Help Required.. Engine Bay Welding

[Cormac]

Rite guys bit of a problem here..

Basic story is i took my nova to body shop to get new front panel fitted and engine bay painted.. engine bay has already been welded up as the 2 top chassie leg seams were crusty the guy who welded it up plated them up.. To be honest he made a slight pigs ear of the welds but i thought the body man could tidy these up no problems... Few pics below of engine bay and the welds..


http://img119.imageshack.us/img119/5757/enginebay2rk9.jpg

http://img119.imageshack.us/img119/1509/engineweldpd8.jpg

The cars now out at the bodyshop and after being out to chat to the guy he has basicly told me he dosent want to take on the job as its too much work.. Im pritty discusted as i didnt think it was overly bad.. he reckons it will take hours of labour and he dont have time for it.. all i wanted done was each side tidyed up and the bay painted.

What do you guys think, what needs done to tidy it up.. I want a desent finish without having to spend a fortune..

Cheers

[peester]

well, i dont know much.. but other than the welded areas not quite reaching the ends of the seams on the inner wings; i would leave that welding as it is.. but just add a build/thin layer of filler over/along the welded black areas maybe to smoothen out the look a wee bit.

[Lee H]

Wouldn't fill over it as it will start rusting under the filler. I speak from experience and the costly job of having two new inner wings and turrets welded in.

I would go over the welds with some seam sealer, you will hardly see them then.

[Cormac]

problem now is that he's tryed to grind down the welds on the drivers side and it looks a complete mess.. its gonna need sum serious filling which means time and money and he dont seem to want to do the job. have to go out to him today and discuss it further but he has basicly told me he dont want to do the job!! grr

[peester]

mate if hes making a mess.. and when someone says they dont want to do it; better not.. -please find someone who does - do a better job, simple as that.

[Cormac]

agree with what your saying.. bit discusted tho as he knew what he was taken on from the start but basicly dont want the hassle of doing it... he told me he has a cue of insurance jobs which he'd rather do.. basicly big money jobs.. I cant beleve his attitude atall, im really angry about it!

[craig green]

Get some GREY STRIPE seam sealer. Go over the welds on the chassis legs, build it up in nice thick layers. Eventually you could get it thick enough that you could smooth it in nicely so it looks totally smooth.

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c323/turbocraig/NovaGSi-WIP_pics/work_in_progress032.jpg

TBH the seam welding on mine was of a similar std to yours but I made it look nicely presentable with the seam sealer.

[Adam]

Agreed./\
Seam sealer is a nova owners best friend.

[Cormac]

my main worry with isoponing the seams is them cracking on me, keith has his all smoothed and he reckons he had no problems with them so i may try it, seam seal then isopon or just isopon ???

Going to see another body man this evening see what he reckons...

[Lee H]

I assume isopon is filler?

I had mine smoothed with filler and it cracked and all underneath the filler started rusting. Ended up fitting whole new inner wings and have just had them done with seam sealer like Craig put up. Use filler at your peril.

[craig green]

That Grey Stripe stuff dries fairly hard but retains an element of flexibility. None of my fr end seams have shown signs of cracking or opening up.

I definately wouldnt use filler on such a large expanse that most likely flexes like crazy when driving.

Btw my local Halfrauds does that tin of GREY STRIPE for ?13

[Lee H]

If you look in my rebuild thread http://www.pngclub.com/forum/showthread.php?t=72961

You can see the welding in of the new turrets and then on the second page there is a picture of the engine bay seam sealed and painted up and you can't see where the welds were really.

[burgo]

i used sealer on my seams then i undersealed the whole of the bay with a (sp) shultz gun. gave me a nice uniform finish that was ready for painting without any prep ;)