to help.

[Tidy Max]

is there?!? bloody hell, thought i trailed all the way through that!! sorry chaps!