welding or bonding?

[Bioshock]

what is the difference between welding a panel on or using some sort of glue? i got thinking about this earlier when looking at the sills on my dub. surely with todays technology welding should be a thing of the past? any views?

[ScotsDave]

Some of the modern adhesives would probably have the strength of welding but it isn't recognised by VOSA so would fail an MOT.

[slater]

Yeh you cant use it on structural areas but i have glued the roof skin on my mini and it was alot easyer than doing 1000+ spot welds.

[autohausdolby]

Creative Engineering glue the side panels on split buses and it rules. They then weld the bottom seam. It's nowt new, the outer skin of DeHavilland Comets was bonded into place back in the 40s.

[bstardchild]

Lotus Elise anyone......... No welds all glue on the alluminim chassis - the rivets are only used to locacte the parts while the glue cures!!

[slater]

I went to the Aston Martin factory and saw them gluing the vanquish tubs together. They were using some kind of 2 part epoxy and i don't think it required baking so maybe you should gety hold of some of that stuff

[arthurbrown]

'Aston Martin in Araldite shocker!'

;D

[Dave Dorson]

Welding actually "fuses" the two metals together.

Bonding can break.

[autohausdolby]

Welds can break too I've seen plenty of factory applied welding fail, or more often than not the metal next to the weld

[reanimation]

Call me old fashioned but i don't trust glue. A psycological thing! Sounds good though, what brands, types would you look for and where?

[Dave Dorson]

autohausdolby said:

Welds can break too I've seen plenty of factory applied welding fail, or more often than not the metal next to the weld

A lesson in that, the weld is only as good as the material it is applied to ;D

Never had one of mine fail, that said I always hack out loads more than I need to to ensure it's "clean" metal I'm welding to, and also make sure the metal I'm using isn't 90% scrap too , too much heat makes the material brittle, so take your time and "stitch" rather than seam weld, to allow the metal to cool, I'm usually one for doing an inch or two, leaving the same gap, moving up the panel then going back to the "gap" and welding that up.

yes it takes ages, but it doesn't heat the panel too much.

[autohausdolby]

I was thinking mainly of Mk3 Cavalier wishbones ;D They're grrrrr-eat, even the GM ones are bobbar

[BenzBoy]

cappuccinocruiser said:

yes it takes ages, but it doesn't heat the panel too much.

Plus, you won't get distorted panels

A lot of modern bonnet skins are bonded to the strengthening frames.
I think bonding rather than welding on a retro car is dodgy ground - the MOT tester won't like it! But if it's non-structural and the adhesive is strong I can't see why not. Personally I just have a mistrust of adhesives and would sooner weld (even though my welding's curse word! )

[Dave Dorson]

autohausdolby said:

I was thinking mainly of Mk3 Cavalier wishbones ;D They're grrrrr-eat, even the GM ones are bobbar

Ah, you see that's what happens when you give the Luton populous a welder

At this point I feel I should say, that was rather tongue in cheek, my Dad, and my uncles, have all worked at some point at the VX plant in Luton, and the horror stories I could tell you about unpainted and treated shells sicking in salty damp docks for weeks, then being "brillo'd" for paint

[TwincamGTi]

and the horror stories I could tell you about unpainted and treated shells sicking in salty damp docks for weeks, then being "brillo'd" for paint

Every manufacturer did that in the 60's and 70's!