Rusty 66 Chevelle Project

[383 hatch]

Well, my work here is almost done

I worked pretty hard on this on the weekend and yesterday to try and knock it over as i'm really itching to get back into the Torana now.

So, the last body mounts arrived from the US last week. So i started by welding them in.

Boot floor finished.

Then i repaired/rebuilt the back of the wheel arches.

Next was to finish over the diff hump on the L/H side.

Patch made and sat in place.

Welded in.

With all that done, i was able to put the body back on the chassis.

I still have some minor rust to fix in the front of the rear wheel arches but that is no problems to do with the body back on the chassis. The body is only just sat on the chassis at this point as it needs to be pulled back off at some point to seam seal and squirt body deadner on the underside, but that will be done at work at a later date on a hoist. So, essentially it's only back on the chassis to get it out of my garage.

Here is just some better pics of all the repairs. This is just after i gave it all a vacuum.

Almost there.

 

[Wombles]

Love your work Hatch. Amazing stuff.

 

[ari666]

im bored and wanna know what happened next

 

[lemusa]

Question for you knowledgable people. Do you fully seam weld these patches in or just tack and bog?

 

[383 hatch]

im bored and wanna know what happened next

Ok, i've done all my work with this car. The owner got it back and seam sealed all the joins, then sprayed the whole underside in Upol ute liner. It came up beautiful, looks almost factory. I repaired all the rusted mount points on the chassis, he then painted the chassis 2 pack black and fitted the body back to the chassis with all new mounts. All the mounts lined up spot on. Unfortunately, i didn't get any pics of it finished, however, i will probably be helping when the time comes to do the bodywork, so i'll get some pics when i see it next. The owner was stoked with the job/end result. Obviously, that makes me pretty happy aswell.

Question for you knowledgable people. Do you fully seam weld these patches in or just tack and bog?

No, i didn't fully seam weld the joins. I left about a 1/2" overlap and plug welded every few inches to create a lap joint. This method will be just as strong, if not stronger than butt welding a join. No bog, it's just seam sealed to make it leak proof.

 

[Pub247]

Question for you knowledgable people. Do you fully seam weld these patches in or just tack and bog?

Tack and bog?? why would you need to bog?

If you look at the pictures you can see what he has done welding wise. Most of the replacement panels are plug welded in and seam sealed. the rust repairs in say the diff hump and arches are fully welded as they are a part of a "whole". It depends on what your fixing and where.

You don't need to bog anything that you won't "see" from the outside. Filler work is only for getting a smooth surface for painting on and should never be thick.

 

[lemusa]

Tack and bog?? why would you need to bog?

If you look at the pictures you can see what he has done welding wise. Most of the replacement panels are plug welded in and seam sealed. the rust repairs in say the diff hump and arches are fully welded as they are a part of a "whole". It depends on what your fixing and where.

You don't need to bog anything that you won't "see" from the outside. Filler work is only for getting a smooth surface for painting on and should never be thick.

I am asking as a newbie to panel repairs. Not something I plan on getting hugely into but have a few people get me to do small jobs and doesnt hurt to have a little insight instead of making a mess of thin panel when tryin to weld it fully.

 

[383 hatch]

I am asking as a newbie to panel repairs. Not something I plan on getting hugely into but have a few people get me to do small jobs and doesnt hurt to have a little insight instead of making a mess of thin panel when tryin to weld it fully.

Ok, so you're not asking about this particular project then, but panel work in general? In that case, if i'm doing a body repair, i fully weld the join (butt weld), get the metal work as good as possible then finish off with a skim of filler. It's very important to weld the join completely, not only for strength, but to stop any moisture getting through the join and under the filler and/or paint. Also, weld slowly, sort of like a series of tack welds rather than just 1 full weld. So, tack, cool, tack, cool and so on. This is to keep distortion (you will always get a certain amount of distortion with panel steel) to a minimum, which also saves time on finishing the metal work.

Never "tack and bog".

 

[lemusa]

Awesome that's what I was after. FYI I would never attempt what you did. More just stick a new panel on a car sorta thing. Having done plenty of weldin I understand the tack, cool thing as you kind of have to or everything starts going a bit sideways.

I assume you grind down your welds on seams before sealing? Or do you just weld nicely haha

 

[383 hatch]

I assume you grind down your welds on seams before sealing? Or do you just weld nicely haha

Yeh, i certainly grind the welds down before seam sealing or filling over. However, i always try to get the welds as flat as possible, which helps two things. One: There is obviously less to grind off as it's a nice clean weld which saves time and grinding wheels, Two: it also means good penetration, which is important, so when you grind the top off there is still a good strong weld in place. No point having a **** weld and grinding most of it back off to get it flat.