has anyone re-welded all the frame and everything else to strengthen those crappy spot welds? notice anything? i am gonna do it tonight.

 

Yes.

The difference is noticeable. Concentrate on the K-member first. Nextwork over all the ones along where the "frame" sections attacah to the body, both in the front and around all the rear end attachment stuff.

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"So many Mustangs, so little time..."
ICON Motorsports

 

cool, you used a mig right. a doofus i work with says back in the day he rod welded and could do it so the carpet dosent even get hot on the other side. sounds dumb. hes a doofus

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race it or sell it

 

Marginally believeable. Spot welds though. If he didn't have to scratch and drag and was good at spot welding, I could see it happening.


I think there is a reason why GM only used spot welds. They didn't want to heat the metal up too much and cause warps. Theoretically those spots will hold just fine. (and they do) I suppose if you know what you're doing, more power to ya.

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1985 Camaro SC - 2.8L, auto.

http://www.xenodrgn.f2s.com/Frontright.jpg

 

I agree. I don't see how making a continuous weld over spot welds will strengthen it to a point that it will be noticable. I'd agree that the joint would be stronger, but I wonder if it would be noticable or even desirable... Spot welds can be pretty strong, and I just can't see how running a continuous bead will would make a difference. But then I'm no expert.

 

The guy that did mine used a MIG. He went nearly all the way around the K member, and then all around the ones on the body as much as he could. It wasn't a huge difference, but definitely noticeable. The car feels more solid going over bumps and such without pounding the driver to death; it also makes less creaking and rattling noise than it did on rough roads.

People who race "stock-bodied" cars have been doing this for years; in certain chassis, they even fill in some of the holes (the large ones, like bolt access holes and such) the factory leaves in the frame. They also make more holes in other less critical places to lighten it. But a Vette frame especially responds significantly to doing this.

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"So many Mustangs, so little time..."
ICON Motorsports

 

Continuosly welding the panels together will greatly strengthen the chassis. The factory spot welds are strong but give over time. You can also put additional spot welds in if you can get to the equipment. I would weld every seam you can, strut towers and all. Then maybe the next time you jack it up the front fenders won't pull away from the doors an inch. Also make sure the car is on all four wheels when you do this so you don't end up with a crooked chassis.

 

This mod is done partly for strength and partly for added chassis stiffness. It keeps the two pieces of metal from separating ever so slightly between the spot welds. This adds to the stiffness and reduces cracking at the existing spotwelds caused by the flexing.

It's perhaps difficult to visualize when looking at the entire structure of a car, but easier if you try to think how you'd model it for a finite element stress analysis and you're trying to picture how it works "up close".

Norm



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1979 Malibu w/some cornering tweaks and a few other interesting things