chopolds
Member
The way I suggested was probably the best way to do it, esp. for someone not very experienced with doing hammer welding.
The problem arises, when you weld on the flat part of the hood, that you WILL get warpage. The flatter the area, the worse it will seem...the larger the area that will be displaced by the shrunken weld seam.
So......if you do an overlap weld, 1. you will have a bit more strength in the weld seam area 2. That is not necessarily a good thing...it will be harder, or impossible to correct any warpage 3. overlaps invite trapped moisture & rust & 4. since it will have different expansion & contraction rates, you will see the seam even if your bodywork is perfect, you'll see them at different temperatures.
Butt welding pretty much eliminates all these problems. It just takes more care and time to trim the metal just right to do a good butt weld. The hammer and dolly work afterwards will help eliminate the warpage problem. It IS worth the time and effort! Just very difficult for a beginner. You dont' really want a ton of bondo on a hood...same reason for not bonding the glass scoop on it...heat and vibration will eventuall cause it to fail.
You can try and splice in the scoop on the flat part of the hood, but you'll be figthing the warpage problem a lot.Just take your time, and do lots of tack welds, skip around a lot, takes breaks to let the metal cool, just be very carefull with your welding and you'll have less problems. It can be done, but it's a lot harder to do, that's why I always try to do it the way I suggested.
The problem arises, when you weld on the flat part of the hood, that you WILL get warpage. The flatter the area, the worse it will seem...the larger the area that will be displaced by the shrunken weld seam.
So......if you do an overlap weld, 1. you will have a bit more strength in the weld seam area 2. That is not necessarily a good thing...it will be harder, or impossible to correct any warpage 3. overlaps invite trapped moisture & rust & 4. since it will have different expansion & contraction rates, you will see the seam even if your bodywork is perfect, you'll see them at different temperatures.
Butt welding pretty much eliminates all these problems. It just takes more care and time to trim the metal just right to do a good butt weld. The hammer and dolly work afterwards will help eliminate the warpage problem. It IS worth the time and effort! Just very difficult for a beginner. You dont' really want a ton of bondo on a hood...same reason for not bonding the glass scoop on it...heat and vibration will eventuall cause it to fail.
You can try and splice in the scoop on the flat part of the hood, but you'll be figthing the warpage problem a lot.Just take your time, and do lots of tack welds, skip around a lot, takes breaks to let the metal cool, just be very carefull with your welding and you'll have less problems. It can be done, but it's a lot harder to do, that's why I always try to do it the way I suggested.