Oi,....welding the rockers question.

Ok, after much practice, I believe I'm laying some pretty good beads, so, what I would like to know, is how you all did your welding of the rockers (outers). As they're not really structural, if I lay some ugly beads, it'll be ok and they'll also be covered up. I'm not going to spot weld them, I'm thinking of running a bead on top where the three pieces meet together and again on the bottom, except for the drains. On the front and back end, running beads along the seams.

Why don't you clamp them together, drill holes l 3 pieces, and then plug weld. Putting a bead on top of the flange may cause problems with the flex trim fitting properly around the door opening.

Hi Richard. your outer rockers are structural. All threes pieces form a frame or sorts. as to welding them i would drill 1/4 holes about 1.5 to 2 inches apart along the mating edges. then rossette weld them in. This is the next best thing to spot welding. You can use a combo punch flanger for the holes. If you run a weld along the top you'll have to grind most of it off to fit the door weatherstrip on. I'm just down the road from you if you need any help.
Bill

I have words and pictures at the link.

http://miller-garage.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=10&mode=&order=0&thold=0

i don't think you want to start with a couple pieces of sheet metal and weld a solid bead from one end to the other.

you'll get a pretzel.

if nothing else use clecos or tackwelds a foot or more apart to position the peices then seam wekld one area, skip an area or two, then go back and fill in, again skipping.

avoids overheating one stretch and distorting.

but spot or plug weld is better.

Richard, the bug is cute.

When I saw the bug crawling around, the first thought was that my PC was infected with a virus. I have heard of other things appearing on PC windows that are really an infection.

How did you do it?

Thanks

Thanks, I guess it's back to practicing to get the plug welds down.

Bill, if'n I run into any dead ends, I'll be a'hollering:)

The bug is a .gif, I can't remember where I got it, but here's the hotlink

http://img528.imageshack.us/img528/2236/4l417oggv3.gif

You can snag the bug from Richard's signature by placing the mouse over the bug, right click, and save as will copy it to your location.

FWIW, With my rockers I welded a bead along the top of the three sections along the door frame like you mentioned. I then ground off most of it so the resulting fit was fine. I had also done the plug welding but I was having fun and figured it couldn't hurt.

Tack tack tack every 1/5-2 inches, lightly, THEN weld a bead. Otherwise you'll end up with major warping, like Mac said.