Could you weld your car to this high standard

[cecotto479]

This looks OK:-

I saw this:-

And started with the knotted brush in the grinder - just the slightest skim of filler:-

Spot the wire left in place and filled over:-

 

[vpug]

What can I say but why weld when you can fill, Yet another masterpiece.

 

[Iain Westland]

and I bet it did not come cheap either...

 

[the snooper]

thats come from the stevie wonder school of welding

 

[brightspark]

I couldnt agree more, I started my own business doing automotive welding and i dont overlap stuff at all, its a false economy. Everything gets cut back to good metal, then wire brushed then sand blasted to make sure most the rust has gone and finally treated with some rust killer (just to make sure ) Once the new panels/repairs are in place they are seam sealed/undersealed or covered in waxoyl etc. Why do a job like that, for how much longer it would have taken to cut a little more metal away and make a patch to fit, just charge a little more.

what is the point in wire brushing metal THEN sandblasting it THEN treating it with rust killer . when there is no rust there after blasting . once blasted the rotten metal is worn away leaving a reasonable thickness of metal to weld to . it seems well ott .

 

[Lewis Medlock]

I've read this thread with interest and was wondering how many people offering car welding services would recognise Boron Steel.

And how would they repair it?

It can be MIG welded and covered in underseal for £25/hour.

How many MOT testers would tell if Boron Steel had been MIG welded or MIG brazed?

That worries me (a bit)




I do a bit of car bodging (welding) when I have to, amongst other things.
I've got a welder with a MIG brazing programme on it but with the wire costing £150 for 4Kg I'm ******ed if I'll do the work for £25/£35/£45/hour.

http://www.r-techwelding.co.uk/welding_equipment/Mig_Brazing_Wire


So the customer goes elsewhere and somebody does it for £25.

I think the problem lies with the very low standard set by VOSA for MOT standard welding. If they start insisting on proper repairs the world would be a safer place, the motoring population would be even more skint but as a welder I could make money out of car bodging.

Just my 2p


Jim

 

[the snooper]

there is no way welding could be enforced at an mot if it was done correctly ie plate inserted weld gound flush then whole car undersealed it could be hidden the only way the tester would know is if he failed it first then it went for welding

 

[BillJ]

I think the problem lies with the very low standard set by VOSA for MOT standard welding. If they start insisting on proper repairs the world would be a safer place

In theory, yes. However, while I like to do repairs on my own cars properly, I have yet to see any statistics suggesting that sub-standard welded repairs are a significant contributor to accidents on the road. I especially haven't seen any figures yet that show the effect of incorrect repair of boron steel car panels on death/injury statistics.

So while we all know the correct way to do things, it's not easy to quantify the consequences of doing them the wrong way.

 

[octo0072000]

thats come from the stevie wonder school of welding

now come on stevie wonder could have done better than that

 

[Lewis Medlock]

I have yet to see any statistics suggesting that sub-standard welded repairs are a significant contributor to accidents on the road.

I especially haven't seen any figures yet that show the effect of incorrect repair of boron steel car panels on death/injury statistics.

Neither have I Bill but are you seriously suggesting that the welds illustrated in the photos in this thread are satisfactory?

And all the "don't weld" stickers on truck chassis' made of Boron are there to look pretty?



Materials and processes move on, the regulators (VOSA) and the tradesmen working with the materials (me) need to move on as well.


Jim

 

[cecotto479]

Have you seen the new BMWs? The "chassis" isn't welded at all, but bonded. Accident repairs are carried out with the advanced form of a tube of Sikkaflex.

There's only one place in Scotland authorised to do them
I believe. It's more like an operating theatre than a garage.

 

[keith19]

Have you seen the new BMWs? The "chassis" isn't welded at all, but bonded. Accident repairs are carried out with the advanced form of a tube of Sikkaflex.

There's only one place in Scotland authorised to do them
I believe. It's more like an operating theatre than a garage.

That's interesting. If it catches on with all the big manufacturers, a few years down the line it will be authorised repairers (agents) only; something most of the manufacturers have always wanted.

Again, the small garage business will take a big hit, especially if it extends to panel replacement too. If it catches on...

 

[slimjim]

I've read this thread with interest and was wondering how many people offering car welding services would recognise Boron Steel.

And how would they repair it?

It can be MIG welded and covered in underseal for £25/hour.

How many MOT testers would tell if Boron Steel had been MIG welded or MIG brazed?

That worries me (a bit)




I do a bit of car bodging (welding) when I have to, amongst other things.
I've got a welder with a MIG brazing programme on it but with the wire costing £150 for 4Kg I'm ******ed if I'll do the work for £25/£35/£45/hour.

http://www.r-techwelding.co.uk/welding_equipment/Mig_Brazing_Wire


So the customer goes elsewhere and somebody does it for £25.

I think the problem lies with the very low standard set by VOSA for MOT standard welding. If they start insisting on proper repairs the world would be a safer place, the motoring population would be even more skint but as a welder I could make money out of car bodging.

Just my 2p


Jim

Of course it's a trade off between safety and a reasonable life of the vehicle, if they really were to get much stricter, then it won't lead to more work for yourself, probably less, as anything requiring work will be either exported to a less strict country, much in the same way as Japan operates, or they will be scrapped.

 

[Iain Westland]

yep ~

 

[stuvy]

i know a guy that once put a length of garden hose behind a wheel arch and shaped some wood to fit the outer curve then loads of filler and paint. The worst thing was he did this too a vw split screen camper van even worse was him saying it sold for 15k

 

[BillJ]

Neither have I Bill but are you seriously suggesting that the welds illustrated in the photos in this thread are satisfactory?

And all the "don't weld" stickers on truck chassis' made of Boron are there to look pretty?

Not in the slightest - they're abominal. Common sense says that structural parts are designed to have a certain strength for a good reason and that repairs should preserve (or restore) the same strength. It's how I approach repairing my own and friends' cars (I have no experience of truck repair). However, you would think that if VOSA have started to become stricter on imposing this, they would have some statistics to back up their change in stance.

 

[jim painter]

Unit rental £26.40 per week (not the biggest but enough to start with.)
Leccy cost 12p per unit averaginging about £4 a week
Business rates (exempt small business rate releif)
cost of materials for the job was probably about a quids worth of metal, some gas and wire and a flap disc. Painted over with some red oxide I had lying around as she was going to get the sills repainted.
Not bad really.

 

[Iain Westland]

£26.40 a week, wish mine was that little

I also thought you had replaced the sills, just seen from your post that you patched them (albeit well) so yea, not much material wise..

iain

 

[jim painter]

£26.40 a week but it aint massive. I can get 2 campers in it and thats about it. I have a bench and tools but everything has its place.
I'm not that good with fung shui though.lol

 

[jim painter]

what is the point in wire brushing metal THEN sandblasting it THEN treating it with rust killer . when there is no rust there after blasting . once blasted the rotten metal is worn away leaving a reasonable thickness of metal to weld to . it seems well ott .

It might seem a bit ott, but its the way I thought was best. Wire brush to remove most of the heavy/flaky rust. Blasting to clean the rest, and then a bit of treatment just for a belt and braces approach. If that seems ott then I hold my hands up, I just want the repairs to last.