The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Spot Welds

Anyone out there have any experience with replacing the bed to sidewall strip. I want to replace the origional steel angle strips on my "59" with a stainless steel ones. Mine are corroded and trapping stuff from back in 59.
they're spot welded in about twenty places and bolted in two places. I centerpunched each weld and picked up a spot weld drill bit from Eastwood. I intend to substitute "some" bolts for welds.Any cautions and or recommendations on this before I cut?

No problems just as long as you realize you only have to go through the top piece of metal. If you do go through both it's not a big deal to weld up the hole, just more work. You'll find that using a "spot weld drill bit" won't leave a smooth surface anyway, some sanding (light grinding)will more than likely be required after you remove the angle stip.

Fatfenders, what do you mean by "the top piece of metal"? I've been wondering about this myself. I want to use stainless, but I figured the spot welding would discolor the metal. How do you spot weld stainless without marring its appearance?

And what's the best way to remove the old strips? With the spot weld bit that msteuer mentions?

Baldy,

The spot weld drill (or cutter) just cuts through the top layer of metal if you do it right. If properly centered on the spot weld, it basically removes all the welded material and then nothing is left holding the two pieces of metal together.

Weld stainless with stainless rod/wire or with a TIG welder with stainless filler if required. Grind/polish the weld smooth and there will be no discoloration - it is "stainless"

Ken, couldn't you plug weld from the back with regular MIG wire? I know that you can weld to the stainless, so just as long as you didn't get real good penitration, you would be all right, I think.

Thanks guys. That isn't something I can do myself, but now that I know it can be done with marring the stainless, I'll find someone who can do that for me. Should you paint the box before welding the stainless on?

When it comes time to install mine I will use some carriage bolts to install the new ones. Only about two of them will be visible. The rest is obscured by the fender.