8 replies to this topic

[flamenco]

Hi all,

I just had a friend of mine (professional panel beater) who replaced the driver's floorpanel and part of the flitch panel, seat cross-member and part of the sill. The quality of the work is excellent, however he didn't grind the welds as he told me that by doing so I will be reducing the strength of the new panel.

What do you think of this? Does grinding a weld actually reduce its strength? (particularly on butt joints)

heres the panel all welded up and hammerited

[cooper s wannabe]

personally on thr floor if its not seen ie under carpet ect then id leave it. it could be weakend if it was ground back to far making it thin. also unless you want to start filling the floor ect then it could be tricky to get an invisible weld depending how it was welded.

[Neildanks]

I grind my welds but i do it at the same time as welding so i can re weld areas that are suspect.

It Is very time consuming and patience testing to produce invisible welds that still contain strength.

[Surfbluegarage]

if the floor pan is butt welded dont grind the welds back at all unless there pigeon-ified. if puddle welding to lips then your could grind nearly the whole weld away without a problem but if its butt welded dont bother.like said above you dont see it really so not really worth it unless it does really bother you. but its up to you.. your car.lol

[project mini chris]

places like the floor pan i tend to melt down excess weld or even grind it down a little bit but not too much as said above could seriously weaken the panel if ground right back to the join.

[Surfbluegarage]

is that a gear adapted made for converting the pudding stirrer or is there something more sinister under the hood?lol

[flamenco]

thanks all for your replys. I shall leave it as it is then and hide in under the carpet

oh and that extension is an SPQR extension made in the 60s to convert the magic wand gear lever into something more 'stylish'!

here's one on ebay which ended a few days ago..
http://cgi.ebay.co.u...1030175001r4448

[Shifty]

If you just want to tidy up the welds then its perfectly ok to smooth them down, ie just give then a quick lick with a grinding pad. If you really wanted to finish them off you could then filler or seam-seal them. Seam seal would be longer lasting and does tidy the area up.

[flamenco]

yep, that's what I did for the welds visible from the outside. It did the job just right