Weld quality by a mobile welder, suspect!

[Terras]

Hi. Im looking for some advice on someones welding. I am derusting the rear underside of my car and came across some holes. I payed a professional to come out to me and patch them up. This was 6 weeks ago, today i wire brushed the areas ready for zinc painting and found big holes and gaps in the welding. I am a high spec solderer with no knowledge of welding but i think its poor.

So...what do you guys think?

 

[BrokenBiker]

ive seen (and done) worse that has passed mot.

 

[pondy]

In the first picture, the metal above the patch looks thin and full of pin holes. Looks like not enough bad metal was removed.

Out of interest how much did you pay? Nothing to do with quality of this work, just im often asked to repair cars for mot, quick jobs just to get a pass and never know what to charge

 

[Terras]

I payed £140 for this and 2 patches in the wheel arches. The car was not cleaned back to bare metal when he did the welds. I just showed him a hole i made with a screwdriver and asked him to repair it. Its only now i get in there and wire brushed it back. Im sure he didnt cut out the rust too. Im not happy!

 

[brightspark]

I payed £140 for this and 2 patches in the wheel arches. The car was not cleaned back to bare metal when he did the welds. I just showed him a hole i made with a screwdriver and asked him to repair it. Its only now i get in there and wire brushed it back. Im sure he didnt cut out the rust too. Im not happy!

its not the best but have u heard the saying if u see an inch in reality theres 6 and where do u draw the line

 

[TAITSIE]

Anything bolted into the captive nut ?

 

[Terras]

Yes there should be, but with that weld there the subframe bracket wont be going back on as it should.

Is this what i should expect from a profesional welder??? If not hes getting a call in the morning.

 

[TAITSIE]

Would not trust anything in that area if its structural or load bearing but if you told him to cover up the hole you made with screwdriver he has done what you asked. The area should have been cleaned up first and then you could see the extent of the corrosion

 

[cumbriasteve]

It's a quick cover up job which with a bit of underseal stuck over it would probably get through an MOT, what it's not is a good quality repair that replaces the poor steel with new to a good standard both in strength and visual appearance.

£140 is not a lot these days, especially with any call out service so perhaps you got what you paid for... or a bit short of it but not by much.

 

[gulf]

yeah,for a call out job and if he just patched what you told him to do,£140 is pretty fair,its not a great looking repair,but its up to pass an mot,Im betting that if he took it upon himself to start cutting out and doing a thorough repair you'd be complaining about the huge bill.Welding rusty cars isnt cheap.You get what you pay for,slap some underseal on it or get it done again for 3 times the price.

 

[W.olly]

IMO, what a crock of ***** that is, i wouldnt say is in any way a pro welder, but then he can weld rust so he must be good....... lol
i have welded so many cars and i know for a fact that by the look of the top pic the patch would of been twice the size if done properly.
Yes it will pass an MOT, but to pay £140 you could of got a tin of filler for less than a tenner and done just as good a job and still pass an MOT, the welds have not penetrated on a big percentage of the seams and the Captive bolt is to close for a crap weld.

Just my opinion though

 

[Country Joe]

In the first photo, the bottom side of the patch doesn't seem to have been welded at all - where the wavy edge is.
Could be my eyes, though!
All the Best,
CJ

 

[gulf]

i think he said theres afew patches,not one for that price!??

 

[chevy2]

Welding up rusted out cars can be so open ended and thats why i tend to steer clear of that type of work unless its part of a bigger project that i have in,
i dont do the 'just' weld it up for the mot stuff, if i repair it all the rot gets cut out and a correct patch welded in.

as a rule of thumb a hole the size of a pea often ends up being tennis ball size and tennis ball holes end up being footballs!

 

[the snooper]

Hi. Im looking for some advice on someones welding. I am derusting the rear underside of my car and came across some holes. I payed a professional to come out to me and patch them up. This was 6 weeks ago, today i wire brushed the areas ready for zinc painting and found big holes and gaps in the welding. I am a high spec solderer with no knowledge of welding but i think its poor.

