I just checked out the floor and truck repair being done to my 67, I got a bit upset with the shop. I needed a drivers side upper flller patch and the complete trunk floor replaced. It appears they decided to cut out the damaged area and place the panel over the hole and spot it in. When looking from the outside it looks really bad. I talk to them about butt welding and they asked if I could get pictures of before and after so they can get an idea of what results I am looking for. I have to keep in mind this is being done were I work and it is a fill in job for the Body Techs They do mostly collision repairs on newer vehicle not restoring a classic muscle car. So.. any advise I can pass on to them would be great pictures even better Thanks for you help.
:rolleyes:

I wouldn't be surprised about having lap welds in the trunk, but are you talking about exterior body patches too?

No, just floor and truck panels, But how do you dress the welds when done? I am not worried about the trunk as much as I am about the floor, you can see the patch on the firewall.

It depends on the vehicle to how the floors are replaced. On the Chevelle, when doing floor pans, the floor pan lays over top of the rocker box just like the original, if memory serves (did a Buick GS convert about two years ago, so it's been a while since I've seen the floor pans). The places you'll likely see overlap welds are by the trans tunnel and footwell area. These areas are near impossible to see unless your completely under the car. What I've seen done is that the exposed lap areas underneath are then seam sealed which creates a water tight repair.

While butt welds may be the hot lick to make it look a close to original as possible, it also takes a TON more time for super tight panel fitups. These reproduction pans don't fit perfect without pushing, prying and hammering to get them to sit where they need to. Trying to do a butt weld and then having to shift the panel or push it down to the cross braces, etc, will only expose way too wide of gapes at the butt seams. You could easily expect to pay twice the amount to install them by butt welding method.

The last set I did took 8 hours per side to cut out the old and fit/weld in the new including two floor braces...that's 16 bill-able hours. If you wanted to butt weld them, your looking at possibly 30+ hours for the job to come out as you want it. Most all our customers have a fit paying the time it takes to do a lap weld install, much less asking so much more to do a butt weld install...most folks just have no idea of how time consuming this stuff really is.

If you want the overlap seams hidden, ask them to do some body filler work to hide the visible areas. Even with butt welding, due to the reproduction pans marginal fit, you can still expect to have to do some filler work to make the pans look 100% factory.

Your story about a crash shop not knowing the proper restoration methods is what I see as typical around my area...crash/paint shops are only familiar with doing late model vehicles...very few shops around here specialize in restoration type work.

BTW, with lap welds, we typically will 100% seam weld the inside using a skip/stitch weld method. A bunch of small tacks have poor structural strength IMO.

Oh yea, any place there is a factory lap or a cross brace/frame rail, the proper 5/16" plug welds should be used.

They cant seem to understand what a butt weld is without photos??? And they are repairing collision damaged cars!!!

Do they also need pics of undamaged quarter panels if they were to replace it :rolleyes:

Sounds like some lazy arse or dumb arse is working on your car

tell the guys to get their head out of the ass and do it right . i am sure they know how.

Its not that they dont know what a butt joint is ! The crew working on the car does very nice work but its clean work no rust... panels that fit properly.... OEM parts not aftermarket. The manager was asking me to get pictures of what I want for a finished product so we are on the same page sorry if my orig post was not that clear. Collision work VRS. restoration work are 2 different animals, hell they glue on 1/4 panels now.......

I'm just wrapping up my driver pan. Started by cutting it out to lap weld, then bit the bullet to do butt welds.

Best estimate I could give is ~5hrs extra time spent fitting, that wouldn't have been with a lap weld.

By the way, a lap weld around the entire perimeter would be semi-difficult to detect after the both sides are seamed ... and it is a stronger joint.

I chose to the butt welds only because of concerns for rot inside of the lap joint. Truth be told, I really don't think it would have ever hurt anything ... but I'm just that way.

Thanks, Neal