Are there any disadvantages from totally seam welding a shell of a car, namely a MK2? I know of the obvious ones like its harder to replace panels and stuff, but i mean in the actual loadings on the shell? From what i can see there is nothing to lose and plenty to be gained in doing this as much as possible as it'd stengthen the car a fair bit, but why do we never hear of this happening in anything other than full blown race / rally cars? What would the best mehod be for doing this, a straight forward MIG weld, or using an ARC weld? (i was told arc welding is the way to go when doing seam welded wishbones)
Cant think of any except that is might make it weigh a bit more but then again they do it 2 race cars so cant adv. must be more the the disadv.. Cheers
Apparently it makes the ride a lot harsher, the original spec spot-welded shell has a degree of compliance in it that will be lost when you seam weld it up. You may want to re-think your suspension set up if you go down that route.
I think any weight increase due to a small amount of weld could be offset by simply having a crap before you go in the car! Yeah i thought t would be harser, make the shell much more rigid. Dont think i'd actually do it, but maybe its somehting i should have looked into before i re-built it, especially round areas such as the windows and front chassis legs and bulkhead.
Well all the shock from an impact that would have been absorbed by the crumple zones would be passed straight on gift wrapped and in first class post to the driver. Nice. Although it's still a good idea for track only cars.
So ylu reckon its a good idea to do it then phat? Or was it only done beasuse you were smoothin it and needed strength to stop cracking etc? I was thinkin it might be a good plan at the front when the engine comes out soon before something more powerful goes in.