So...what do you guys think?

that is ridiculous in the 1st pic the surrounding area is that perforated most mot testers will make another hole there.

don't confuse the term professional, all it means is that he is earning a living doing it, it doesn't mean he is good at it

 

[backpurge]

Pretty diabolical

 

[the snooper]

ive seen (and done) worse that has passed mot.

I wouldn't have admitted to that

 

[norlander]

As you can see you get mixed views as some think its ok for what its for and others think its not acceptable. A few observations:

Mig welding- especially with lower end kit often looks scruffy when compared to welds produced by other processes

Best mig welds are produced by gas shielded mig on new clean metal

Arc welding needs a good earth contact to produce decent welds

The chap that did that may have had to use gasless or may have had the gas shield lost at times.

He may not have found a good earth contact for the job without grinding off some paint on the car.

Consider doing some of your soldering outside of the workshop, lying on the ground with the job in an akward positon and intermittent flux coverage and heat to the soldering iron.

I'm not excusing the welder, just pointing out some of the possible reasons for the state of the result, but I would expect a decent welder to overcome problems though.

You say its 6 weeks since he did the work and you have only now brushed off the area?, it should have been in that state of preparation for the chap to weld it ?-getting decent welds is mostly preparation before welding.

Some of the welding lacks fusion to my eye.

It looks like good metal has been welded to bad so the weld quality may be academic as the bad metal will let go and should have been cut out so I would not call it a proper job.

My (limited experience) guess is that you need to clean of and check around the car thoroughly, find out where the bad metal ends and the good begins and then get quotes before anyone lays any beads on the car.The job is best done at a shop as the welder has all his tools and gadgets to hand.

If the quote takes your breath away, consider what gents do on here, buy some kit, few hours reading threads on here, few hours practice, then get her done yourself-learn new skills,new swearwords.
If you find its not for you after doing the job, sell the kit on here.

The work is not of professional quality (in my view), but I think you are a bit late to go back to him ?.

Good Luck, hope you sort the car.

 

[BrokenBiker]

I wouldn't have admitted to that

if its good enough for the tester...car was scrapped 2 days later after failing the mot on pretty much everything else lol

 

[Terras]

As you can see you get mixed views as some think its ok for what its for and others think its not acceptable. A few observations:

Mig welding- especially with lower end kit often looks scruffy when compared to welds produced by other processes

Best mig welds are produced by gas shielded mig on new clean metal

Arc welding needs a good earth contact to produce decent welds

The chap that did that may have had to use gasless or may have had the gas shield lost at times.

He may not have found a good earth contact for the job without grinding off some paint on the car.

Consider doing some of your soldering outside of the workshop, lying on the ground with the job in an akward positon and intermittent flux coverage and heat to the soldering iron.

I'm not excusing the welder, just pointing out some of the possible reasons for the state of the result, but I would expect a decent welder to overcome problems though.

You say its 6 weeks since he did the work and you have only now brushed off the area?, it should have been in that state of preparation for the chap to weld it ?-getting decent welds is mostly preparation before welding.

Some of the welding lacks fusion to my eye.

It looks like good metal has been welded to bad so the weld quality may be academic as the bad metal will let go and should have been cut out so I would not call it a proper job.

My (limited experience) guess is that you need to clean of and check around the car thoroughly, find out where the bad metal ends and the good begins and then get quotes before anyone lays any beads on the car.The job is best done at a shop as the welder has all his tools and gadgets to hand.

If the quote takes your breath away, consider what gents do on here, buy some kit, few hours reading threads on here, few hours practice, then get her done yourself-learn new skills,new swearwords.
If you find its not for you after doing the job, sell the kit on here.

The work is not of professional quality (in my view), but I think you are a bit late to go back to him ?.

Good Luck, hope you sort the car.

The car is stripped of all parts near the welds with easy access to them. Its located in a dry double garrage. He used gas (had a bottle with him) i assume. He cleaned up the area locally himself. If i was going to make a poor job of my soldering i would stop and get the conditions right first.