As far as welding up the seams, I plan on doing it to our 1982
We'llfollowya,  if it ever gets rust on it.

Eric may have a point about body flex via the seams, but I don't think you
will get "all kinds of cracks in the body". In pursuit of body-stiffening,
welding the seams is a pretty common practice on Porsche 911 and 914's that
folks autocross. No harm done.

Mig, Tig, Arc, Spot, zap.

G. Matthew Bulley
Bulley-Hewlett & Associates
www.bulley-hewlett.com
Cary, NC USA
888.468.4880 tollfree

-----Original Message-----
From:   Gary Shea [SMTP:shea@GTSDESIGN.COM]
Sent:   Tuesday, June 15, 1999 1:58 PM
To:     vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject:        Re: Body Seam Rust (long)

You remember when Bob Hoover was on the type2 list?  He apparently
thought that mig welding the seams was the way to go, and had done
it on at least one van.  I don't remember any more details than that.
His claim was that flex was not an issue, that the seams were there
because the car companies were too cheap to do the welding themselves.

        Gary

On Tue, 15 Jun 1999, EMZ wrote:
>     Your going to mig weld the seam? I think this is a bad Idea.
> This I am sure, is where the vehicle flex. Wellding them close
> will cause all kinds of cracks in the body. BTW, sandlasting
> is the best way to remove rust.
>
>             Eric                   86-VW4x4
>             vw4x4@fyi.net          72-240z
>             Pittsburgh, PA USA     1936-Chrysler