I have replaced the two doors on my car and also a front fender. The car doesn't have ground effects on it but the doors and fender have the holes for them. I think usually the holes are welded up but if I do that the heat from the welder will distort the metal so have to use quite a lot of filler. The metal is quite thin on these cars. On other cars I have seen the filler to crack with the doors being slammed. Is there anything else I could do to fill these holes. What about a small plate and chemical metal or is this a bad idea. Anyone any ideas as what is best to do.

Thanks.

 

What brands of body repair is availiable over there?
I agree with your ideas.
I use a wire feed with a copper plate behind the hole and go slow if I am going to weld.
I use us chemical all metal if I going to use filler. There are other brands of it, a epoxy filler that does not absorb moisture. It has a short shelf life though, dont buy it till you are ready to use it. It is kind of coarse and I feather it with lightweight filler.

I have never had filler fail on me. Be sure to prep and rough up the area if you go this route.
Good luck!

 

I agree with above

For welding, MIG welding is the best approach using filler metal to cover as much area as possible. You also use very short bursts during welding to keep the heat as low as possible. If you weld make sure you can treat the inside area to prevent it from rusting.

The cracking filler is usually due to people using the wrong material, applying it too thick or bad metal prep work. There's been great advances with fillers over the years and they now outlast the paint jobs.

 

Thanks for your replys. I can mig weld the holes. I don't want to have too much filler on the car if I can. I am just trying to go through all my options at the moment. I have some of that "no heat transfer putty", hopefully that could stop the panel warping too badly. The metal is very thin on these cars, about 1.5mm.

 

Also you need to use a thin mig wire. That takes less heat.

 

Okay, thanks for that. Will check that out. I was going to put a plate at the back of the hole to take some of the heat. I wonder would that help things.

 

Use a copper backing plate behind the holes, dissipates heat and can help keep it level. As mentioned, thinner wire. The fit of the metal plug is important, make sure it's the same thickness as the door and fit it with a slight gap around it for expansion, but since its a small piece, less gap than you would use for a whole panel. If possible, practice on identical metal, that always helps me a lot. Make sure the metal is clean of paint both sides.

 

Will try that, Thanks.

 

I thought the proper method to fill holes was to lead them?

http://www.eastwood.com/ew-body-sold...-with-dvd.html

And if the lead bothers you they actually have a lead-free kit too..

http://www.eastwood.com/ew-basic-lea...-with-dvd.html

And I learned about that stuff from this article...

http://www.carcraft.com/howto/3065/

I figured it would be a good option to fill spoiler mount holes so I could switch to a high-rise z28 spoiler, and perhaps also to fill in the cracks at the corners of my windows. Never got around to trying it, but I think I'd rather do that than bondo in holes for hte reasons you mentioned.

 

Lead is for filling gaps or low spots in highly structural areas where other fillers would crack and welding has already been done or would be impractical (low spots). Mig welding is better for holes in panels. If there's any low spots after mig welding, light filler is fine on panels.