I'm considering cutting the front off my project car to work on it then re welding in gas along the original weld lines. This might seem insane but I need to do a rust repair at the bottom in gas or tig and it will give me access to straighten some accident damage that I'm struggling to get to if I cut along the original lines it will all be easily accessible to weld horizontally and vertically in gas and planish out the distortion afterwards. I was thinking of cutting with a 1mm hacksaw blade and re welding with no gap gas. I'm trying to go for as close to no filler as possible metal finish hence the extra effort. Taking the nose off would also mean I could wheel or planish hammer out the dents on a machine. Has anyone ever done this?
- Thread starter 1960bus
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slim_boy_fat
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- Scottish Highlands
How about a 1mm cutting disc in a grinder, easier and quicker, I'd imagine
cecotto479
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We do this often, particularly on E24 sills, in order to get access to the inner sill, we cut off the outer sill, repair it as necessary, repair the inner and weld the outer back on. 1mm slitting discs are the way to go. Leave a nice gap that gills in nicely.
many years ago (in 1997) I had to repair the inner wing on a mk3 ford fiesta, so rather than remove the welded on front wings I cut a big hole in them with a jigsaw to give me access. I then welded up the inner wing and then seam welded the section back into the outer wing that I had previously removed. as the car was only a runabout until I repaired my herald I the weld was left without being ground back or painted.....the police wern't too impressed when I go pulled in it, and they were even less impressed when I showed them a 1 day old MOT certificate
I will be lead loading as I have to replace the original stuff. A mate of mine looked at the job today and as he's a better welder convinced me he could do the positional work upside down with gas rather than remove the whole panel and then cut the acident damaged bit out and re weld. I still haven't decided but there's nearly 3 feet of gas welding if I take it off and a lot of planishing.
