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    1. #1
      Join Date
      Apr 2015
      Posts
      188
      Country Flag: United States

      Silicone bronze technique for structural integrity

      I'm going to weld the lower quarter seam to the rocker on a 77 trans am today. I want to fill it with silicone bronze. I've never done that before. I cut the flange off the new quarter since it's otherwise inaccessible for welding with the outer wheel house already installed.

      Do I need to put some strong tacks in place to structurally hold the panel in place and then fill the gaps and any recessese and go over the steel filler tacks with silicone bronze to ensure it doesn't pop or come loose later?



    2. #2
      Join Date
      Sep 2010
      Location
      Beach Park IL
      Posts
      2,838
      Country Flag: United States
      So you cut the flange off the quarter that would have been spot welded to the rocker?

      If that is the case, and you intend to butt weld the quarter to the rocker with silicone bronze, I wouldn't. That filler is terrible for a butt weld.......especially if you haven't worked with it before.

      SilBronze works great for filling those seams.....after they are spot welded together.
      Donny

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    3. #3
      Join Date
      Apr 2015
      Posts
      188
      Country Flag: United States
      Quote Originally Posted by dontlifttoshift View Post
      So you cut the flange off the quarter that would have been spot welded to the rocker?

      If that is the case, and you intend to butt weld the quarter to the rocker with silicone bronze, I wouldn't. That filler is terrible for a butt weld.......especially if you haven't worked with it before.

      SilBronze works great for filling those seams.....after they are spot welded together.

      Thank you for the reply. Yes I cut the flange off. As I understand that this is fairly common practice. Detroit speed told me in email that this is how they do it when I asked about the situation, and others have documented this on the internet too. It would be possible to spot weld the flange underneath the internal quarter structural support to the rocker if you put the wheelhouse in after the quarter's on. This is quite a pain (I've done it before) and requires you to flex that outer wheelhouse and bend it quite a bit to get it in. I am working with a widened, custom outer wheel house and I did not want to bet on being able to do that in this situation, so I cut the flange off.

      Thank you for the information. I will fill the seam with MIG weld. I'll grind it out to sit below flush in the seam between the quarter and rocker with a thin cut off wheel, and then I will top it off with the silicon bronze. It would just be an outer filler that way I do not need seam sealer.

      You have answered my question, and I now know silicone bronze cannot be used for structural integrity. I have not seen this explicitly explained in the YouTube videos and internet threads I found on this material in this application. Thank you!

    4. #4
      Join Date
      Feb 2019
      Location
      Kankakee IL
      Posts
      362
      If you're gonna mig the seam full and then grind it out for silicon just grind it flush and quit there. Flush is flush, mig or silicon.
      Tracey

    5. #5
      Join Date
      Apr 2015
      Posts
      188
      Country Flag: United States
      Quote Originally Posted by Tsaints1115 View Post
      If you're gonna mig the seam full and then grind it out for silicon just grind it flush and quit there. Flush is flush, mig or silicon.

      Got it. Thanks.





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