im going to be doing a shaved bay look. and i want to get rid of all that seam sealer **** that honda uses. would it just be better to weld up the seams. or should i remove the seam sealer and put some new seam sealer on

 

are you going to be seam welding or stitch welding?

 

Stitch welding the seams.

Stitch welding is intermittent welding. For example, 1" of bead, skip 1", then repeat. Like this:

WELD-----------WELD-----------WELD-----------WELD

 

with my exp of seam welding. you will more than likely burn the metal up. make it look horrible as hell, or get 1/4 of the way through it and say expletive it. easiest way is to tig it.

also after seam welding you will notice little to no difference performance wise.
not hatin on the project just my honest opinion

 

im not sure why you would bother... it will not hurt anything unless you get into a wreck and go to change an engine bay panel. The cars are spot welded...stitching the seams is just overkill. You will probably warp the hell out of the thin metal too

 

You can do it with a MIG just fine. Just be sure to have it set perfect and allow the weld and surrounding area to cool before starting another bead. Most the time people do this on race cars (road corse, autoX, etc) to stiffen the chasis and do more than just the engine bay.

There really is no reason for you to do this if driven more than 50% of the time on the street. Waste of time IMO if that is the case.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by postman &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">with my exp of seam welding. you will more than likely burn the metal up. make it look horrible as hell, or get 1/4 of the way through it and say expletive it. easiest way is to tig it.

</TD></TR></TABLE>

Why why WHY would you ever put your self through seam welding by TIG?

 

Dont bother welding where seam sealer is. Just re seal it and call it a day

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by postman &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">with my exp of seam welding. you will more than likely burn the metal up. make it look horrible as hell, or get 1/4 of the way through it and say expletive it. easiest way is to tig it.

also after seam welding you will notice little to no difference performance wise.
not hatin on the project just my honest opinion</TD></TR></TABLE>

I prep-d two acura's for seam welding. It was a REALLY big PITA, and took a lot of hours, with a wire wheel, and picks. Then the welder fallowed behind and MIG'd them all. He didn't burn anything up, and it doesn't look horrible.

I have never driven a seam welded vs. non seam welded car back to back so i couldn't tell you if there was a difference. But the head builder of the cars said it was worth the 2 weeks of labor we put into it.

 

Unless your really commited to it dont bother. You need to get every last bit of sealer out or it will be a royal pain in the ***. I was planning to do all of my E30 BMW but only did the rear suspention mounting crossmember area since both sides need to be cleaned or the sealer/undercoaing/whatever it is on the otherside will smoke and burn and make working in an enclosed area a whole lotta not fun. Ill finish the rest of the car if i ever get it acid dipped first haha.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by postman &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote"> easiest way is to tig it.
</TD></TR></TABLE>

It would take for ever to tig weld it, plus you will burn threw it as well with a tig.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by mike9571 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Dont bother welding where seam sealer is. Just re seal it and call it a day</TD></TR></TABLE>

x2

 

On my car we cut a couple panels out of a crx from the junkyard, that would be the panels stitch welded. Practiced on those with different setting then found a nice Mig setting and started the stitch welding.

 

It would take for ever to tig weld it, plus you will burn threw it as well with a tig

No. Get rid of any gaps, and results would be better with TIG. It takes far too long this way though, the process is long enough with MIG.
This is mostly for racecars as mentioned.
Do what you like with your car, this excellent forum will allow you to do it right.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by LSEGHATCH &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">You can do it with a MIG just fine. Just be sure to have it set perfect and allow the weld and surrounding area to cool before starting another bead. Most the time people do this on race cars (road corse, autoX, etc) to stiffen the chasis and do more than just the engine bay.

There really is no reason for you to do this if driven more than 50% of the time on the street. Waste of time IMO if that is the case.</TD></TR></TABLE>
<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Sobe_Death &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

Why why WHY would you ever put your self through seam welding by TIG?</TD></TR></TABLE>

here in cyprus ppl who attemp uphill races are forced from regulations to replace the whole seam sealer from the car with any kind of metal welding not for chasis stifening bat cos is too flamable, even the rast protection tar thing from the bottom of the car and just have it painted.

is a major PITA cos you have to strip the whole car to do that ****.

 

wow, so I guess you don't have access to an acid dip? that would probably clean it well enough

 

Stitch and seem welding does offer a noticeable change in handling. One thing to take into consideration though is safety. Cars are made with certain points that will crumple in the event of an accident; When you weld the seems it may interfere with these points and will inherently be more dangerous. My recomendation, if you want to weld the engine bay, is weld along the points that will flex under extreme handling conditions such as along the strut towers and such.