Cost of Welding ??
 

Hi There

I need the outer sills and outer wheel arches replaced both sides on my 144

Brookhouse are supplying me the 4 panels

I have been quoted £800 to £1000 for the welding both sides - to a seemless, smooth finish and primed.

Does that sound about right?

Many Thanks

welding costs
 

a decent welder will ask a minimum of 40 gbp /hour
60 gbp is the current rate.
so your job is estimated at about 20 hours of work.

the actual welding will be about 4 hours.
all the rest is preparation.

if you can prepare yourself you could save at least half the money.

I now also understand that welders have to take breaks to protect their eyes and this of course means there is a lot of re-setting up time.

thanks for the advice

I don't think either of those should be reflected in your bill. Welding of this sort is done in relatively short sessions and resetting as you call it only needs to be done when the thickness of the metal or the construction changes. A good welder will do those changes with a click up or down to the power or wire speed without thinking too much about it.
The crunch is the welder/bodyman being either good or bad and charging you the same for it. The difference after cleaning up and priming might not be too obvious but if good there should be little or no sign that welding has taken place. With sills, a lot of the fixing is done with a spot-welder and should more or less be done to match the original construction. Done properly this is quicker and neater than firing a MIG at it. It depends on what your standards are, and if high, whether the welder is willing, and able, to match them. If possible ask to see some of his on going work, then you can see the quality and how he tackles the job. Good luck.

[QUOTE=Derek UK;1972734] With sills, a lot of the fixing is done with a spot-welder and should more or less be done to match the original construction. Done properly this is quicker and neater than firing a MIG at it.


Hate to break it to you , BUT for an MOT all welded repairs MUST be seam welded . It might well have been stitch welded ( short sections of weld ) or spot welded , but any structural repair has to be a continuous seam of weld .

Also any signs of body filler obscuring welds could well be seen as an attempt to cover up a sub standard repair . By far the best repair is seam welded & painted after grinding down the welds and finish the repair with filler & properly painted after the MOT . I failed a car on test for dubious welds due to the sheer volume of underseal used to obscure the welds , it simply wiped off on my hand revealing the truth

Quote from the MOT manual.
"It is essential that repairs to corroded areas are properly carried out. Only welding is acceptable for repairs to 'prescribed areas'.
Suitable materials of appropriate gauge and thickness should be used for repairs so that
- Any plating or welding extends to a sound part of a load bearing component, and
- The repair must be virtually as strong as the original structure
So only a continuous seam weld is acceptable for patch repairs, although spot welded joints are acceptable where they originally existed."

Note that replacing spot welds with continuous can alter the crumple characteristics. The Mercedes body repair manual makes for interesting reading.
In this case (144) the critical parts are any structural strength reducing rust within 30cm of suspension mounts. The wheel arches aren't structural and it's often argued that outer sills aren't either which is why many of those were/are just repaired with an over sill of dubious thickness.
Where two flanges have been spot welded originally plug welds are often used. More tedious and more cleaning up required but it will be "virtually as strong as the original structure", but if instead, the edges are seam welded and then ground back so that the original trims can be fitted, it can be that very little of the weld remains.

£800-1000 is a very good price for 2x outer sills and four wheel arch sections....If the welding is of a high standard and everything lines up correctly. There are lots of blokes wielding MIG welders about who aren't capable of the patience needed to do these kind of jobs; I myself can weld but I couldn't do work good enough for visible bodywork- I can't stress enough how important it is that everything lines up spot on. If it doesn't it's bucketfuls of filler and a horrible job prepping and painting afterwards....been there before!
Has he shown you any previous work? Bear in mind too, that the inner sills and inner arches are most likely to need patching and preparing to some extent.

Agree with Derek UK on the plug welds too; very useful technique, although slow it helps minimise distortion and time spent grinding afterwards.

I plummed for the chap who's doing the welding for a number of reasons; a lot of the garages I spoke to only did MOT patches and insurance work and then it was clip on plastic bumper type stuff. Another reason is, he is about 400 yards from my house which will make trips to check on progress a short cycle away. However, the main reason is that he showed me his own Mk1 Capri he is restoring and the work seemed good. He is an older chap and his business is bodywork.....I can't go on much else really.

He quoted me properly and it's actually £1200 which includes 2 patches where the drain holes have expanded shall we say!!

I've just go to dive in, but cheers for the advice.

Well I got my car back on Saturday and I must say I am very happy with the work. You really can’t tell that work has been done – only to say where the B post sits on the sill, there is less of a demarcation where the post stops and the sills starts.

First thing I did was get the magnet out and it wasn’t pulling to one side or a weak field anywhere I stuck it….I think minimal filler has been used and you stand back and it’s lines are spot on. 3 coats of etching primer and 2 coats of standard primer. So I’ve put a top-coat of Hammerite on the floors and going to stick the interior back in this week.

Happy with that