I was wondering if you guys wouldnt mind answering a few questions for me.I plan on running my car in nhra and I have a 8 point cage welded in the car.My question is I plan on having the car repainted real soon inside and out and the welds around the base plates are kinda rough.The welds have good penetration and they seem strong but they are a bit rough to look at.I was wondering if it is ok to give them another pass or are they allowed to be ground down at all after the second pass or should I just smoth it out around the base plates with seam sealer and repaint?Thanks any help is greatly appreciated

 

If you grind, I'm pretty sure you have to re-weld. Not allowed to grind a finished weld smooth.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Pyrorocketeer &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">If you grind, I'm pretty sure you have to re-weld. Not allowed to grind a finished weld smooth. </TD></TR></TABLE>

You are correct, If there that bad I would go over them, just think about safety.

 

"They seem strong"? I've always used one rule when it comes to eyeballing welds - Bad looking welds have a very high chance of being bad. Good looking welds look good, but still have that chance of being bad.

 

Well the welds arent really bad I just really want the results to be as close to perfect as possible.I have no way of telling how strong the welds are except for eyballing them and they look good.The welds are in no way bad they just arent up to my specs.I will stay away from grinding them but will using seam sealer over the base plate welds be ok with the sanctioning body?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by siblues &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote"> will using seam sealer over the Wbase plate welds be ok with the sanctioning body?</TD></TR></TABLE>

I'm gonna go with a no.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by siblues &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I will stay away from grinding them but will using seam sealer over the base plate welds be ok with the sanctioning body?</TD></TR></TABLE>

I have actually heard some people doing this to cover up hard to reach welds. Is it ok, nope not at all. If your worried that much about it passing, the weld can't be that good. Although I have seen some bad welds bad.

 

Let me clear this up sorry for not describing it properly the welds are fine.I am not trying to cover anything up really.I am just trying to get the welds around the base plates to be as smooth as possible to get the interior of the car painted and so that it looks really smooth.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by siblues &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Let me clear this up sorry for not describing it properly the welds are fine.I am not trying to cover anything up really.I am just trying to get the welds around the base plates to be as smooth as possible to get the interior of the car painted and so that it looks really smooth.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Its still not ok to do, unless the cage already pass tech. If you are trying to do all this before tech its against the rules.

 

Thank you thats the answer I was looking for