TheSamba.com :: View topic - Ghia Fender lap weld

Tue Jun 03, 2008 11:04 pm

Just got a Ghia shell back from soda blasting.
The blasting revealed someone's previous replacement to the ps fender. It was lap welded in place with bondo ontop. The repair was already noticable when looking up under the fender well.

I am trying to restore this car properly and was wondering if simply "mudding" over the lap weld is correct or is it worth the extra effort to create a butt weld.

I am considering slicing right down the edge of the overlapping fender and then using butt weld clamps to align the ends against eachother and re-welding with no lapping
I dont like the idea of overlapping panels and am really considering reworking the original repair, but dont want to create unecessary work either.
These cars are fairly rare now and it would be a shame to do a poor restoration. Thanks !

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Wed Jun 04, 2008 4:26 am

do the butt weld

Wed Jun 04, 2008 5:43 am

spook wrote: do the butt weld

X2.

With the body clean, you should be able to find most of the original seams; however, I doubt the soda blasting removed the solder from the various areas where it corrects the imperfections of the fit/finish. Check out my Gallery for pictures of front fenders I've clipped from Ghias.

Also, if you want, I can e-mail you a scanned copy of the diagrams that show the weld seams on the Ghia body.

Thu Jun 12, 2008 6:35 pm

Thanks Ice.

Got the fender off and got rid of the overlapping. Not its just getting things adjusted and welding it back on. Gotta fix some inner fender damage first. If you are interested check out the pics on the site listed below. I'll be snapping pictures along the way for everyone who is interested in seeing them.