stock welds on 68 camaro frame

[justasquid]

I fully cleaned my sub frame and discovered the factory welds look like crap. Not just bad, but horrible. Half of them have burn through into the metal way to far and there is spatter everywhere. I cleaned up the spatter, but I am puzzled as what to do about the welds. From close inspection, I do not see any cracks or reason for immediate concern. but I wonder if it would be a good idea to weld over the old welds to make them look better, and potentially be stronger. Most of the welds have burn in so deep, welding over them would flush the welds to the surface and leave a much nicer looking finish.

Is this a good idea? Or am I just wasting time?

[Damn True]

The answer is yes, you should grind out and re-weld the worst of them (check for cracks around the UCA mount bracket) and finish welding the places where the factory didn't.

Check the first few pages of my build thread.

[ErikLS2]

I'm a fool for not doing this before I had mine powdercoated, although the welds on mine didn't look too bad, nevertheless I'm still kicking myself. Seems there's a wide range of factory weld quality on these things.

[novaderrik]

i love the weld quality of the older cars- i've actually gotten cuts from 3" long pieces of welding wire that were stuck to the welds.

[HILLBILLY68]

i love the weld quality of the older cars- i've actually gotten cuts from 3" long pieces of welding wire that were stuck to the welds.



I've got welding wire in a couple of places on my 68 also.

[justasquid]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I feel better about wanting to do it now. Looks like I have some welding to do next weekend.

I'll be sure to check out your build, thanks True.

[a67]

I used a '70 (or so) Nova sub frame in the '67. Before I installed it the sub frame was fully welded. The OEM was along the lines of a skip weld. Weld 6", skip 6", weld 6", skip...

Big improvement in the front end stiffness, tracking, handling and so on over the stock sub frame.

Bob