appreciate comments/advice/critism on my welding work

[SilverSaloon]

hi

as some of you may know i'm restoring a Mercedes SL at the moment.

i've done a blog that details all my work. its my 1st time welding and general "major" body repair work (after some practice) so i'd be interested in any comments, good or bad - as it will help with the rest of the work i still have to do on the car!

blog is here to read and view it (lots of pics):

http://r107restoration.blogspot.com/

here are direct links to the main welding parts of my work so far:

o/s sill repair:

http://r107restoration.blogspot.com/2009/05/os-sill-repair_27.html

n/s sill repair:

http://r107restoration.blogspot.com/2009/05/os-sill-repair.html

crossmemeber repair:

http://r107restoration.blogspot.com/2009/05/ns-front-crossmember-replacement.html

thanks

Derek

 

[Dangle_kt]

Do you dress your welds afterwards?

I'm no expert, but the welds don't really look very uniform. A few seconds with a grinding disc can hide ugly welds.

Whether they are strong or not, I couldn't comment, if I was doing anything structural then I'd look to do lots more practise or even better get on a short night course before trusting my life to it.

 

[SilverSaloon]

Do you dress your welds afterwards?

I'm no expert, but the welds don't really look very uniform. A few seconds with a grinding disc can hide ugly welds.

Whether they are strong or not, I couldn't comment, if I was doing anything structural then I'd look to do lots more practise or even better get on a short night course before trusting my life to it.

i didnt bother grinding the welds as all this area is eventually hidden by trim.

i coated the repaired areas with POR-15 and then a coating of resin before any underseal was added ontop.

 

[Chickenjohn]

I wouldnt use "resin" and underseal. Grind the welds down and apply seam sealer, then an etch primer, stone chip coating and a coat of paint.

 

[SilverSaloon]

the resin is the stuff that comes with fibreglass kit. i just didnt use the fibreglass sheet. i read somewhere (here?) that its good to seal repairs with???

 

[malcolm]

I wouldn't use fibreglass resin - will tend to get water up behind it and rust the steel. Decent primer, seam sealer then paint before underseal would be a more usual system.

 

[SilverSaloon]

I wouldn't use fibreglass resin - will tend to get water up behind it and rust the steel. Decent primer, seam sealer then paint before underseal would be a more usual system.

thanks. someone told me that its good to use the fibreglass resin over the welds to completely seal it from water, to prevent the rust oh dear

most of the work i have done has been treated with POR-15 before the resin so i guess i should be ok?

thanks

derek

 

[Rusty]

Derek , well done for attempting the work with so little previous experience we all have to start somewhere and to achieve a skill level like you see in the Tutorials on this site takes LOTS of practice. But checkout the Tutorials and that will give you an idea of what to aim for and what the welds should look like plus there are many tips on the fabrication side of things.' Patching in ' to outer sills is OK if you are a well practiced welder / fabricator /painter but patches that you can see after the finish paint is applied spoils the job Looking at the condition of the inside of the sill could you not obtain a full outer sill ? It can be easier replacing the whole sill ( just drill out the spot welds etc then plug weld the new sill into place )when you have taken the old sill off this gives you perfect access to the inner sill and to do any work required. If this were a £100 banger and it was just to get it through the MOT But a Merc SL Liked the Blog Derek , nice Photo's.

 

[SilverSaloon]

the rest of the outer sill is good though so i dont want to replace the sill for now. maybe something for the future - if i were a better welder maybe! i figured it would be best to keep 97% of the sill intact and original. the inner sill on the drivers side had quite a lot of rust on it but its very thick steel and i rubbed it down to mostly good metal and then treated with a rust remedy & POR-15 before the repairs were done to the outer sill. i decided to and the jack point on the drivers side probably isnt very strong anymore. hindsight i would have put a new jack point "pole" in place though.

i'm pretty pleased with the final result on show, visibility wise. everything you can see apart from the sill itself is covered with plastic trim. you can see its been repaired but once the ripple stone chip guard stuff is sprayed on (not in the photos yet) you cant notice very easily. i may even just brush black underseal along the sill.

the welds i did penetrated to the rear of the panels and although not pretty i'm sure they are strong. this is something i made sure of. i didnt bother to grind down any of these welds as i thought it would be better to have as much metal as possible and you wont see any of it anyway.

i dont think i'd be confident to remove the whole sills and weld in new ones yet. definatly something i'd consider for the future though.

i but welded the new metal in place and drilled holes along the lip where i did plug welds along and then a seam along the bottom.

i actually did the passenger side twice as i wasnt happy with the end result and had to angle grind my new panel off...

 

[mspaul]

RE:welders

Hi,

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(Link to ************* removed)


Thanks,
mspaul